CONTRA: ROGUE CORPS Review

I had a great time playing CONTRA: ROGUE CORPS during Gamescom 2019, so when it was released a couple of days ago I was really glad to put my hands on it being a huge fan of the “End of the world” genre of games and of course top-down shooters, so is it as good as I expected?

Before talking about the game itself, I must point out that CONTRA: ROGUE CORPS is available on all current-gen platforms: PC, Switch, PS4 and XBOX One – That in itself is a huge plus as we don’t see many big companies go the extra mile and release (on the same day) to all platforms, so props to KONAMI for doing that. Being a busy gamer I chose the SWITCH version which basically enables me to play everywhere as it’s a portable console.

In CONTRA: ROGUE CORPS we’re battling during the end of the world, set a couple of years after Contra III: The Alien Wars released almost 30 years ago you’ll be playing in the Damned City, the game plays from a top-down isometric view and has a fully-featured single-player story campaign which will last you more than 15 hours while also having 2 multiplayer modes: online cooperative and a four-player local cooperative.

In CONTRA: ROGUE CORPS you’ll go nostalgic by choosing one of four classic CONTRA series characters:

• Kaiser: a rebuilt cyborg from The Alien Wars; Ms. Harakiri
• Assassin: with a parasitic alien attached
• The Gentleman: a well-cultured alien bug
• Hungry Beast: a brilliantly scientific cyborg giant panda.

I just love Twin-Stick Shooters

The new CONTRA is a twin-stick shooter, we don’t have many of these on the Nintendo Switch, the game basically shifts camera perspectives all the time while tons of enemies head in your direction, I did find that the controls felt right for this kind of gameplay with you as the player basically shooting and avoiding whatever comes your way. I did wish the aiming was a bit more precise – Which is something that I hope KONAMI will update in the near future, as it’s quite hard to hit exact enemies or exploding barrels in some scenarios, especially from a distance.

Level objectives vary from point to point travel, killing a specific enemy or target or destroying an enemy spawn point the boss battles were not too hard which is something new players will appreciate.

A full customization and upgrade system: One of ROGUE CORPS highlights is the upgrade and customization screen. By collecting spare parts and materials during the game, you will upgrade many aspects of your weapons that will tweak their specs, for example modifying their firepower. Also, by visiting the shop you can purchase new weapons or implants which will go into your chosen character’s body – basically upgrading your character’s specs.

Meeting the guys behind CONTRA: ROGUE CORPS back in Gamescom a couple of months ago, I was really excited when the game got released. I still haven’t unlocked all the different upgrades and will probably spend many more hours playing the game, if you are Nostalgic like me and love playing Twin-Stick Shooters, you should defiantly give CONTRA: ROGUE CORPS a try.