Contra: Operation Galuga (Switch, 2024)

 

Very cool little game here that probably could have been called "Contra 5" (or whatever we're up to). It's a total throwback in most regards, with modern HD visuals. Konami should do things like this more often. The only problem with this one is that it's hard to find and they only gave it an extremely limited release. Pretty much have to go buy it digitally unless you luck out and find it in a library or something.

Behold, BILL RYZER and LANCE BEAN (blue hair). They're two bad dudes!

The game takes place on Galuga Island, which has been invaded by aliens who arrived in a comet swarm. Why Galuga Island? Because there's an ancient forgotten technology buried there.

If the bad guys get it, it's game over, man!

Wait a minute, there's a character named Lance, and also a character named Henriksen? Nice.

When sending in a small army doesn't work, they sent in the Contra Unit.

All the old weapons are back, including the Spread Gun that goes from 3 shots to 5 shots if you pick up a second one in a row. However, this game goes a step beyond that by giving every weapon a second form, which was a great idea. Downside is that your weapon reverts to form 1 when you take damage, so I usually don't have form 2 weapons for very long.

The Laser is particularly satisfying, with plasma bolts that go through foes and hit everything on their path. They sound good too. It isn't quite "Atari Defender lasers" in my pantheon of satisfying lasers, but it's in that ballpark.

In each Contra game the Fire weapon seems to be different. Sometimes it shoots fireballs, sometimes it's a flamethrower. Here, you get to go full Ellen Ripley. The Tier 2 version of this weapon is probably the blandest of all of 'em, as it just extends the flame slightly further.

Throughout the game, other characters are constantly giving these "there goes the neighborhood" quips, and it's hilarious.

The most OP weapon is Homing, much like that Super EDF game I played recently. It's the weakest weapon on damage, but it fires a steady stream of projectiles that dominate everything onscreen. Nothing is better for clearing the stages, though stronger weapons tend to be better for most bosses.

The first stage ends with a boss battle against a very Contra-esque wall. Take out all the gun emplacements on it and don't skip anything, because...

...there's a surprise extra phase with a bunch more gun emplacements to take out. Being thorough with clearing the walls before this makes the fight about half as chaotic.

Our heroes basically destroyed this wall, and now pretend it's a door. Knock knock.

Level 2 is a motorcycle level, as I continue to enjoy the hell out of the Laser weapon.

Most of the challenge of this game comes from enemies pouring onto the screen en-masse, which is why the Homing weapon is so good. Having an actual life meter is a huge step up; back in the day the only thing that kept me from getting into the OG Contra games as much as I wanted to was the one-hit deaths. Which made sense in 1980's NES games but still.

Tier 2 Homing turns the missiles blue and makes them even more numerous (and presumably hit a bit harder). Too bad there aren't Tier 3 versions of any weapons.

Against minibosses and bosses, the Crush gun really hits its stride (while being pretty bad against basic enemies, so the reverse of Homing). This is more of a "shotgun" type weapon, with a short range and only a couple shots at a time, yet big damage if it lands. The Tier 2 version turns the explosions into black holes that stay onscreen for about two seconds, continuing to damage things that pass through them.

Before some bosses we get these cool 3D cutscenes where the boss is charging in, or in this case chasing Bill Ryzer on foot. You can actually control your character during these 3D cutscenes and fire your weapon to get some early hits on the boss.

This freakish monstrosity looks like Abobo somehow mutated into a Tier 2 Abobo.

One of the nice things about this game is Lucia, our super-hot Chloe. She radios in with information and exposition, and later she joins the playable cast.

Level 3 looks like the village where the Vietcong forced Ben Stiller to be Simple Jack.

The Tier 2 version of Laser makes the beams much bluer / more damaging. However it also slows the rate of fire a bit. I'm kind of mixed on these Tier 2 weapons. They're all useful, but some of them are only marginal improvements. Also not crazy about how you lose them and go back to Tier 1 after taking one hit. Can't really get used to them or anything. So far the best tier 2 weapons are Homing, Crush, and Spread, while it's a vague marginal improvement for Laser, Fire, and Machinegun.

Oh yeah, there's another weapon I haven't mentioned because it's barely worth mentioning: Machinegun. It's basically a faster version of your default weapon that fires at about 1.5x the rate of shots. The Tier 2 version of it speeds that up to like 2x. It's cool in theory but it pales compared to all the other weapons.

So far I've mostly talked about weapons. The setting of the game is also worth noting. Galuga Island has definitely seen better days, and is a bit more grounded than the settings of past Contra games.

Miniboss fight! It's the drone that has been harassing the good people of New Jersey. Leave 'em alone! It's hard enough being New York's toilet!

The next character to join the team is Ariana, a native of Galuga Island. ...a heavily-armed native, apparently. Our latest Bad Dude!

This guy is the villain of the game. He's kind of...uninteresting. I liked Red Falcon from Contra III a lot, as far as series bad guys go. Mostly into the alien menaces and this guy's a little too humanoid.

Some really nice visuals here. They did a great job with this game, and there's nothing actually bad about it. There are much worse ways to spend 2-3 hours of your time.

