Game

Contra

1987 · Arcade · Shooter · Platform · Arcade

65IGDB player score
263 ratings

Previously Take

That 65 average hides a game its 263 fans would defend to the death. This is about the gunplay. Science fiction, warfare set the stage, the shooting does the talking. No multiplayer, no problem — the campaign carries the whole thing. From 1987, back when games shipped finished.

About this game

Contra (also known as Gryzor in Oceania and Europe), is a 1987 run and gun action game developed and published by Konami originally released as a coin-operated arcade game on February 20, 1987. The game had multiple ports, including for various computer formats. Several Contra sequels were produced following the original game.

In Contra, the player controls one of two armed military commandos named Bill "Mad Dog" Rizer and Lance "Scorpion" Bean, who are sent on a mission to neutralize a terrorist group called the Red Falcon Organization that is planning to take over the Earth. Details of the game's setting varies between supplementary materials: the Japanese versions sets the game in the year 2633 on the fictional "Galuga archipelago" near New Zealand, whereas the manual for the American NES version sets the game during the present in an unnamed South American island. The American storyline also changes the identity of "Red Falcon" from being the name of a terrorist organization to the name of an alien entity.