Contra III: The Alien Wars

Contra III: The Alien Wars (known as Super Probotector: Alien Rebels in Europe and Contra Spirits in Japan, is a classic shooter from Konami. Featuring 6 levels of non stop action, Contra 3 is an iconic game of the SNES and Genesis era. Contrary to its name, The Alien Wars is the fourth title in the Contra series, following the canon established in 2002's Contra: Shattered Soldier with the inclusion of Operation C, which had previously been omitted from the timeline by Konami of America. The Alien Wars was released in Europe and Australia under the Probotector label, as Super Probotector: Alien Rebels.

Gameplay

Taking advantage of the then new technology provided by the Super NES, The Alien Wars graphics improved upon those of earlier games. The level design is more complex, and provides more opportunity for interaction than was possible in previous Contra installments. For instance, players can grab on to poles and navigate them in a monkey bar fashion, climb walls and ladders, destroy buildings and scenery, and commandeer tanks. New styles of levels in The Alien Wars involve motorcycle chases, riding on missiles, and two Mode 7 enabled overhead levels similar to those in Super Contra. The weapons system is revamped, and players can carry two weapons instead of one, only losing the one they are currently using if they die. They can also fire these two weapons simultaneously in a spin-jump circular fire pattern that hit enemies on all sides: however, being hit while doing so results in the player losing both of their weapons. Finally, the player now starts off with the submachine gun — in the previous Contra games, the initial weapon was a semi-automatic rifle — eliminating the need to tap the fire button rapidly.

Lives and continues Unlike its predecessors, there is no cheat code that extends the amount of lives. Instead, the player can select the number of lives to start with - three, five, or seven are the available choices. The amount of continues is adjusted according to the difficulty level (which also determines the durability of enemies). In the Japanese version, however, the player has unlimited continues regardless of difficulty.