NFOpocalypse

Hopefully the portion of the gaming populace that will at some point read this is familiar with Contra 4. Just in case you’re not, here’s a summary (skip this if you’ve already played it).

Contra 4 for the DS is (as of this writing) the latest 2D release of the Contra series, Konami’s classic chronicle of run-and-gun action where everything that moves can kill you just by touching you. It was designed with a very similar engine to Contra 3: The Alien Wars, as it incorporates the same weapon-switching move, but it also throws together a lot of elements from the whole series.

For starters, you can upgrade your weapons by picking up two of the same type into one weapon slot, making them much more powerful. You can also discard a weapon by pressing A, either to give it to the other player in co-op mode, or just because you don’t want it. You can use a grappling hook to pull yourself up to bars that you hang from, and like in Contra 3, force your guy to stand still and aim without moving, to eliminate the hassle of having to jump to shoot down, and being unable to aim diagonally without moving.

The levels are also a mixed bag, using the familiar jungle and “forward perspective” base levels from Contra 1, as well as a harbor where you eventually climb up a huge rocket and fight a giant robot (very similar to stage 3 of Contra 3). You also speed across the ocean on a hoverbike just like in Contra 3’s ocean stage, with similar music to boot.

Now that that’s over with, here’s my thoughts on the game. As everyone knows, apart from playing the main game, you also have 40 Challenge Mode stages to get through, brief trials where you must complete some specific objective. Some of them are pretty simple to get through, such as a couple where you use two unique weapons; the old-school Laser from Contra 1 (with only 1 laser beam onscreen at a time), and a BeefTech version of the Homing Gun, which instead of firing missiles, shoots 5 little homing Vic Viper ships with each pull of the trigger. There are also challenges where you have to kill X amount of enemies or get from point A to B in a time limit. The challenges that really got my goat were the Low Ammo ones (you have a limited number of times you can shoot, and sooner or later you’re going to have to shoot something so if you run out of bullets it’s over), and the Friendly Fire ones (strategically placed hostages run around the stage, and if you shoot one by accident, you’re through) . So far I’ve gotten 31 of the 40 challenges down.

At one point I was struggling with the main game on Normal, because I still hadn’t figured out the final boss’ attack pattern. I then discovered a YouTube video documenting a glitch in Contra 4 that could be exploited to get 99 lives. I’ll detail it here for you, in case you ever feel like going through what I might call Novice Mode.

1. Start the game, and go through Stage 1 till you reach the midboss (the rail-car thing that drops fireballs). Lose all your lives there and continue to reset your score to 0.
2. Kill the midboss and get through the rest of the level, making sure you use the Konami code once. (Pause the game and enter Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start). The first time you use the code, it upgrades any weapons you have on hand.
3. When you reach the tower boss, ready the default peashooter. For this next part, you need to lose your last life at the same time as you destroy the tower’s first phase, since destroying the tower gives you enough points for a 1-up, and what we want to do is get a 1-up just as you lose your last life.
4. Kill the sniper on the top of the tower so he doesn’t bother you, then get ready for some count-keeping. It takes 50 peashooter shots to destroy the tower’s first phase, so count out each shot until you’re up to 49 shots.
5. Before you shoot it again, die until your lives counter reads 00. Now, stand on the lowest ground, fire the 50th shot and pause as soon as you can after shooting (press Y and Start almost simultaneously). Enter the Konami Code again. Entering the code a second time kills you, so right as you lose your last life, your shot destroys the tower, giving you the points necessary for a 1-up. Somehow this seems to make your lives counter wrap around, giving you 99 lives with which to clear the rest of the game.

When I used this to go through Normal mode, I realized it wasn’t all that difficult to avoid the last boss’ attacks. It was still satisfying to finally see the ending, though. I also learned of a similar glitch in Contra 3, which you could use to skip entire stages.

Tags: company-konami, company-wayforward technologies, nintendo DS, run and gun, shmup, single player, thebigl1, tips and glitches

This entry was posted by TheBigL1 on Friday, March 14th, 2008 at 9:00 pm and is filed under Action, Musings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.