In the years I've spent writing reviews for modern and retro video games, I learned a lot of my thinking has evolved. The topic of generational leaps with popular franchises adjusting with the times with varied results is one I now put a lot of thought into. I try not to just say "GAME BAD" and move on, there's gotta be something deeper to deconstruct. That's hard to do this time. Contra: Legacy Of War is bad. Not worst ever territory, but incredibly vanilla, soulless, and bland.

Released in 1996 and published by Konami, Contra: Lagacy of War I believe is the first game in the series to have development duties outsourced. Appalosa Interactive is manning the ship of this project, and since these are the same goobers behind Ecco the Dolphin, one of my most hated, "why bother" game franchises ever, this IMMEDIATELY puts me in bad footing. Alright, Contra has attempted a field of depth in their previous games, like the Base stages in the first game, and a full game designed via isometric camera perspective wouldn't be a bad idea. It'd essentially be Ikari Warriors.

Legacy of War doesn't suffer from bad controls, it's totally playable. My biggest issue with it is just how boring this game is to play. It tries to retain the Contra formula, but very little about its jump from 2D to a wider field feels different enough to stand out on its own. Being apprehensive about pulling too far away from tradition when it comes to a franchise that by this point had already cemented itself in the hearts of fans makes sense, but when the medium you're attempting to work with is this drastically different, the philosophy either needs to be tweaked to meet and adapt to the challenges or completely overhaul the game design. Appalosa should have just taken a page out of Loaded's playbook, a fast and more streamlined overhead shooter, instead of trying to make a blend of Hard Corps and The Alien Wars on a 3D plain and hoping it just works.

Legacy of War's graphics are almost as dated as its gameplay. While I'm a little impressed environments in a game at this point was almost fully 3D rendered, the technology was still too young to outclass pixels and sprites. The textures aren't bad, but many of the monsters you fight lack the presence and appeal of Contra bosses of the past. Stages look and feel cramped and ordinary, mostly smatterings of grey, green, and brown hues, a look that I'd get tired of very quickly. The world of polygons arrived like an awkward teenager who's been hit by puberty harder than Francis Ngannou, but they were destined to will themselves as the future of video game graphics. The only way out is through. The Saturn version has smoother colors and faster loading times, while the PSX port loads significantly slower, yet has better texture mapping on the 3D models.

This game should have pulled the camera back further, it feels too close to the action and much of the play field and larger enemies are obscured. There's no scale to take in, and little to observe. It's fixed, but also seems on a wire setting, so there's mild swaying that you can't control. If there was an option to zoom out, this would be a little more tolerable. Even the signature Contra weapons are lacking the panache.

Speaking of gameplay, due to how early this game was in this generation, Contra: Legacy of War suffers from not being Dualshock compatible, because it begs to be a twin stick shooter. At the very least, even a crude lock-on system would have been preferable as opposed to this game's decision to change ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about the core Contra formula. For instance, what's the point of retaining the ability to jump? It feels incredibly stiff and makes aspects of the game take way longer than it should. The battle against the fortress wall from the first Contra is recreated, but the fight is twice as long with an expanded play field combined with a very linear method of attack.

Legacy of War follows the Hard Corps. line of Contra games, there's multiple characters to select from, each with their own special weapons. Ray Poward returns from Hard Corps., and joining him are mercenary Tasha, the alien Bubba, and CD-288, a robot. I do like this mid-90's comic book style of motley crew freedom fighters the Hard Corps line of games take by assembling these weirdos together. It's always been an interesting contrast to the seemingly slightly more tucked in path Bill Rizer's route takes.

Like The Alien Wars and Hard Corps, you can stock weapons into slots, which is cool, because without any added firepower, the pacing slows down to a crawl. Most enemies are just bullet sponges with same attack pattern (wait, dodge, attack), but Legacy of War encourages you to try and plow through stages. It gets legit tough in later levels, but the early parts of the game are such a slog, it took me a long time to muscle through just because the uninspired controls, lackluster stages, and colorless boss fights creates this cocktail of very middling engagement. Hey, at least the soundtrack is balls-out awesome.

I can't really recommend Contra: Legacy of War, unless you want to witness another curious piece of history with game franchises taking the trial by fire approach with advancing hardware. Contra's fast-paced run-n-gun style does not translate well.

However, it wasn't a total failure, as I'm sure the director of Neo Contra looked at the shortcomings of LoW and ironed out its mistakes for a more polished. Bad game, sure, but companies were more inclined to experiment back then when projects weren't multi-million dollar AAA projects with tons of expectations and greater risks. But yeah, this should have aimed to be a more technical, puzzle shooter, or something closer to One, an earlier review I did where I firmly believe it's a more definitive Contra game than the two Appalosa titles that came out during this period. Legacy of War just feels mostly middling.