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Contra shoots XBLA with spread gun

What did we ever do to deserve this? Halo 3 info is everywhere, Call of Duty 3 on the cheap, movies and TV on Marketplace, Gears of War, and now Contra all in the same week. There's so much stuff that it's actually hard to take it all in. Like staring into the sun, its radiant beauty is simply overwhelming.

Anyway, the point is that Contra is now available. I powered up my 360 this morning just to grab it from XBLA. Lo and behold, it said I'd already downloaded it. It was then that I realized the new Arcade auto-download feature was doing its job. Huzzah! If you thought you died a lot in Gears of War, just see how long you last in Contra. Home to one of the greatest game weapons of all time, the spread gun, Contra is a shooter for the ages. It also helped make co-op gaming one of the greatest experiences in life. If you're old enough to remember the good old days, download this puppy and blast through it with a buddy. It won't take very long, but it's not like you ever would have gotten through the original for under five bucks, so 400 points is a pretty good deal. And even if you don't remember the good old days, you might as well give it a try, right?

Contra -- like other retro titles -- has some control issues. It doesn't seem nearly as responsive as it should. The core gameplay is still there though, and that's what counts. The remixed graphics and music aren't that much of an improvement, but welcome nonetheless. Still, as we said above, the amount of gaming you get for five dollars seems adequate. Has anyone stopped playing Gears (or COD3 or Project 8 or Viva Piñata or ....) long enough to try Contra?

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Reader Comments

(Page 1)

1. thanks to the PS3 and Wii launch next week microsoft is dropping new content on us like britney dropped federline.

Posted at 10:49AM on Nov 8th 2006 by get over it 0 stars

2. Oh snap!

Posted at 10:59AM on Nov 8th 2006 by Happy 0 stars

3. "thanks to the PS3 and Wii launch next week microsoft is dropping new content on us like britney dropped federline."

Ohhhhh, snap!

Posted at 11:00AM on Nov 8th 2006 by Richard Mitchell 0 stars

4. I still cant get my hands on COD3 or GOW yet (im european) so i downloaded contra this morning to give me someting to play whay i wait. It does have some control issues but having never played the orignal its easy enough to get used to them. So far though the best thing about contra is.....


... a new achievement sound!! well its more a fanfare but hey it makes getting acheivements that bit more satsifying.

Posted at 11:06AM on Nov 8th 2006 by KineticOnline 0 stars

5. I'm waiting for GOW to come in the mail from Family Video (thank you $45 price tag) so this morning I downloaded this, played the trial until they asked me to upgrade, at which point I was more than happy to because I was enjoying it. In my opinion I'd say that at first this game is easily worth the 400 points (especially if you've gotten points on the cheap as of late) and I hope that it continues to feel that way.

Posted at 12:27PM on Nov 8th 2006 by Judd 0 stars

6. So is the code in there?

Posted at 1:23PM on Nov 8th 2006 by VOS 0 stars

7. At the Title Screen press Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start.



Some of you little kids try this code at the title screen and tell us if it works please!

Posted at 2:00PM on Nov 8th 2006 by Shamma Banks 0 stars

8. yes, the contra code works :-)

Posted at 3:25PM on Nov 8th 2006 by Mr Adidas 0 stars

9. Thought some of you might like to read this from wired.com's game|life blog:

http://blog.wired.com/games/2006/11/xbla_contra_coo.html#more

Posted at 10:36AM on Nov 9th 2006 by DrunkPenguin 0 stars

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