Vintage Gaming: Contra: Hard Corps
By Miodrag Kovačević | November 20, 2011 | Features | No comments | Share
In the 8-bit era, Nintendo made up the vast majority of the gaming market. This, in turn, lead to many notable companies ignoring other platforms. Why did the Sega Master System have abysmal third party games? Because it lacked the support of great names like Konami and Capcom. When things picked up for Sega with the Genesis/Mega Drive, Konami released two exclusive titles for their well-established Contra and Castlevania franchises. While both were top-notch games, we’ll focus on Contra: Hard Corps for now.
The game is a direct sequel to Contra III: Alien Wars (which was a SNES exclusive). Five years after the war, an elite 
team of commandos is assembled to suppress the spread of crime and illegal activities that is plaguing the world. It starts off first with fending off unmanned robots which were hacked in order to attack the city, but as the story moves on, you slowly realize who’s the real mastermind and uncover a plot that could have cataclysmic consequences if nobody puts a stop to it. Or, in Contra-speak: go right and shoot everything without dying too much.
Hard Corps lets you choose between four unique characters: two boring humans, a werewolf with a bloody machine gun for an arm, and a midget robot. Of course, you’ll play as the last two because it sounds so damn awesome. The differences aren’t just cosmetic. Power-ups come in four varieties: A, B, C and D, and depending on your character, the weapon will be different. You can switch between weapons at any time, as well as switch between two shooting modes: one that lets you move and shoot at the same time, while the other makes your character stand still as long as he is deploying mayhem, resulting in more accurate aiming. Your characters can also use an extremely useful slide attack which makes them temporarily invulnerable.
What probably makes this installment of Contra stand out the most are the multiple endings and paths you can take. 
Certain key plot moments will prompt you to choose between two options, like chasing a fugitive or stopping an attack on the other side of town. This will not only affect how the plot unfolds, but also which levels you will get to play. There’s a total of four regular endings, one joke ending and one non-standard game over screen. Suffice to say, there’s plenty of replay value lying here.
Of course, being a Contra game, Hard Corps is ball-bustingly hard. You die after one hit and have a limited number of continues. What makes this design choice peculiar is that in the Japanese version, your characters had life bars and unlimited continues. Although the strangest was the European version, dubbed Probotector. It was similar to the North American version, but all the character were now robots and the villains were aliens. While robots are awesome, it’s not as exciting when almost everyone in the game is one.
Even with the sprite, plot and minor gameplay changes, the levels and boss fights are still amazing. There’s rarely a dull moment. 
You’re either running through an enemy base or ruined city, driving a futuristic bike, boat or standing on the wings of a jet like a boss. If you’ve had the chance to play Shinobi III for the same console, it’s a bit like that: each level contains new unique gimmicks that make each level enjoyable and fresh. The main difference being that Hard Corps has more explosions because it’s hardcore like that. There’s also a fair dose of silliness to lighten the mood, like one boss fusing different standard enemies together into often highly ineffective monstrosities.
Recently, Arc System Works released a prequel to the game, titled Hard Corps: Uprising for Xbox Live Arcade and 
PlayStation Network. It is a proper addition to the Contra series, offering some nice gameplay changes and an amazing soundtrack. You take up the role of a young Bahamut, who is the main villain in Genesis title. There’s one more character in the base game, but all the others are, sadly, DLC. It’s still worth checking out if you’re even mildly interested in Contra.
Next week, we’ll take a look at Konami’s other exclusive foray into the Genesis/Mega Drive platform with the excellent Castlevania: Bloodlines.
Contra: Hard Corps was released by Konami exclusively for the Genesis/Mega Drive in 1994.
