Super Contra (Japanese Arcade title:スーパー魂斗羅 エイリアンの逆襲, "Super Contra: The Alien's Counterattack"; also shortened to スーパー魂斗羅 and Super C on the Famicom and NES respectively), developed by Konami, is the 1988 sequel to the smash hit Contra. This time, the alien forces from the original game has taken over a base in an undisclosed region of South America and the player once again assume the roles of Bill and Lance.

The original Arcade version of Super Contra was essentially an updated version of the first Arcade game. The main difference being that the psudeo-3D stages were replaced by overhead stages and weapons were now upgradable and represented by the actual guns themselves (as opposed to letter icons like other installments). The player also gained the ability to duck underwater to avoid being shot.

The NES/Famicom port remained pretty faithful to the Arcade original. However, the upgradable weapons system was discarded (with the Fire Gun being the only weapon that could be upgraded by the player) and power-ups were once again represented by letter-based icons. The NES version also added three new stages, plus a new end-boss (Beast Kimkoh). The extra men code was changed from the previous NES release (which used the Konami Code) and was toned down to a ten-lives code in the US version.

The name "Super Contra" is interesting since many games that were once on the NES and continued their franchise onto the SNES would take up the word "Super" as part of their name, for example, Super Metroid. The Contra franchise could not do this for the SNES now, and the acclaimed sequel to Super C would be called Contra 3: The Alien Wars.

External link

• Super C instruction manual.