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Contra Rebirth review

Game: Contra Rebirth
Platform: Wii
Genre: Shooter (Run 'n Gun)
Developer: Unknown

Reader review by pickhut

September 18, 2011

What I love about Contra ReBirth is, for being a manly, run 'n gun title, it doesn't take itself seriously. Case in point: the first stage begins on a spaceship orbiting Earth, where the only plausible way in is by bursting through a wall, Kool-Aid style. Neither of your two starting avatars are donning astronaut suits, instead having their six packs exposed for all to see! And the vehicle that brought them into space? A standard helicopter. The static cutscenes between stages are just as kooky, either showcasing the Contra crew fist-pumping with discussions of emancipation, or, in the most shocking moment in the series, Bill Rizer undercover as a woman, complete with dress, lipstick, and... top hat? Beat the game on various difficulties, too, and you'll receive the complete ReBirth team, consisting of two, shirtless men, a female robot that sprout flowers when she dies, and a lizard man that shouts the franchise's most infamous lines, such as "Let's attack aggressively!"

However, for me, the wackiest moment is the entire third stage, taking place exclusively on the highway. Without explanation, you're on top a speeding enemy truck, and for the first few seconds, you blast away goons on huge insects, take on a fleet of missiles flying in awkward directions, and encounter a ninja riding upside-down on a missile. Just a typical day in a Contra game. Eventually, though, there's camels... giant, robotic, purple camels that keep crashing into your truck in an attempt to knock you on the road. Let enough time pass, and you're forced to abandon your original means of transportation in favor of the herd now cramming the highway. But the numbers quickly dwindle, and you then find yourself making timed jumps over gaps between the mammals. Ending the trek is a giant missile boss that dispenses missiles, with a very ironic weak point to boot.

But as much as I enjoy the game for its sense of humor, not to mention the tidbits of references to previous titles with visuals and a remixed soundtrack, this second ReBirth title is a bit of a letdown. I feel like a broken record saying this, but just like Gradius ReBirth, Contra ReBirth is a competent game that sticks to the basics. That doesn't mean by any means the game is bad, because there's plenty of the trademark jogging baddies to kill, mixed with soldiers that actually stop to shoot. Of course, this always comes off easy until you stop scrolling the screen and try killing a stationary sniper two ledges above. This is mixed with varying segments that include traveling down a pit while avoiding death by razor balls and laser traps, and carefully navigating over a group of mutant, mammoth bugs that love to leap into the air at random times.

The problem with Contra ReBirth is it doesn't want to go the distance, which gives off the feeling of being a teaser game. Sure, you can crank up the difficulty, which adds more enemies and new, alarming attack patterns to the foray (the camels now have mouth laser blasts!), as well as an absurd difficulty setting called Nightmare which truly is a nightmare; you know how in Gradius games, enemies release bullets when you kill them? That's Nightmare difficulty. But even with these elements, you're still getting an experience that feels incomplete. The best example is the second stage, which occurs inside a city under siege, a la Contra III. You have countless enemies popping in from both sides of the screen, walls to tear down, and even crows that rummage through trash until you pass. Following this is a brief wall-climbing segment where you need to simply hit slow homing-missiles to deflect them back at the robot hiding in the background.

Now let's compare these to the original moments. Contra III's city stage consists of not only those mentioned parts, but also had a controllable tank, a section where you have to climb poles over a fiery street with eruptions, and then jump over flames seeping out from cracks. The wall segment from that game's third stage has a more beastly robot sub-boss, which latches its hands to both ends, trapping you between its spiked arms while firing tiny rockets. The robot's second attack pattern opens the wall, turning the immediate surroundings into a spiked arena, where you now have to avoid the machine's drill lunges. Afterwards, you still have snipers, another sub-boss, and more platform climbing in a building before finally reaching the end stage boss.

Contra ReBirth is the type of release that's good due to proper execution of normal play mechanics, which is more than I can say for a certain Hard Corps prequel, but disappoints because it just plays it too safe. Again, like Gradius ReBirth, there's a lot of missed opportunities that could've transformed this title into a great product, putting it on equal footing with something like Contra III. I consider that game a casual Contra, so that's saying something. Unless you just want to gasm over playing a new Contra title on the Wii, I'd recommend downloading the SNES classic on the Virtual Console, instead. Not only do you get more content, but it's cheaper, too.

Rating: 6/10

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