Here is blast from the past - this one goes as far back as primary school.
Neo Contra promised to bring back everything from the action, "shoot everything that moves" games of yore.
Developed from the original "Contra", this is obviously not a strategy game, or even a hardcore third person adventure. It`s something designed to involved hours of shooting. Back in the days of its first instalment, it was an ordinary side-view arcade game. Through the years, it has managed to retain its original look, style and amazing ability to get one addicted -- but everything in this world reaches a point where it needs to evolve.
The game begins with skilful 3D animation, which leads straight to the action. There is no easing into things, as the moment the mission starts, all hell breaks loose and chaos reigns.
Choose from three different categories of armaments, each consisting of three different weapons. Either select the machinegun, grenades and flamethrower set, or go for something completely different like a laser gun, thunderbolt shock and a shotgun. I suppose it all depends on the desired level of violence - which the game is. This is very useful when an outlet for frustration is required.
The controls are fairly easy to master, are a bit limited and sometimes unrealistic. This diminishes the challenge somewhat. The story line is rather hard to follow - it is only when a stage is completed that the player is shown how the bits and pieces of the story fit together. This doesn`t happen very often however, considering the character gets killed a couple of hundred times before he reaches a checkpoint.
The graphics in the game are reasonably well done and just like any other Sci-Fi genre game, it comes with a good psychedelic soundtrack. Very creatively designed stages and monsters plus a bit of the old-school cheesiness certainly take this game a step forward from the original concept.
However, one should take note of the game`s age restriction, as it was disappointingly mindless and clearly aimed at the younger gamer.
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