The game features a branching storyline with multiple possible endings. While most of the game have the character walking on foot, certain stages have the player riding a Motoroid, a hoverbike that can transform into an ostrich-like robot. In the third stage, the player are sent to a junkyard to apprehend the notorious hacker Noiman Cascade, while the fourth stage is set in the jungle, where the enemy's hideout is located. It was the first game in the released for a platform and serves as the first entry in the Hard Corps series, itself a subseries of the Contra franchise. Set five years after the events of , a terrorist group led by the renegade Colonel Bahamut has stolen an alien cell recovered from the war and now intends to use it to produce weapons.
Ray, Sheena and Brad later make a brief cameo appearance in the interactive game. Each player begins with a standard machine gun, which can be upgraded to a different semi-automatic weapon by picking up the A-type power-up. Another unique feature to Contra: Hard Corps is the addition of branching paths that allows the player to play through a different set of stages depending on key decisions made during key moments of the game's story. September 2013 Japanese gaming magazine gave the game a score of 24 out of 40. At the end of the first stage, the player confronts a robot piloted by the mercenary Deadeye Joe, who escapes after the battle.
There's also a hidden coliseum stage with its own ending, for a total of five possible outcomes. It was the first game in the Contra series released for a Sega platform and serves as a departure from preceding games in the series in many ways. When an unknown hacker infiltrates the city's security system and reprograms a group of unmanned robots to cause havoc, the Hard Corps are deployed to handle the situation. Instead of the traditional Contra heroes of Bill Rizer and Lance Bean, a new task force known as the Hard Corps with four members are sent to deal with the situation. The character will be invulnerable while sliding and can even harm certain enemies. Regardless of the chosen path, both stages converge to a common route.
From this point on, the storyline splits into four possible paths, each with its own outcome. Contra: Hard Corps is a side-scrolling run and gun-style shoot-'em-up video game released by Konami for the Sega Genesis in North America and South Korea in 1994. Geo Mandrake being eaten by a monster created in his merger machine. The gameplay is the same as the North American version, but the player only has four continues in the European version, instead of five like in the North American release. A new feature to the game is that the story is advanced through story cutscenes. Members include male soldier Ray Poward; female soldier Sheena Etranzi; Brad Fang, a wolf-like humanoid with two cybernetic arms; and Browny, a small robot capable of hovering.
Some cutscenes were also altered. It is also impossible to side with the Alien General in this version, thus eliminating one of the endings. Geo Mandrake informing them that the government's research center is being attacked by an unknown group. The track is played in the secret Battle Stadium stage against the first enemy, an afro-haired cyborg who fights the player with a whip, as well as fishes thrown like a boomerang. The player can choose to pursue Deadeye Joe or go to the research center to thwart the terrorists, each path leading to a different second stage. It was also released for the Mega Drive as Contra: The Hard Corps in Japan and as Probotector in Europe and Australia.
Like in the previous Contra games, a maximum of two players can play simultaneously, but they are not allowed to choose the same character. . His design is a pastiche of Castlevania protagonist , as well as of Japanese singer. The player can now carry up to four different weapons, as well as a supply of bombs. The Japanese version also features unlimited continues, in contrast with the American version, which only allows the player to continue five times. Unlike previous Contra games, which featured overhead segments in addition to the regular side-view stages, all the stages in Hard Corps retains the standard side-view perspective for most of the game.
For example, the player character no longer identifies the boss of Stage 1, a robot previously thought unmanned, to be piloted by a man, or Dr. The Japanese cover features an illustration drawn by animator , who also provided some of the character art in the game's manual. In the fifth stage, the Hard Corps will be caught in trap by the enemy leader, Colonel Bahamut, and the player is given another choice. When the player's character loses a life, the weapon they had equipped will be lost. The three main buttons A, B, and C are used for switching between weapons, shooting, and jumping respectively in the default control configuration.
The North American version was significantly harder than its Japanese counterpart, titled Contra: The Hard Corps, due to the removal of a life gauge that allows the player to take three hits from an enemy before losing a life. A new ability added to the game is a sliding technique performed by holding the direction-pad diagonally downwards while pressing the jump button. Like in previous games, weapons are obtained from flying capsule pods. Another difference is the player can now choose between one of four unique player characters. At this point, the Hard Corps will receive an emergency call from Dr.
The four reviewers of also gave the game a recommendation for its four character selection, intense action, and impressive graphical effects, though they remarked that the difficulty can be extremely frustrating. By pressing the weapon change button while shooting or the X, Y, or Z buttons on the six-button controller , the player can toggle between two shooting styles: one which allows for free movement while shooting, and site another which keeps the character still while he or she aims in one of eight directions. . . . . .
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