Contra Month continues with this little beast of a game. Operation C is one monster of a game for Nintendo's little handheld. The concept of a Gameboy or having your video games on the go was quite a luxury, and while it didn't quite pack the power of the NES, there were more than quality titles on it. Konami's development of Operation C ranks as one of my faves.

Like Nemesis (a game in the Gradius series), Operation C is its own entity that borrows elements mostly from Super C. The dot-matrix visuals just look so cool, overhead stages and backgrounds include ground texture throughout the majority of the layout without clutter. Projectiles are easy to spot and even though there is a good amount of slow down and visuals, this game does a respectable job of displaying the amount of action on the screen.

Operation C does omit many weapons and features. Gone are the Machine Gun, Laser, and the Rapid Fire upgrade, along with the option to charge the Flamethrower/Fireball power-up. Spread Shot and the previously mentioned Flamethrower remains, along with the introduction of the Homing Shot, a weapon that I halfway trust.

It diverts bullets toward the nearest target, which is dope, but if something is coming up on my six or has a beeline right in front of me, it creates a bad time when my target seeking weapons take priority elsewhere. 

The music features arrangements from its predecessors for the stages, and it's pretty boss to hear those tunes emitting from the Gameboy. Area 2 sounds like an original production. The sound effects and explosions are incredibly crisp. Shout out and some boosts to google's algorithms for producer Hidehiro Funauchi for those sick tunes. He's mainly credited for a lot of Gameboy titles.

The controls are solid. It is noticeably slower overall than the NES Contras, but the reaction time is still responsive. Operation C's boss battles are rather original as fars their design goes. Or variations of enemies from Super C. Difficulty wise, if you're a veteran of the series, you may stomp this game very quickly. It's a stage shorter, so that leaves only five levels to smash through. Boss patterns aren't particularly complex and the Spread Shot lays waste to everything before you, so Operation C by comparison to its bigger brother Super C is a cakewalk.

This is a quality entry in the Contra series, and a wicked effort on the Gameboy. Two years afterwards, the handheld will see a port of Contra III The Alien War, which is even better, so major props to this one for a solid showing of what the Gameboy was capable of.