Apparently most of the people who have this game, myself included, have just the cartridge but no case or manual. It's very rare (and expensive) to see it. Contra: Hard Corps is Konami’s follow-up to Contra III: The Alien Wars, although it is considered a spin-off of the series. This game takes the core gameplay of Contra III: The Alien Wars and makes various modifications and expansions. The run-n-gun aspect is greatly toned down and the number of boss battles is greatly increased.
Contra: Hard Corps, released in Japan as Contra: The Hard Corps (魂斗羅 ザ・ハードコア?) and in Europe and Australia as Probotector, is a side-scrolling run and gun-style shoot-'em-up video game released by Konami for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in 1994. It is part of the Contra series and serves as a follow-up to Contra III: The Alien Wars. The plot takes place several years after the events of that game.Contra: Hard Corps follows the same gameplay as its predecessors. New features include branching story paths and multiple endings.The objective is to walk through the end of each stage, shoot at every enemy that gets in the way, and fight the boss awaiting at the end.
Unlike previous Contra games, such as Contra III, which featured overhead segments in addition to the regular side-view stages, all the stages in Hard Corps use the standard side-view perspective. Another difference is the player can now choose between one of four unique player characters. Like in previous Contra games, up to two players can play simultaneously, but they're not allowed to choose the same character.The controls are similar to Contra III, but has been adapted to work with the Mega Drive/Genesis' three-button controller.
The three buttons are used for shooting, jumping, and switching between weapons. While firing their gun, the player can switch between two shooting styles: one which allows for movement while shooting, and another that keeps the character still, allowing only to change their aim. The player can also jump down from certain platforms, as well as move on walls and ceilings like in Contra III.
A new ability added to the game is a sliding technique performed by holding the direction-pad diagonally downwards while pressing the jump button. The character will be invulnerable while sliding and can even harm certain enemies. When controlling Browny, the player can also hover in the air by pressing the jump again during mid-air.The multiple weapon system from Contra III has been revamped. The player can now carry up to four different weapons, as well as a supply of bombs. Like in previous games, weapons are obtained from flying capsule pods.
This time the weapon items are now labeled 'A', 'B', 'C', and 'D', which will vary depending on the character controlled by the player. Each player begins with a standard semi-automatic machine gun, which will be replaced by the character's A-type weapon whenever it's picked. When the player loses a life, their current weapon will be lost. Unlike Contra III, the player's supply of bombs will remain the same when a life is lost.Another unique feature to Contra: Hard Corps is the addition of branching paths that allows the player to play through a different set of stages depending on key decisions made during key moments of the game's story.Set five years after the events of Contra III: The Alien Wars, an elite team of commandos called the 'Unified Military Special Mobile Task Force K-X', also known as the 'Contra Hard Corps', has been assembled to combat the rapid spread of crime and illegal activities following the war. When an unknown hacker infiltrates the city's security system and reprograms a group of unmanned robots to cause havoc, the Hard Corps are deployed to handle the situation. As the game progresses, the player will uncover a plot involving Colonel Bahamut, a former war hero, who seeks to overthrow the Government by developing new types of weapon using a stolen alien cell.There are four possible paths in the game, each with its own final boss and ending, as well as hidden bonus stage for a total of five different endings.
A sixth possible outcome also exists when the player sides with Colonel Bahamut when asked to, but the game will count this as a 'game over' and not as a proper ending.There are four playable characters. Ray Poward is a standard male soldier. Sheena Etranzi is a female soldier. Brad Fang is a wolf-like humanoid with a cannon for an arm. Browny is a small robot.
Product Information. Contra: Hard Corps lets you play as one of four different members of the Hard Corps team. Raised in the city slums, Ray Poward is an expert combatant. Sheena Etranzi is a jungle girl especially skilled in guerilla tactics. Brad Fang is part wolf-man, part cyborg, with a Gatling gun grafted onto his left arm. Browny is a robotic intelligence tool who packs a laser.Each character has a standard machine gun, bombs and four possible weapons pick-ups, including Spread, which fires in five directions at once, Shower Crash, which rains down exploding shells, and Gemini Scatter, which returns like a boomerang. The available weapons depend on which character you are controlling.Contra: Hard Corps lets you team up with a friend through more than 10 levels, some of which are hidden.
The game has a certain degree of nonlinear play in that there are a number of different pathways to take, storylines to follow, and game endings to achieve. You'll run, jump, slide, climb (on walls and ceilings) and shoot your way through cities, jungles, alien space and other exotic locations. You'll even battle aliens while riding a motorcycle and while perched atop a flying spacecraft.
