Vimm's Lair: Genesis Reviews - Contra: Hard Corps
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Genesis
Contra: Hard Corps

Graphics:
Sound:
Gameplay:
Overall:
9.23
9.20
9.10
9.15
Votes: 71
Reviews: 1


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Reviewer: Tombert Date: Jun 7, 2009
Few games really push the Genesis to it's limit, and therefore people sometimes think that the Genesis was weaker than the SNES. Contra: Hard Corps, however, is one of the few games that actually looks better than its SNES counterpart (Contra III).

Graphics: 10
I didn't know that the Genesis was capable of such smooth scrolling and scaling, especially with absolutely no slowdown. I liked Contra III a lot, but it was pretty irritating to have lag on a home console. Hard Corps gets rid of those problems, and makes for a fast paced, slowdown-free experience.

Actually, the graphics in some ways look better than the SNES Contra II (not common with most games). The colors seem a bit more vibrant, and the animation seems smoother. The robots explode into bits, opposed to just disappearing. There are sometimes 20 enemies on the screen, all with fluid animation, even with two players.

Sound: 8
To be fair, the Genesis was not capable of very good sound. However, you really wouldn't notice that much with this game. The background music and explosions sound like background music and explosions. The only blatantly BAD sounds are the digitized voices for the characters, but that really isn't that bad.

I do think that the soundtrack for this game is far superior to that of the SNES Contra III. The music is more invigorating, while the SNES version sounds like an eight-year-old randomly played notes on the keyboard.

Gameplay: 10
It's Contra for goodness sakes! Contra virtually invented the run-n'-gun shooter, and this retains all the innovations of Contra III, plus a few more. This time you have four characters to choose from, all with unique abilities and weapons. This adds a fair bit of replay value, since there are also 4 different endings to go with the characters, as well as different paths you can take to get to the ending.

This game is also a LOT harder than most of the other Contra games. A lot of the enemies take several shots to kill, and many of the bullets are tougher to dodge (though I found it a lot easier if you had the robot). But this encourages some strategy of sorts. You come to memorize where the certain power-ups are, as well as how the bosses act. Oh, fun fact, most of the bosses have 2-5 phases, be careful.

Overall: 10
This is a great game for the Genesis, and can be purchased fairly cheaply today on websites like ebay. I really enjoy playing this game, and I think anyone who's actually played would be inclined to agree.

The Genesis became famous for having the best two-dimensional shooters, and this game is probably responsible. The fast paced action, great music, and stunning graphics with absolutely no slowdown make for a fantastic shooter that genesis owners should be proud of.

I'm not sure why Konami has ignored this game, since I honestly believe it might be the best in the series.