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Contra: Sign me Up Up Down Down You Get It
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One Game Feature by Daniel Dujnic, 11/8/07
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A Classic side-scrolling shooter/platformer from the king of all shooters: Konami. Tap in The Code for 30 lives if you want to go Rambo through the whole alien invasion. If you're more daring, try braving it with no continues, or for the truly twitch: One Life.
The gameplay is near-perfect if a little stiff: Point and shoot in eight directions, duck, and jump. The pickups vary from exhilarating, to useless, to punishing. The Spread and Machine guns will bring a smile to your face, but don't ever pick up the Flamethrower. Trust me, it's the one with the 'F', for 'Failure'.
The enemies aren't really intelligent, and they don't need to be, they are mainly obstacles that you must avoid in what is truly a platformer. Playing through sometimes takes patience and memory work because if you don't have a good weapon (Read: Spread or Machine Gun), you are going to have to perform. This is the point where most people will enter the Konami Code since the game conveniently respawns you without any interruption.
Eventually people who get into Contra leave behind the code because dying makes you lose your Special Weapon, which is sometimes the Spread gun you had since the first level. Few games can grant 30 lives and still be rewarding, Contra is the first game that managed to be both casual and hardcore.
Plus it has aliens, really cool music, and two-player co-op. Instant death never felt so good.
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'Sign me Up Up Down Down You Get It'
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#&rendershop#
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