I knew something was missing: Xenomorph-inspired enemies. Well, here's a huge one. It's a fun fight, swinging giant scythe-like arms that aren't too hard to dodge but still feel rewarding when you get it right.

Good time to mention the Perk Shop. When finishing stages you accumulate credits, and those can be spent at the shop to get various powerups. Some are only equipable by one character, some are equippable by any of them. Going for passive improvements like extended life meters and extra 1-Ups is a good idea, and this invulnerability extension was also pretty OP. Your character can equip any two powerups at a time.

The big pricey items here are things that affect weapons. There's a powerup that makes weapons automatically Tier 2, which is great, but you can still lose them. Another 1000-point powerup lets you keep special weapons on death, and yet another keeps you from losing Tier 2 weapons when hit. Playing through the game normally, you can maybe get one of these by about the two-thirds mark of the game, so choose wisely. Combining "keep Tier-2 when hit" and "automatically start at Tier 2" would be a game-changing combination but one would need to beat the game twice to even get to that point.

Level 4 is a research facility where the bad guys have been doing Shinra-type shady business, it seems.

The minibosses are pretty tough in this game. Good news is, it's super-generous with checkpoints.

Alien super-mosquitos are all over the place in here. The Devil's hands have been busy.

The boss here is some sort of fusion of a Space Jockey and The Thing.

TORCH IT, CHILDS!

Lucia finally joins the playable roster, trading in the military office attire for combat gear. She has instantly become the best-looking Bad Dude of all time.

About halfway there now. Level 5 is the aptly-named Ice Train, no relation to WCW mainstay Ice Train.

Who was underrated as a wrestler and a person and should have been a much bigger deal than he was. Huge highlight when you go back and watch old WCW shows. Even in 2000, when he took on the persona of "Smooth" and was, quite literally, the smoothest guy on the show. He was doing the Rizz Face decades before The Rizzler even hatched.

Anyway back to the game. Playable Lucia? Say no more.

Her abilities are a little different, and she can charge up certain weapons which is super useful. Unfortunately she loses some of the agility that the main two contras have, like dash and double jump, so I ended up going back to Bill Ryzer before too long.

Next miniboss is a running robot who runs in and out of the background, but you can only attack in the foreground (surprising, considering the original Contra was known for 3D stages where you could fire into the background).

Next boss is this giant ice worm. ...Torch it, Childs!

At the end of the ice train's route, our heroes find ancient ruins. This is where the ancient advanced tech is that the bad guys are after.

Level 6 is where the stages get a bit more complex.

These crystals are particularly interesting because they temporarily distort your view of the level and you need to adjust quick. You'll see your character's reflection in them, but the stage will be upside down or something like that, and that's what you use to see where you're going when the crystals are in the way.

This energy sword wielding boss is the guardian of the ancient tech. I unleash Homing and keep a distance, like most of the game. That's a bad-ass sword and I want it.

After the fight, we get an exposition dump from the AI computer of the ruins:

Everyone getting all of that? I never knew the Contra series had such deep lore! The "ancient advanced alien species residing on Earth" idea reminds me of the Cetra in FFVII, best known for their skipping flower girls.

Behold how gaily she prances!

But wait! While we were getting exposition, the bad guy snuck in and grabbed the ancient tech. Turns out he needed us to unseal the place. This is called the "Kain in the Sealed Cave Manuever"

Next boss is the "literally a terminator" boss from Contra III. Always liked that part.

How do you kill terminators? With plasma beams, of course.

The last two levels are in the alien hive, complete with xenos and facehuggers. They did change the facehugger pods a bit to be a bit less sue-able than they used to be. Harlan Ellison must have threatened legal action at some point.

I remember this drake from Contra III. That one is still my favorite game in the series. The SNES really did manage to contain the best installment in a bunch of series - Castlevania IV, Super Metroid, and so on.

This boss looks like a refugee from Metroid Dread. It turns around and has a face for a butt!

Said butt-face proceeds to launch massive lasers!

Varanis, the oddball villain, is the next boss. It's another "fire Homing nonstop and keep a distance" fight. Still not into this guy as a villain; he isn't alien enough.

Now that's more like it. With Varanis gone, a GIANT XENO awakens and goes on a rampage.

Final stage has our heroes climbing up through its bowels, like Lemmiwinks.

After climbing across many ceilings to escape acid pools, I arrive at the final battle:

The GIANT XENO itself. It's a chaotic fight and you don't have much floor to stand on.

The second and final form has it transforming into Mother Brain from Super Metroid. Seriously, it's literally Mother Brain's final form here.

Lucia stays behind and talks about releases while the rest of our heroes escape. For a minute I thought I'd gotten the bad ending, but nope, it's just setting up a sequel.

They may have lost her in the chaos, but our heroes haven't given up and intend to find her.

We also get some SERIOUS sequelbait: Alien drones are invading en-masse now, which means this is the beginning of the Alien Wars. AKA Contra III all over again. So was this one intended to be a reimagining of the first one? Explains why it isn't called Contra 5.

That's it for this game. Damn fine game, and like I said, there are much worse ways to spend 2-3 hours. There are still a ton of perks to unlock and Arcade Modes to run through with different characters. Lot of replay value here.

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