Contra III: The Alien Wars

Written by John Scalzo  on May 03, 2007

Review: Who needs nukes when you've got the Contra soldiers?

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Shooter fans had a lot to enjoy in the early days of the Super NES. Between Smash TV, Gradius III and the underrated HyperZone, there was plenty of love to go around. Then there was the greatest SNES shooter of them all... Contra III: The Alien Wars. In this outing, Red Falcon and the rest of the aliens have performed a full invasion and only the Contra team can stop them. Sorry folks, but the Konami Code won't save you this time.

Contra III was the first game in the series created exclusively for a home console and as such, Konami used all of the then brand new Super Nintendo's tricks. Beautiful graphics (including two overhead levels with plenty of УMode 7Ф effects), great music, and tons of action were all present. Contra III also mined the franchise's history and cranked everything we knew about Contra up to 11. It gave us bigger levels, bigger bosses, new weapons (including the awesome Flamethrower and the handy Heatseeker) and plenty of new environments to kick alien ass in.



This alien killing action feels as fresh as ever on the Virtual Console. Contra III has been recreated exactly as it was on the Super NES so many years ago. Thankfully, the difficulty of this alien busting quest (especially on the Hard mode) will still challenge those that thought they mastered The Alien Wars back in 1992. The alien designs (like the turtle boss, the brain boss and the giant robot that rips down a wall to fight you) have lost none of their luster. Meanwhile, the action-filled levels provide just as many run and gun thrills as they always did.

My only gripe is with the controls. Like all Virtual Console games, you can play Contra III with the GameCube or Classic controllers. Unfortunately the layout of the controls on a GameCube controller makes the game nearly unplayable. Little B is used for jumping, you shoot with Y, switching weapons is done with X and the Bomb is mapped to the big A. I'm sure you can see the potential problems already. Trying to jump will often cause your thumb to graze the A button and unleash a bomb. With a limited number of bombs (and a lot of aliens to kill), this quickly becomes unacceptable. Did I mention it's impossible to change this setup? Serious Contra III players will want to invest in a Classic Controller (if you haven't already) pronto. With it, the controls are mapped to their original Super NES-era locations. This layout is much more conducive to blasting aliens.
With the control problem squared away, Contra III: The Alien Wars becomes an excellent shooter that feels super smooth. Running, gunning, switching weapons, and blowing away scores of aliens with a pocket nuke are all a retro junkie could ask for.