User Reviews (1 - 11 of 24)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

very very disappointed !

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 27
Date: December 04, 2007
Author: Amazon User

relly wanted to like this game and been waiting for its release, I'm an older video game fan and played the orig Contra in arcades when it came out. Game is incredibly HARD - even on easy setting (which is an incomplete game), combined with an extremely lame save feature (it takes away a continue using it). As an older fan looking for fun - with these features on a hand held system (meant for shorter play times) these things are completly unacceptable. Leave the hard gimmicks for the hard setting. I really think they made a big mistake with the features of this game, and probably will trade it in soon. Its really a shame also
because the graphics / levels/ controls are all great !

PS: 2 those who say " be a man" -The older games were so hard because they were derived from arcade games which were meant to just simply take all your money away from you- at this stage in my life (and im the core "nostalgic' audience for this game) this game isn't fun

So much promise, so much disappointment

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 12
Date: January 15, 2008
Author: Amazon User

To sum it up... way too hard!

I loved the original Contra, Super C, and Contra III. I have played through Contra III on Hard difficulty and still had fun.

Contra 4 is painfully, punishingly hard. The difficulty is at the point of making the game a chore to grind through. Weapons matter a huge amount as they make the level much easier to get through. If you die then you lose one and it makes an already difficult level 10 times harder to get through.

I beat the game on Easy, but was shocked to learn that 2 of the levels are not accessible except on Normal or Hard. That is just lame. It is acceptable to have different endings or even a single extra boss on harder difficulties, but two freakin' levels!!! I found it all but impossible to get through to those levels on Normal.

I even discovered a bug in the game that gave me 99 lives at the end of level 5, and I was still not able to beat the game on Normal!

I am for challenging game play, but that should not detract from the rest of the game. It should still be enjoyable to play. The difficulty should not jump exponentially from Easy to Normal.

This game is harder than Ghosts n Goblins

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 8
Date: January 14, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I really wanted to like this game because I LOVED the first Contra games for the NES. The Alien Wars for SNES was great too. This game is flat out TOO HARD though. I read several positive reviews online and in magazines which I honestly cannot believe were written by honest magazine writers because this game is literally impossible.

My video game skills are decent, my Contra skills are decent too. This game is just ridiculous. Don't waste your money. I sold my game after a couple tries because its beyond frustrating.

Its just like Ghosts n Goblins - beautiful to look at, but horrible to play. The only difference is that Ghosts n Goblins managed to be fun in parts. One of the biggest wastes of money in years. I will never get fooled into buying another Contra game.

If you can beat Battle Toads, you might have a chance...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 8
Date: December 28, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I have been a Contra fan for a long time, maybe with the exception of Contra Force, but needless to say, I LOVE Contra. There was something about the mindless task of blasting every moving, blinking, or creeping thing into oblivion that fills you with that kind of glee, that only classic games of yesterday can bring.

Well, seeing Contra 4, I was really excited, anticipating another great Contra 2D shooter like the classic ones. Sadly, I was mistaken. :(

What I was expecting was a 2D shooter, full of crazy alien blasting, and a god bit of difficulty. What I got was a hard to see split screen, poor controller layout, and difficulty that is unwarrented.

Now don't get me wrong, Contra games are difficult. But when I can nail all of them in 3 lives or less, and I can barely make it through level one on easy with 10 lives... something is wrong. And the deaths don't come from enemy bullets, lasers, or fast enemies. They come from off screen bullets, instant lasers, raining missiles you can't dodge, and poor vertical scrolling dropping you. Oh, and the no scrolling back left or down should have been left in the past.

To top it off, the parts that are easy, are ridiculously easy. Like the first 3D stage. All you do is duck everything and shoot the one thing that rolls at you. You have to TRY to die. But the jumping is messed up. No more jumping to dodge bullets. Jump, and die. Duck, and live.

The bottom line is, this game isn't much fun without cheats for infinite lives. The difficulty comes more from annoying visual trouble, falling, and the screen being crowded by bullets. The game should be called Jump and Die, not Contra. Do yourself a favor, and just rent this if you must. If you are a glutton for pain, and enjoy almost impossible odds where you rely on memorizing patterns where to dodge and jump, buy 2 copies.

For those of us mortals, stick to Contra, Super C, or Contra the Alien Wars to name a few. This game only seems to succeed in making friends and I mad.

What is happening to video games these days?

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 23, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I'm only 24 years old, and to the video game world I must be a senior citizen at this point. This is just a fair warning to those looking for a cool DS game...

Now I was so happy to see a side-scrolling action game for the DS (Especially Contra!!) as 3D games tend to get me a little frustrated... But any 3D game out there has not made me NEARLY as frustrated as this game made me (with the exception of Metroid Prime for GameCube). It is unbelievably, painstakingly difficult, even on EASY. I sometimes wonder who these people are who can actually sit down and complete a game like this while having a good time. Kudos to you talented gamers, but I guess shame on me for being an average gamer... And not only is this game darn near impossible, if you want to save and play it later you end up having to use 1 of your very precious continue's... What were the developers thinking? "hmmmm, how can we seriously irritate the gamer even more so... I have an idea! Let's punish them for not sitting through the entire game from start to finish!"

