- For other uses, see Alien Wars (disambiguation).
Contra Advance: The Alien Wars EX, known in Japan as Contra: Hard Spirits (魂斗羅 ハードスピリッツ Kontora Hādo Supirittsu?), is a run-and-gun action platformer video game developed by Cing Inc. and published by Konami for the Game Boy Advance handheld system. It is a port of Contra III: The Alien Wars for the Super NES, with the addition of two levels from Contra: Hard Corps.
Release[]
Contra Advance: The Alien Wars EX (released in Japan as Contra: Hard Spirits) is a second portable version of Contra III: The Alien Wars released by Konami in 2002, following the previous portable version Contra: The Alien Wars for the Game Boy. Contra Advance is a more graphically accurate port of the original Super NES game, using the same sprites and a similar color palette, although still held to the hardware's limitations.
Unlike the original Super NES game and the previous Game Boy adaptation, Contra Advance was released in Europe and Australia under the "Contra" name without the "Probotector" title and robotic characters.
This Game Boy Advance version was later released on the Wii U Virtual Console in 2015/2016 in all regions.
Gameplay[]
Several changes were made to many of the game's features from the original game. Most are gameplay-wise due to the Game Boy Advance's lack of X and Y buttons. Some of these changes include:
- Bombs and the ability to carry two weapons were removed.
- When picking up a weapon, the player's previously held weapon will drop, allowing them to pick it up again if desired. This ability can only last for a limited time, however, as special weapons will eventually dissipate and time remaining before dissipation is carried over to the removed weapon.
- The player can now lock their character's aim like in Contra: Shattered Soldier, allowing them to move anywhere while shooting in one direction.
- The top-view stages (Stage 2 and 5) from the original Super NES game were replaced with two stages from Contra: Hard Corps (Military Train and Big Battle). The music from these removed top-view stages, however, was retained and play in their respective stages.
- This version only has two difficulty levels: Novice and Normal, with Novice mode cutting the game's length at the end of Stage 4. The game's ending is achieved in Normal mode, much like with the Japanese Contra III.
- A Continue Game option was added, which utilizes a password feature allowing a player to start on any of the five stages after the first stage. Additionally, passwords exist that allow to start between stages 2 to 6 with 99 lives.
- Due to system limitations, a 2 Players game is only possible via a Game Boy Advance Link Cable. The second player must also have a copy of the game to play. A 2 Players game will always be played from the first stage and cannot be continued from higher stages (with the exception of Continues). Like with the SNES version, co-op is the only way to play as Lance Bean.
- Only one image is displayed on every stage clear, which features Bill Rizer in military uniform carrying a large gun in front of a tan background containing some text.
- The ending images have been altered to display only imagery from this port of the game. The Final Score image was also changed into the aforementioned Stage Clear image and features a Rank stats screen based on the player's high score and remaining lives (difficulty and if passwords were used may also affect Rank).
Weapons[]
All five of the special weapons from Contra III make a faithful return here, which include the Spread Gun, Flame Thrower, Laser, Crush Gun, and Homing Missile. The Barrier power-up also makes a return in an identical fashion. The only weapon to not make a return is the Hyper Shell. This causes some of the Flying Capsules to produce normal special weapons instead, or the Capsule will not appear at all. Otherwise, the placements of all flying capsules retain the exact same weapon power-up inside as their SNES version did. Because of the changes made to gameplay, the Random Shooting technique was removed in this version of the game.
Stages[]
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The cover artwork of this game is a reference to the cover artwork of the NES version of the original Contra.
- The Japanese version, Contra: Hard Spirits, also uses this artwork, despite the Famicom version of Contra having a completely different cover artwork.
- The stage intermission artwork of Bill Rizer resembles a stock photo of Arnold Schwarzenegger from the 1985 action film, Commando.
Related products[]
- Contra III: The Alien Wars - The original Super NES game this port is based on.
- Contra: The Alien Wars - A previous portable version of Contra III for the original Game Boy handheld system.
- Contra: Hard Corps - Contra Advance borrows two stages from this game.
- Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance/Contra Advance Official Strategy Guide - An official English strategy guide for Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance and Contra Advance by BradyGames.
- Shin Contra/Contra: Hard Spirits - Konami Official Perfect Guide - An official Japanese strategy guide for Contra: Shattered Soldier (Shin Contra) and Contra Advance (Contra: Hard Spirits) by Konami.