Hard Corps: Uprising

Anyone that was into gaming back in the 80s should know the name “Contra.”  For this gamer, Contra for the original NES was the first time I ever input the infamous “Konami Code!”  Thirty lives certainly made the game a lot easier to get through.  The Contra games have a legacy of being difficult, but rewarding!  Interesting weapons, huge bosses, fast & hard hitting multiplayer action, Contra has it all!  Hard Corps: Uprising keeps all of these things in tact and adds much more.

This time around, Konami got together with Arc System Works, the developer of the gorgeous BlazBlue series, and it shows!  The first thing the player will notice is the incredibly beautiful sprite work and hand drawn backgrounds that Arc did on Hard Corps.  In the world of “2 1/2 D” genre reinvigorations (is that a word) like Shadow Complex and Bionic Commando Rearmed, Arc went a step further with the visual style and kept the main characters and most of the enemies sprite based.  It really makes the game stand out from other downloadable reworks that have hit this gen.  Bosses and larger enemies are still polygonal, but it doesn’t take away from the style that Arc has set as a foundation.

The game is actually considered a prequel to the Genesis entry Contra: Hard Corps, which, in this gamer’s opinion, was one of the hardest in the Contra family.  Uprising continues that challenge for sure.  Of course the whole prequel thought is pretty loose if you ask me.  But then again, how much story do these types of games really have or more importantly… need?

The Commonwealth, under the leadership of Tiberius, has oppressed neighboring nations and a resistance has formed.  Hard Corps: Uprising is the story of major players in said resistance.  In this iteration you start out with two characters available to you.  Bahamut, former Commonwealth solider and the antagonist of Contra: Hard Corps, and Krystal, whose home town was attacked by the Commonwealth and her parents killed.  To start, Krystal is not sure if she can trust Bahamut.  She struggles with this throughout the game as Bahamut struggles with turning against the group he was previously a part of.  Most of this is detailed between missions during the games enormously long load times.

The interesting part is that the two characters actually start with different attributes.  Most noticeable is that Bahamut starts out with 3 life whereas Krystal only starts with 2.  There are 2 more characters in the opening cut scene, but so far there is no word on how to unlock them.  At the time of this review, I have gotten to the last boss at the end of Mission 8 (in Uprising Mode, but I’ll get to that in a second) and gotten my ass handed to me.  Though rest assured… I will beat that bastard!

That brings me to the game’s 2 modes.  Arcade mode is exactly what you would expect it to be.  It’s the balls-to-the-wall mode that you see in every other Contra game!  You get 3 lives and 3 continues… GO!  Uprising mode, on the other hand, is the mode that many non-hardcore Contra players will want to pay attention to.  The game is just as hard and you start out exactly the same as arcade mode.  However, the points you gain act as experience points of sorts.  You can spend these points to upgrade the character you are using.  The upgrades range anywhere from increasing the strength of weapons you pick up, to more life bars per life, to more lives in general.  You can also purchase new moves.  The most helpful I have found is a bullet deflection move that, when you hit the action button, deflects a bullet in range back to the enemy that fired it.  It’s very handy to say the least, just like in Star Wars.  Other moves have been added as well, some standard like dashing and air dashing and some that you purchase like the deflect and dodge moves.  Uprising mode also allows you to restart your game at any mission you have previously reached.  With the upgrades and stage select, Uprising mode makes this game much more approachable for those that feel that previous iterations in the Contra series have been too difficult for them.

Don’t let that fool you though.  The difficulty is there in full force,  sometimes bordering on that “cheap” area!  For instance, fighting a boss while forced to cling to walls.  If you get hit once, you fall to your death.  Awesome! Or find an enemy that you have to jump+dash over, only to find another enemy that flies out from off screen while you’re in the middle of your dash.  While most are not overly frustrating (well… one hit fall to your death one is), it does seem like they resorted to “cheap” methods to increase the difficulty when they didn’t really need to.

This difficult journey will span over eight missions in completely different set pieces ranging from deserts, to jungles, to highways that you hover board down.  There are trains to ride, towers to climb, elevator shafts to ascend… while clinging for dear life… to missiles.  This game seems to have it all.  Each stage will challenge you with mid-level boss fights as well as epic encounters at the end of each mission.  And you’ll have no shortage of taunting from Tiberius himself as you progress.  There is plenty in this little package to keep you coming back!

With two (to four) different characters to choose from and power up, an Arcade mode to test your skills in either single player or local or online co-op, leaderboards to score chase with your friends, and a grading system implemented so you can improve your play, there is definitely enough in this package to be worth your 15 measly dollars!  Konami and Arc have taken a long loved franchise and given it a true entry into the high definition era that remembers and builds on the roots from which it came.  Well done Konami.  Now grab Iga and do the same for Castlevania!  Pretty please!

Thanks to Konami for providing us with a download code for this game!