Back when I was first starting as a writer/reviewer here, one series of games I wanted to base a theme around was Contra. This tried and true arcade run-n-gun shooter has always been a childhood favorite, and while the formula was simple, its respectable difficulty and stimulating controls kept it very high on replay value, thus I came up with Contra Month back in 2019, taking a look at entries like the only Genesis entry Hard Corps., the SNES' The Alien War, and Super C on the NES. There's so many Contra games, I could discuss them for a while. The series gradually morphed into a high octane medley of boss rushes, but it remains classic.

If there was one entry I wanted to add to that list was Contra 4 for the DS, which I had never had a chance to play. During this period, I didn't give much attention to Nintendo's powerhouse of a handheld device. I was still heavily into its predecessor, the Game Boy Advance. After finally finding this game for a reasonable price, it didn't disappoint.

Published by Konami, with development headed by one of my personal favorite studios WayForward Technologies (Shantae, River City Girls), Contra 4 was released in 2007, and follows two years after the events from Contra III: The Alien Wars. Heroes from the first two games, Bill Rizer and Lance Bean, are asked back into action after a new threat, Black Viper appears and begins to vaporize humanity. Needing a little extra firepower, they also recruit Mad Dog and Scorpion to assist them. 

Some fun trivia regarding the names of these new threats and the added heroes, "Mad Dog" and "Scorpion" were the localized names of Bill and Lance for the American release of the first Contra game on NES, and "Black Viper", was the name of the threat in the Game Boy game, Operation C (which was also featured for Contra Month). While I appreciated the juggling of the lore, I had hoped the idea was to include some of the other heroes and combatants from the Hard Corps. story line of games, like Ray and Brad Fang. Sheena Etranzi and Lucia from Shattered Soldier can be unlocked via Challenge Mode, a series of rallies you have to survive that include speed runs and enemy survival bouts that are short in length, but very daunting, which is pretty cool, so I'll take that.

The gameplay is...well, it's Contra. If you have any mild history with this franchise, you'll know exactly what to do from the moment you pick up the DS. Many of the signature weapons you know and love from past games are back, like the Spread Shot, Laser, Machine Gun, and the Flamethrower. The power-up ability from Super Contra returns, wherein you pick up two of the same weapon icons and it enhances its speed and strength. 

New to this game is the grappling hook, a mechanic that can pull your warrior up to a railing. It's a welcome addition, and requires a little bit of skill to get the hang of using effectively. You're going to have to, because this is probably the HARDEST Contra game I've ever played in my life. Philosophy-wise, it does feel closer to the Alien Wars style of escalating difficulty, with influences from the other arcade and console developed games integrated throughout, but it gets unforgiving very quickly.

Right from the start, almost every enemy feels a little stronger than usual, as gun turrets and Black Viper soldiers crouching behind sandbags noticeably take a little more damage to eliminate with base power-ups than normal. I learned this fast, as I couldn't quite mow down enemies with ease. On top of all this, getting used to the DS's dual screen field of play was a curve ball in and of itself. It becomes second nature rather quickly, yet still catches me off guard when it comes to evading fire and obstacles, like aliens rising from the ocean. Deaths don't feel cheap, it just takes some patience, along with a little trial and error to overcome them. 

Contra 4's graphics have a blend of elaborately animated 2D sprites with some 3D backgrounds, a look that I am a giant mark for, and one of the reasons have a longing for this era of game development. Even for a handheld device, the Contra bosses are still huge and ferocious, making very adequate use of the DS's two screens. I have yet to experience the multiplayer, I only assume that its performance isn't hindered with several players on the screen connected via WiFi.

While the music provided by composer Jake Kaufman, who has done work on games with awesome BGM like Shantae, Shovel Knight, and Double Dragon Neon, is very good, I think there's something about it that falls a touch short of hitting that blood-pumping, adrenaline-charged energy I find synonymous with the spirit of a Contra game. Each track starts off sounding familiar, the punch just doesn't feel as memorable to me. It has that same sense of being overproduced as the DuckTales Remastered game suffers from, it misses that attitude.

I'm glad that I finally had a chance to experience Contra 4. It's a very welcome addition to the Contra family of games. Every aspect of the stages, power-ups, and the daunting difficulty makes it feel like WayForward wanted to make the best love letter to Konami's franchise as possible. The gameplay holds up well, and there's enough fun extras to tinker with that will keep even the most seasoned veterans of Contra games playing for a good while. Shattered Soldier is still probably my personal favorite, along with Super C, and the seldom discussed Hard Corps. Uprising, but Contra 4 is a fantastic game.