Ahahaha oh wow.

????

That sort of makes me nostalgic for the 90s. "What is this Castlemania game, then? It's not 3D, so it clearly automatically looks ugly, I will go back to giving Battle Arena Toshinden 11 stars for graphics now"

Anyway it's awesome. I never really heard Jake's sound design work (only his music), and it is incredible, it's almost better than the music (ALMOST). They used some of the original sounds (which is clever for nostalgia points, I thought he remade them but he said they're the actual originals) but the new shit is amazing. I think my favorite sound is the grappling hook, MAN that's a satisfying little thing.

Really wish they'd allocated more memory to the samplebank though!

Oh yeah, and the game seems okay too, a bit too hard for me, but super fun. Hopefully more companies will start to make these kinda games, especially if this is a success.

That. Is Freaking. Awesome. XD

And its such a cruel trick too, given that its origins are to help you cheat. XD

Konami loves jerking people around with its classic secret code. On the Super NES, they altered the code to use the shoulder buttons instead of left and right; I think it was one of the Gradius games where if you input the old code using left right left right instead of L R L R, it would just kill you.

I went to the mall yesterday and no store had it. This is getting pretty annoying. Apparently other people in Canada are having the same problem >_>
I'm going to another mall tomorrow. Hopefully I'll find it.

At any rate, if you win all the Challenges, you unlock a sound test and a large art gallery.

Gradius 3 started the bastardized version of it. I believe Gradius Gaiden and Parodius feature evil Konami code as well, with Parodius just stripping you of all power ups, complete with your character exclaiming "OH MY GOD!"

The machine gun is actually good in this game. Homing and Machine Gun combo helps against the stage 2 boss immensely.

Do I have to beat the game in one play through, or are there any save points?

Also, why are the bosses so far ridiculously easy comparing to the actual stages that can be insanely hard :(

You can save midway through at the cost of one continue. I think you start back at the beginning of the level and not at the exact spot where you saved though.

If I don't find the bloody game today, I'll order it on Amazon along with Death Note Vol 1 for free shipping :P

Man, where's all the love for this game?

I finally got the damn game today. I ordered it on Amazon on the 20th. It was out of stock when I came home, but it went in stock later that night. Awesome! It arrived today. Whoo!

I dunno how many other Canadians love Contra, but we had a hideous time getting the game. No stores received any shipments for more than a week, and it's only now that it's starting to appear in stores, and it's only a tiny trickle from what I've heard. I'm glad I ordered it online, so I don't have to deal with all this hassle.

I drained the DS battery today so I'm going to have all the Contra goodness tomorrow on the way to work. Sweet!

This has never been truer in the case of any Contra. Save maybe the Arcade Contras. Also, FUCK THE SPECIAL MISSIONS.

Well I played Contra today on the way to and from work. It ROCKS. I did make it to level 6 on Easy but can't seem to do it again anymore. Wanna unlock Contra and Super C before playing on Normal.

I love how some bosses are homages (somewhat) to Contra III bosses, as far as I recall. Is there any turtle bosses in this game?

Love the alien designs, especially the boss in the second stage. I actually freaked when I thought I defeated it and it came rushing at me as the platform fell.

There's a glitch in the game if you guys want to try it out. If you die at the exact same moment when you lose a life, you get 99 lives. It seems hard to pull off though. I'd like to use it just to beat Easy and get the two games faster.

P.S. How do you beat the level 6 boss?

Well if you haven't beaten it, I'm not sure how I did, but what I did was use Spread or Homing and just keep shooting the hell out of it. Shooting the eyeball did nothing for me, maybe you're suppose to kill the spikes before they shoot up or something.

But what about the flames it shoots out? I can never seem to dodge it. I assume there's a hook on the ceiling to avoid it, but I didn't bother to check last time I fought it.

The level 6 boss? Jump over his low flames, and don't jump when he shoots the high flames. Easiest boss ever.

I really hate having the action take place on two screens. 90% of my deaths come from me not paying enough attention to the top screen and having things fall on me.

The music for Contra IV...is amazing. (Holy crap)

Virt, you are the shit!

Everything seems to be spot on, zero complaints about the game. The only issue I have is that the game does not account for the space, so the majority of my deaths come from shots hiding between the screens. But I don't die too often anyway so it's not a critical issue. Just annoying sometimes.

I just hoe that the DS can do for Contra what it did for Castlevania. ^^

Its hard as !@#$ and I love it. Back to old school.

If anyones looking for the song that was in the trailers, which is a remix of the first stage in Contra, it was released publicly and can be downloaded from IGN.

RIGHT HERE!

I got mine the other day and have been loving it since the first level music kicked in. Fantastic, breathless stuff. The challenge mode is especially fun, pacifist challenges are good practise for the main game.

Hands down best handheld game of the year, if not even overall game of the year <3


EDIT:
Oh and someone kindly ripped the music. Virt did an absolutely awesome job <3

Is the level 6 boss the giant fish? If so, You gotta shoot the eye until it screams and runs away to the other side. This way, the drills on its back won't shoot up. You'll only need to dodge the one or two fishes that jump up to shoot you.