Contra: Shattered Soldier PS2 Review @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on November 07, 2002

Review: Hook it to my veins!

Contra: Shattered Soldier is like crack. Pure, uncut, digital crack. After playing it I realize I have the solution to this country's drug problem. Round up every addict that ever played Contra, even just once. Round 'em up, put 'em in a room, and make them play Contra: Shattered Soldier for like five, ten hours straight. Then go check on them. They'll never touch another drug. They'll never put down the controller, but they'll never touch another drug again. Ever. It's that addicting.

Denis Leary-inspired drug comparisons aside I don't really know how to put into words just how amazing Contra: Shattered Soldier is to my old school addled brain. Konami has completely resurrected the series into something that is good again. Basically it all boils down to the fact that any fan of side scrolling shooters will find nirvana in Contra: Shattered Soldier. And every other gamer out there should gather round and see just how amazing a little thing called 2D can be.

The closest words I can find are that Shattered Soldier works because it adds new ideas to the Contra series while still remaining completely faithful to it's roots. The biggest of these new changes is the total revamping of the weapon system. Instead of the traditional method of acquiring new weapons by having them fall from blimps that you have to shoot out of the sky, Shattered Soldier gives you all of your weapons up front. In another shocking break from tradition, the Spread Cannon is no more. Instead, Shattered Soldier supplies your Contra soldier with a machine gun, flamethrower, and grenade launcher. Each weapon also has a secondary function, which opens up the Round Sweep Shot, Charged Energy Shot, and Homing Missiles. While the goal, shoot everything that moves and some things that don't, remains the same, this new weapon system adds a much more strategic bent to the combat. Picking the right weapon for the right situation will often mean the difference between life and (a lot of) death.

Knowing when to use what weapon also plays a huge factor in Shattered Soldier's other addition to the Contra series: the Hit Rate meter. The Hit Rate meter keeps track of everything in a level that can be destroyed. Like all side scrolling shooters of the past, memorizing the patterns is the only way to win. And the higher percentage you can score, the more pieces of the game open up to you. Everything from secret levels, Contra historical goodies, and different endings. In fact the only way to get the true ending to the game is to beat the game with an A ranking: having a high Hit Rate and almost never dying.

All of these pieces come together with Contra's greatest asset still intact: it's damn hard. Shattered Soldier is probably one of the most difficult games you will ever play. Not quite as hard as Contra III and Contra: Hard Corps, those games bordered on the impossible, but Shattered Soldier will result in your controller flying across the room again. A game worthy of a controller chucking hasn't come along in awhile. This would of course be a perfect time to mention to old Contra 30 life code. We all remember it, but Konami has gone a step further. Playing the game on Easy mode starts you with 9 lives instead of 3 and near unlimited continues (99). My first completed run through Easy mode took 23 continues and then all you get is a "Congratulations but until you beat it on Normal you're a wuss" message. At first the prospect of beating this game with only three continues doesn't seem possible. Shattered Soldier even takes it one step further into the old school realm and has eliminated progress saving completely. Your battle stats are saved, but every time you play you have to start at Level 1.

While it is "only a 2D platformer" Contra: Shattered Soldier still looks and sounds fantastic. While still on a 2D track, everything has been rendered in polygons and just looks fantastic. The levels are detailed with loads of enemies on screen at once without a bit of slowdown. All you have to do is take one look at the amazing water effects of level 4 to realize that while the game may be 2D, it is by no means "old." The bosses fill the screen with gruesome, just plain sick looking visuals. In fact the level 4 "mini" boss is so large that your Contra soldier is shrunk in size to compensate. Created by famed comic book artist Ashley Wood, saying the bosses are spectacular wouldn't even begin to cover it.

Soundwise there are lots of rock tracks to take care of the background music. Not a lot in the way of classic Contra music, but they get the job done more than adequately. And if I'm not mistaken I think I caught the first few notes of The Transformers theme midway through level 3. But the real star of the sound show is the sound effects. Machine gun, flamethrower, explosions, more explosions, all of it drops the background music to the background and puts the effects front and center to complete the wild Contra experience.

Finally Contra: Shattered Soldier includes plenty of moments that echo the Contra of old. There are tons of references to Contra III: giant mosquitoes and a flamethrower, the giant mutant turtle, riding the missiles, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, Konami even based the game around Bill Rizer, player 1 of the original arcade Contra (although his name was changed to Mad Dog for the NES Contra). Another great inclusion is the standard Contra 2 player co-op mode. After totally removing it for the PSone game, which I dare not speak of, it's back in Shattered Soldier and crazier than ever. The 2 player game ramps up the difficulty considerably and just the thought of playing 2 player game difficulty by myself is enough to cause an old school diabetic coma. My only real problem with the game is Konami's decision to base the action more around the Contra: Hard Corps mostly bosses style as opposed to the more run and gun moments of wiping out legions of aliens like in Contra III. But really, that's more personal preference than any knock against the game. It's incredible any way you slice it.