Hardest Contra game EVERthis is hands down the hardest Contra game EVER. I played it for 6 hours straight and only go to the 4th stage. None of the cheats work on this version, so good luck!
I ended up playing it on an emulator but still couldn't get past the last boss. Still a really awesome Contra game.Good:+ 4 different characters with different sets of weapons. Browny the robot is one of the best and Sheena is pretty great too. Ray and Fang are alright, but the other two have the best guns.+ Levels are fun and inventive, lots of robots to fight. At the end of level one, you can choose two different paths which will give you different story endings.Bad:- You can only get up to 3 lives and 5 continues.
One hit will kill you just like the other Contra games. The Japanese version supposedly had a life b ar, but the left that out of the American version.- you lose whatever gun you have when you die, but then again same as the other Contra games.- There are sometimes three bosses per level. They can get very tough, but they all have a pattern.
A great shooter, the last 16-bit installmentThe Contra series (which began in arcades and gained widespread fame and fortune on the NES) is notorious amongst gamers for its difficulty. You play a pair of 'Rambo' inspired soldiers gunning for countless faceless enemy soldiers, robots, and H.R. Giger inspired aliens.
Most children of the 80's remember the 'Konami Code' to get 30 lives and make the NES game beatable.Granted, people HAVE beaten Contra without cheats, codes or save states (via emulation), but it requires a level of memorization and lightning fast reflexes that most adults (never mind most kids) lack.Moving on to the 16-bit era, Contra III was released on the SNES, where it took advantage of the increased graphics and sound technology as well as having more buttons.The follow up was Contra: Hard Corps on the Genesis. The graphics are comparable to Contra III on the SNES, with slightly smaller characters, fewer colors, and less detail. However the adventure is completely new. This time around there are four selectable characters (two players must choose different characters) with different selections of weapons (the power ups conform to each player's inventory). The four characters include a man, woman, a wolfman, and a robot (who can hover a bit like Princess Toadstool in Super Mario Bros.
2).Unlike Contra III, you cannot do the 'two fisted spinning attack' with your guns.Like Contra III, you have screen clearing bombs that you can collect (with a different, and I think cooler, special effect when they are used). Again, players die in one hit from attacks (baring special circumstances). Like Contra III, you can press a key to 'stand in place' while aiming (rather than running and aiming as you normally do), and do a 'slide' maneuver that can sometimes save your neck.The 'top down' battles in Contra III (which were like those in NES Super C only with rotation effects that made it a bit more confusing) are replaced with alternate sequences wherein you are riding on hover bikes or running towards the screen being chased by giant monsters (quite exciting, albeit frustrating).The graphics, while great for the Genesis, may strike some as a bit monochromatic.
Usually however a grayish or bluish level will be spruced up by the arrival of a brightly colored boss monster that fills most of the screen and is animated in segments (reminiscent of Konami's treatment of such characters in the excellent 'Castlevania Bloodlines').Like the rest of the series, these games have a high level of action, but also frustration, since everything can kill you, and the screen is often filled with enemies, and the bosses are often extremely cheap. To remedy this, since there is no '30 lives code' for the US version, I suggest a game genie for any normal person who wants to enjoy this game and yet retain their sanity! There are codes out there to give you 25, 60 lives, and a level select.Like other games in the series, there are also 'climbing' sequences in which touching the bottom or edge of the screen instantly kills you (even if there was a safe platform there just a second ago).
This is unfair to players, but it is no different than earlier titles, so Contra veterans will be used to it.There is some digitized speech, it is muffled, but understandable.Despite the high level of challenge, this is a great game.Graphics: 8/10 (for the Genesis)Controls: 7/10Sound: 6/10 (mostly explosions, which sound great)Overall: 8/10. Contra on Genesis, you say????' Hard Corps' was a largely unknown release in the Contra series in its time, due to the fact that it came out very late in the lifespan of the 16-bit era. Now, decades later it has become legendary.Unlike 'Contra Force' and some of the later Contra incarnations, this feels like an actual sequel, perfectly fitting to the matrix of Contra, Super C, and Alien Wars. The gameplay is perfect, like its predecessors, and if you thought the other Contras were difficult, this one is cranked to eleven!!The ludicrous speed of the game, multiple characters with unique attributes, and actual storyline are welcome additions to the series. Otherwise expect more of the exact style and action you love, with graphics that push the Genesis to limits you never knew existed.10/10Verified purchase: Yes Condition: Pre-owned.