Contra: Rogue Corps

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Contra: Rogue Corps
Contra Rogue Corps logo.png
Developer(s) Toylogic
Publisher(s) Konami
Director(s)
  • Daichi Kurumiya
  • Nobuya Nakazato
Producer(s) Nobuya Nakazato
Designer(s) Katsuro Ouchi
Programmer(s) Katsufumi Fujimoto
Artist(s) Atsushi Yamaguchi
Writer(s)
  • Evan Dorkin
  • Sarah Dyer
Composer(s)
  • Takahiro Nishi
  • Takashi Okamoto
Series Contra
Platform(s)
ReleaseSeptember 24, 2019
Genre(s) Run and gun, twin-stick shooter
Mode(s) Single-player, Multiplayer

Contra: Rogue Corps is a run and gun twin-stick shooter in the Contra series developed by Toylogic and published by Konami. It was released on September 24, 2019 for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Rogue Corps is set in the fictional Damned City two years after Contra III: The Alien Wars and Contra 4 , featuring four playable characters and a wide degree of weapon customization. The game received generally mixed reviews upon release. It was criticized for its gameplay, graphics, and story, although praise fell toward its upgrade and customization system.

Gameplay

The gameplay utilizes a mixture of side-scrolling, third-person, isometric, and top-down perspective shooters, similar to Neo Contra . [4] [5] [6] The gameplay modes are single-player story campaign, multiplayer online cooperative, and four-player local cooperative (with separate Switch consoles [7] ). It is based on player versus environment (PVE) gameplay, with dual analog controller sticks. [7]

Players configure a main weapon and sub-weapon in real time. These have unlimited ammunition, but also a heat meter to be managed. Between stages, weapons are upgraded and uniquely customized. As a last resort, the player can clear the area with a huge bomb or use the character's special ability. [4] [8]

Plot

The story is set several years after that of Contra III: The Alien Wars, taking place in Damned City. [3] [8] Due to the catastrophic events of the Alien Wars, Damned City has now become a post-apocalyptic environment that is home to "all sorts of strange artifacts and tech". The harsh environment causes incurable psychic damage to the minds of human beings, driving them insane. The city has a mysterious gate that unleashes hideous Fiends, attacking anything that is alive.

Players assume the roles of four former military mercs, scrappers, and bounty hunters who are known as the Jaegers: [2] [4] [7] Kaiser, a rebuilt cyborg from The Alien Wars; Ms. Harakiri, an assassin with a parasitic alien attached; The Gentleman, a well-cultured, highly intelligent alien bug; and Hungry Beast, a brilliantly scientific cyborg giant panda. [3] [4] Naturally immune to the mind-destroying effects of the city, the Jaegers are humanity's hope against the threat of the Fiends.

Development

Contra: Rogue Corps was announced at E3 2019. The development of the game was overseen by veteran Contra series director and senior producer, Nobuya Nakazato, who also had been director, game designer, and artist of Contra III: The Alien Wars (1992) and Contra: Hard Corps (1994); and was producer and director of Contra: Shattered Soldier (2002) and more. [7] Nakazato wanted to capture the traditional spirit of the Contra series, while modernizing it for a new audience. [8]

Reception

Contra: Rogue Corps received "mixed or average" reviews on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and received "generally unfavorable" reviews on the Nintendo Switch, according to review aggregator Metacritic. [9] [10] [11] Mitchell Saltzman of IGN attended the E3 2019 preview, initially feeling "some strong initial whiplash" from the dramatic departure from the series' history and the lack of nostalgia. With its "solid foundation" of gameplay, he found "a respectable twin-stick shooter with good gunplay and the potential for a great time with four-player couch co-op". He praised the way the game rewards a player's thoughtful strategies with a "smart and fun dynamic where you'll need to juggle your main and sub-weapon regularly". [4]

Destructoid criticized the use of season pass downloadable content though "nothing of substance is being gated off", and noted that the overall reception by E3 attendees was "incredibly mixed". [14] Nintendo Life criticized its controls, graphics, and "bland" mission structure—while praising its complex upgrade and customization system. [12]

PlayStation LifeStyle 's review of the game was more positive, stating that it "understands the appeal of revisiting gratuitous 90s cheese, but filters out all the tropes we’ve grown out of since. By injecting actual, creative humor instead of edgy cynicism or boring references, Contra: Rogue Corps really has a personality of its own despite most of the storytelling living in the background." [13]

Related Research Articles

<i>Contra</i> (video game) 1987 video game

Contra is a run and gun video game developed and published by Konami, originally developed as a coin-operated arcade video game in 1986 and released on February 20, 1987. A home version was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988, along with ports for various home computer formats, including the MSX2. The arcade and computer versions were localized as Gryzor in Europe, and the NES version as Probotector in PAL regions and France.

<i>Operation C</i> (video game) 1991 video game

Operation C is a 1991 run and gun video game by Konami released for the Game Boy. It is a sequel to Super Contra, and the first portable installment in the Contra series. Operation C features gameplay and graphics similar to the Nintendo Entertainment System versions of Contra and Super Contra.

<i>Contra: Hard Corps</i> 1994 video game

Contra: Hard Corps, released as Contra: The Hard Corps in Japan and Probotector in Europe and Australia, is a run and gun video game released by Konami for the Sega Genesis in 1994, making it the first game in the Contra series released for a Sega platform.

<i>Contra</i> (series) Video game series

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<i>Contra: Shattered Soldier</i> 2002 video game

Contra: Shattered Soldier, originally released in Japan as Shin Contra, is a video game that is part of the Contra series by Konami. It was developed by Team Kijirushi, a group of staff members within Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo. The game marks a return to the two-dimensional gameplay style employed by the series prior to Contra: Legacy of War. A sequel to Contra: Hard Corps, the game was released for the PlayStation 2 in 2002 and for the PlayStation Network in both 2012 for Japan and 2013 for North America.

<i>Neo Contra</i> 2004 video game

Neo Contra is the tenth video game in the Contra series published by Konami. It was developed by Team Neo Kijirushi, a group of staff members within Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo, and released for the PlayStation 2 in 2004. The game is a direct follow-up to Contra: Shattered Soldier, but returns to the multidirectional shooting format and departs from the traditional scrolling shooter formula used in previous games. It was the first game in the series to receive an M (Mature) rating from the ESRB and was the only installment to receive this rating until the release of Rogue Corps in 2019.

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References

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  3. 1 2 3 Nunneley, Stephany (June 11, 2019). "Contra: Rogue Corps. coming to consoles and PC in September, Contra Anniversary Collection out today". VG24/7. Archived from the original on October 17, 2020. Retrieved June 12, 2019.
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