3/31/2009 - LittleBig Contra: GAF collab preview

If you have a game like Little Big Planet that has a level designer, you can pretty much expect levels to be designed like those from video games of other franchises. There are plenty of levels that mimic those of the Super Mario Bros. and Mega Man games for example. But it wasn't until the Metal Gear expansion pack that gave Sackboy the ability to shoot a gun (albeit a paintball gun). This paved the way for what is perhaps one of the coolest collaborations of the gaming community ever. Yes, that would be the recreation of the original Contra game:



Each level of the game was handled by a different designer or team of designers. What amazes me is how they recreated the pseudo-3D parts of the game where you're going down the corridor. Stuff like this really shows the creativeness of the gaming community.

11/12/2007 - Contra Trailer

Contra 4 comes out this week for the Nintendo DS, and this is the one game for the system that makes me want to buy the system just for the game. Why? Well, it's because Contra III for the SNES was one of the greatest games ever! Contra exists for one reason: to kick your butt and make you like it. It's intentionally hard, but not impossibly so. Even though it may be the most unrealistic game in the world by having one guy (or two, if you have a second player) taking out an entire alien horde, it does have one all-too-realistic element to it: ONE HIT AND YOU'RE DEAD. That's right, no health bar, or hearts to give you extra energy. One bullet from even the weakest enemy will put you down... well, it takes away one of your lives at least. And that's why so many people resort to the most famous code in video gaming history: the Konami code. UP, UP, DOWN, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT, B, A, START. It gives you thirty lives in the original Contra for the NES and is so well-known that it's printed on T-Shirts.

To celebrate the release of Contra 4, I have to feature this video from the TeamAwesome crew, the same people who made that ultra-cool Punch Out movie trailer for the Nintendo video contest. This "trailer" is of Contra, of course, and it pays homage to the movies of which Contra is based on: Aliens, Predator, Commando, and Rambo. Yes, it was a time when action movie stars were muscle-bound actors, not the sensitive leading men of today aided by stunt men and computer graphics. Those movies definitely hold a special place in my heart, and so does Contra for the same reasons.



By the way, TeamAwesome... you guys rock! Hope to see more of your stuff in the future!