Contra III: The Alien Wars

Gameplay

Taking advantage of the technology provided by the Super NES, the graphics in Contra III improved upon the NES versions of the first two installments, bringing it closer to the quality of their arcade counterparts. The level design is more complex, and provides more opportunity for interaction. For instance, players can grab on to poles or ceilings and navigate them in a monkey bar fashion, climb walls and ladders, destroy buildings and scenery, and commandeer tanks.

New styles of levels in The Alien Wars involve motorcycle chases, riding on missiles, and two Mode 7 enabled top-view levels. Players can carry and switch between two weapons at any time, only losing the one they are currently using if they die. They can also fire these two weapons simultaneously in a spin-jump circular fire pattern that hit enemies on all sides: however, being hit while doing so results in the player losing both of their weapons. The player can also lock their character's mobility, allowing the player to shoot at all eight possible directions (including downwards and at angles) without moving or jumping.

There are three levels of difficulty in the game - Easy, Normal, and Hard. Each increase in difficulty setting also alters several aspects of the game. For example, enemy bosses, when fought on harder difficulties, will have new attacks or modifications to their already-existing attacks patterns. Also, some situations in the game, such as flying in the air on missiles, become more difficult, as the missiles will travel much faster on higher difficulties. In addition, some objects and boss weak points that were destructible on easier difficulty levels will become indestructible on Normal or Hard mode.

If the player completes the game on Easy or Normal, then he will start at the very first stage on the next difficulty with their current weapon configuration, lives, and score intact. On the Hard setting, the final boss will have an additional form that the player must defeat as they escape from the Alien Lair. After defeating this form, the true ending will be shown, followed by the credits and then the player's final score.

Top-view stages

There are two top-view stages in the game: Stage 2 (the Collapsed Highway) and Stage 5 (the Steep Cliffs). The controls in the top-view stages differ from those in Super Contra and Operation C. The player's character always faces the same direction when moved with the control pad and must be rotated with the shoulder buttons (L and R). The perspective differs depending on which game mode is played. When these stages are played in 1-Player Mode, the character always faces up and the area rotates around him. In 2 Players A Mode, these stages uses a horizontal split-screen format, with Player 1's half of the screen on the top and Player 2's half on the bottom. Both characters face right in this mode. In 2-Players B Mode, both players share the same screen and their characters rotate while the perspective remains fixed for both players.

The objective in these stages is also different from the standard side-view stages. Rather than moving into a linear path towards the end of the stage to face a stage boss, the player must first destroy a series of targets situated at fixed locations. The player may select their landing point at the start of the stage, while on-screen arrows help the player lead their character to the nearest target (a map can also be used that pinpoints the player's current location while showing the remaining targets). After all targets are destroyed, the player is transported to a new area to face the boss.

Cheat codes

In the North American and PAL versions of the game, there are no cheat code that extends the number of lives. Instead, the player can select the number of lives to start with — three, five or seven are the available choices. The number of continues is adjusted according to the difficulty level (which also determines the durability of enemies). The Japanese version, however, does contain a 30-lives cheat, as well as a stage select and sound test modes. These are done by going to the options menu and inputting a command similar to the special move inputs from Street Fighter II.

Development

The game's tentative title in North America was Super Contra IV. This was presumably because Contra Force, an unrelated NES game by Konami, was originally intended to be the series' third console installment.

The packaging artwork for the North American version was created by Tom Dubois, who also designed the packaging for many other Konami titles outside Japan.

Releases

The Japanese version, titled Contra Spirits, features three cheat codes that were removed from the overseas releases: a thirty lives code, a stage select, and a sound test. The Japanese version also features unlimited continues, regardless of the difficulty setting, whereas the number of times the player can continue in the overseas versions varies between difficulty settings. The PAL version, Super Probotector: Alien Rebels, is identical to the American release in terms of difficulty, but replaces the original commandos with robotic soldiers codenamed RD008 and RC011.

Contra III was one of a few select titles for the Nintendo Super System, an arcade system which was used to preview Super NES games in North America. Players insert credits to buy time which allows them to pick and choose from a list of available games to play. The game is identical to the Super NES version.

Game Boy

In 1994, a Game Boy port was released simply titled Contra: The Alien Wars in North America (dropping the numeral from the game's title), as Contra Spirits in Japan, and as Probotector 2 in Europe and Australia (following up on the Probotector localization of Operation C). The port was developed by Factor 5. In this version, the level structure had been altered, many of the enemy bosses were removed, and Stage 4 of the original game (the Air Battle level) was removed. A strafing ability was included to compensate for the absence of rotation in both top-view stages, and a password feature was added. The player no longer has the ability to hold two weapons, but can still carry and use Bombs with the Select button. All the weapons from the original Super NES game are featured except for the Laser Gun. The game features Super Game Boy support, which provides a custom color scheme and enhanced sound effects. This version consists of four difficulty levels, Easy, Normal, Hard and Maniac, with Easy mode cutting the game's length at the third stage.

Game Boy Advance

Konami released a second portable version of Contra III in 2002 for the Game Boy Advance titled Contra Advance: The Alien Wars EX, which was released in Japan as Contra: Hard Spirits (魂斗羅 ハードスピリッツ). Unlike the original Super NES game and the previous Game Boy adaptation, Contra Advance was released in Europe and Australia under the Contra name without the Probotector title and robotic characters. The designers made changes to many of the features of the original game due to the Game Boy Advance's lack of XY buttons. The mega bombs and the ability to wield two weapons were removed, but the player can now lock their character's aim like in Contra: Shattered Soldier (allowing the player to move anywhere while shooting at one direction) and is given a choice to revert to their previously held weapon when picking a new one. The top-view stages (Stage 2 and 5) from the original Super NES game were replaced with two stages from Contra: Hard Corps (the Military Train and Big Battle stages). This version only has two difficulty levels, Easy and Normal, with Easy mode cutting the game's length at the end of the fourth stage.

Virtual Console

The original Super NES game was also released as part of the Virtual Console lineup on January 2007 for the Wii in all three territories (Japan, North America and the PAL region) and on late November 2013 for the Wii U in Japan and North America. The American version of the game was released on the European Wii U eShop on January 9, 2014. It was also released on the 3DS Virtual Console, exclusively to New Nintendo 3DS and New Nintendo 3DS XL owners, along with other SNES games.

Reception

The Game Boy version received very positive reviews from Electronic Gaming Monthly and GamePro, both of which expressed surprise at how accurately it recreated the Super NES version, particularly special effects like the scaling plane in the first level. Two of EGM's reviewers commented that they felt the game's only weakness was the awkward control configuration when playing it on the Super Game Boy.

Reviewing the Virtual Console release of the Super NES version, IGN criticized the game's short length, but praised innovations to the series such as the spinning playfield in levels 2 and 5, and remarked that "Contra III is arguably the best installment in the Contra series, as it polished the gameplay of the earlier titles and kicked up the action energy even higher than before."