Robot.Floss

Contra is one of the most loved gaming series created, and Contra 4 continues the saga of the ultimate side
scrolling, left-to-right, shoot’em up action game. You’ll always be holding the trigger button down as you
spew bullets and testosterone in your onslaught against anything that moves, and there’ll be a few moments
of cursing as you fight through the moments of ball breaking frustration that eat up all your continues.

The game offers three levels of difficulty: easy, normal, and hard. These affect not only the number of lives and
continues you receive, but also the firing pattern of weapons, and some of the challenges in each level. For instance,
on easy the spread shot has a wider spread. And on easy there are no falling boulders in Stage 2′s vertical waterfall
section.

If the difficulty of the game had ramped up as the levels progressed, the game might feel more consistent. Instead
the levels, mini-bosses, and bosses tend to vary from almost jokingly easy to insanely frustrating. Nothing is
ever of medium difficulty it seemed. Then again, frustration and death are hallmark features of each Contra game,
and no one picks up a Contra game expecting to beat it on the first try, which brings us to game length. I think it is
perfect, but every other reviewer has already bitched about it being too short. On the other hand, if this game had been
3 levels longer, they’d all complain about being bored the last few levels.

There is a decent pace to the game and you’ve always got something to shoot, but I’d have liked a little more intensity
to the action. For example, in Contra III: Alien Wars, even the transitions between the levels are seamless and packed
with action. Whereas in Contra 4 the screen goes black and you are magically transported to the next stage, which
detracts from the pace of the game.

Boss fights in the game are solid and usually involve several phases of action. As usual, the fights revolve around
the “Owned or Screwed” scenario where you can easily beat the bosses in under 15 seconds with the correct weapons,
but you’ll be fighting forever if you’re stuck with the standard rifle. Unlockable bonus bosses would have helped.

One of the best additions to the game is the challenge stages. These are quick action levels that you try to beat
by various means such as not firing your weapon, obtaining 100% weapon accuracy, taking out a certain number of foes,
etc… And as you progress through the challenge stages you can unlock the original Contra and Super Contra. I was pumped
about unlocking the levels, but in actuality they’re not overly entertaining or worthwhile as they have terrible
graphics, which I’d hoped had been revamped a bit. Aside from that, I feel they missed out and should have included
Alien Wars as an unlockable.

Overall, the game is solid and I enjoyed it. But unless you’re a fan of the Contra series already, it probably won’t
appeal to you after you’ve played through it once or twice.

Popularity: 1% [?]

At Christmas I’d hoped to receive the game Contra 4, but due to an issue of phonetics and identical numbers, I received Call of Duty 4. When I loaded the game in to my DS, I didn’t know what to expect, but I feared I’d discover a great console series that had been butchered down to get quick sales on a hand-held system. I’m not a big fan of FPS games on the DS, for the simple reason that nothing beats the PC FPS experience. Besides, I find the genre a bit too worn and the DS presents a valuable creative outlet for developers willing to experiment. Either way, the developers at n-Space have done a solid job with COD4.

Graphics and Sound
I won’t dwell on this topic long. The graphics are good for the DS, but they aren’t mind blowing. If I had to use one phrase to sum up the graphics: think counter strike. They’re not mind blowing, but they’re good enough. The animation is smooth, the framerate didn’t seem to drop off during play, and I found the explosions satisfying. Of the games in my DS library, the sound quality of COD4 is the best I’ve experienced, and it lent a nice pace to the game.

Levels
The game starts with the stereotypical Call of Duty training level: grab a gun, practice shooting, throw a grenade through a window, etc. Then it transitioned straight in to the first level of real combat. The transitions between the checkpoints of each level are smooth and thought out. They reminded me of the transitions in the Contra series. The levels are fairly long, have plenty of checkpoints to save your progress, and present you with a pleasing variety of tasks: shoot everyone in sight, plant a bomb, get to a jeep, secure a nuclear missile, make a hasty get away while manning the turret on your way to victory.

AI
The enemy AI in the game is not impressive. You’ll die a few times, but you’ll never have a problem killing your intended target. Enemies don’t tend to move or reposition themselves, which makes them a bit too easy. They respond a bit like the Nazi’s in the original Wolfenstein, except on occasion they crouch behind cover instead of standing directly in your line of fire. The enemies did seem to excel in one area: catching my grenades and throwing them back with the accuracy of an all-star quarterback.

Controls
The controls are simple and well done. The top screen displays your main view. Turning and looking is controlled with the touch pad, which also displays a map of the level and indicates the position of nearby enemies. Forward movement and strafing is controlled with the direction pad. The shoulder buttons are used to fire your weapons. And the bottom screen also doubles as inventory management. (A good strategy seemed to be to ditch the standard-issue hand gun and replace it with an enemy AK-47 – you’ll collect plenty of ammo from your defeated enemies).

Overall: COD4 is well done. It has great sound, easy controls, an appropriate length, and enough variety to keep you from slamming your DS in to the nearest loved one.

Good: Solid FPS for DS. Great sound. Entertaining with a lot of easy action to jump in to.

Bad: Unresponsive AI.

Popularity: 1% [?]