But hey... Maybe it's just me... I'm just glad they made cheat codes for this one (the same code as for the NES also!) otherwise I would have been very upset with this purchase

Good luck with this game it's a tough one!

it too difficult

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 26, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I've played it for 2 hours and I still can't beat the first level. The new guns are cool but spready is still the best, especailly double spready. Could someone post the code for 30 lives? That would be a big help.

So difficult, it washes away my gamer rage.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 03, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Let's see, how can I make myself feel old... hmmm... ah yes, by simply saying "boy does this take me back."

When it comes to throwback videogames, Contra 4 nails it. It takes everything that made the original NES game great and throws in a little extra to make the perfect portable platformer (say THAT ten times fast.)

Two weapons slots, a grappling gun, and upgradeable weapons added an amazing amount of depth. Both screens are used well, I'd say it even trumps the two Sonic games, to the point where I didn't ever think "oh, I'm playing on two screens."

This game is not for the faint of heart. Contra 4, like the original, is hard. Mind bogglingly hard. Luckily, the folks over at Konami give you three difficulty settings, allowing you to have fun in a way that doesn't involve laughing as you burn through another continue on Level 1.
That's really a credit to the designers of this game - in any other game, I would have tossed the controller down, rambling off a series of my favorite swear words, until I couldn't take it any more and had to find something else to occupy my time. The game is so challenging, yet so fun, I can't help but just smile, shake my head, and dive right back in.

If you consider yourself a "hardcore gamer," you need to buy this game.

Challenging but fun!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: February 19, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Contra 4 for the Nintendo DS is not what most would call a casual game. The challenge in this game ramps up quickly and never lets up. If you want a fun arcade like game, or enjoyed the older Contra games from back in the day you will LOVE this game. If you however get angry at dying from one hit and losing all your weapons... then you might want to pass. Besides the main game which makes good use of the dual screens and keeps you on your toes, you also have alot of unlockable content to keep things fresh for a long time.

I would recommend this game to anyone with a DS that likes a little challenge in their games.

Comes in second to Contra Hard Corps

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 14, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I was introduced to Contra when my friend recommended me to play Contra Hard Corps on the Sega Genesis almost 6 years ago. I still play that game alot because I still haven't beat it yet. I tried Contra EX Advance, and it was dull and not the same as CHC. I tried Contra III, but mehh I didn't like it as much. Contra Hard Corps was incredible. Not only did it have 4 different playable characters that had a different set of weapons each, or have 5000 robots moving at high speeds at you along with the screen shaking, cars exploding, millions of bullets being fired at you along with HUGE bosses that threw cars at you, fired lasers, transformed, and caused huge amounts of havoc on screen at once. That was pure bliss. It was the best game to ever grace a Sega console.

Then I found this game and decided to check it out. It was pretty damn hard. It also paid a lot of homage to previous Contra titles. The jetski part in Ocean, climbing a missile, running through a jungle...it all is reminiscent of the past Contra games on the Genesis and the (S)NES and it is very nice to see some of that stuff given new life. However a few things feel weird.

The grappling hook thing I dont like. It just isn't fun, its irritating looking for bars to latch onto while enemies are firing at you/swarming around you, and it is very irritating alot of the time.

There is no sliding (removes a lot of the challenge/skill from the boss fights).

The huge bosses don't feel the same either, they are kind of boring and not as crazy and exciting as they were in Contra III or Hard Corps.

The gap between the screens leads to some very irritating deaths, and you cant shoot things in between the two screens either. Therefor it makes getting powerups on the waterfall level irritating along with other levels as well where you climb.

The unlockable classics (Super C, Contra (NES)) are not the best ones from the series. I would have LOVED to see Contra Hard Corps or Contra III unlockable from challenges. Other than that though, the game is very fun and I like it. These are just minor gripes with the game, otherwise I enjoy it altogether. Recommended to fans of the classic games. This game has a fairly high skill level, and if you aren't patient or you get aggravated easily, you will HATE this game.

A great addition to the Contra series

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 18, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Publisher Konami and developer WayForward did a great job of making this game feel like a natural sequel to Contra III. From familiar sound effects and familiar weapons to bosses and level design reminiscent of previous Contra games, Contra 4 will put you right back the Contra mindset.

The game comes packed with a ton of content. In addition to Arcade Mode, which is the standard Contra game, there are 40 challenges (unlockable by beating arcade mode on any difficulty setting) where a player must do things like maintain a certain accuracy or fire no shots for a portion of a level. Finishing a certain number of challenges unlocks the original NES Contra and Super C for play as well, although the emulation quality of these isn't so great. There are several other additional unlockable features like an interview with the series creator and additional characters to play as.

The game feels most like Contra III, in that the levels are very detailed and there are several great "set pieces." It also borrows Contra III's weapon switching system. It adds weapon upgrading, where obtaining the same weapon twice makes it stronger. It also adds two screen play. Action takes place on both screens, so a player must pay attention to both at once. This can be annoying as the spot where the hinge on the DS is creates a blind spot, though doing that is certainly better than ignoring the hinge area entirely and having players be unable to correctly judge how projectiles will move between the screens.

The game also borrows from Contra III in its difficulty. Contra III was significantly more difficult than Contra and Super C and Contra 4 follows that trend. Additionally, there is no 30-life code. This difficulty means that many people will be frustrated with the game, even on its easiest difficutly.

Contra 4 is a worthwhile purchase for anyone with nostalgia for the Contra games of old, or for any who want a challenging action game.

Review Page: 1 2 3 Next 

Actions