"Games that failed to translate to 3D" and "Games that made the successful jump to 3D" would make a great series, although the later is likely a much shorter list. Great video though as usual!
It should've stayed 2-D! The Saturn with 2-D Contra on steroids would have been unreal! I miss my days growing up with 8-bit and 16-bit machines the variety was off the charts. I love Nintendo and I love Sega of days gone past! Great video! Cheers!
@@eskanda3434 Yeah that irony always hits me so hard. As these are the games that have also aged the worst by a large margin. (Most of the time) Early 3-D compared to almost any 2-D is almost always a non-starter it's 2D wins nearly every time.
@@eskanda3434 I don't know? Castlevania Symphony of the Night wasn't exactly a bomb. Capcom games on the Saturn are amazing! SNK was still waving the torch for 2-D. I truly believe if publishers didn't outright crap on 2-D. It would've transitioned better or held on a little longer? I just don't think 32-bit 3-D was ready nor does it hold up to 16-bit 2-D graphics. 3-D should've been held back to Dreamcast and other similar systems. Most of the 3-D from 32-bit era is just plain bad. I will always love pixel art. A lot of today's games just don't do much for me but thats me. Cheers!
Totally agree, for one this game is so ugly compared to the amazing Snes and Megadrive Contras. It should of stayed 2D with all the flair of Contra 3. Just imagine what the Saturn version could of been like, sprite scaling, rotation, huge bosses the works:)
Contra: Shattered Soldier and Neo Contra were done right. Konami had the right team to develop a game that was more 2.5D with its mixture of 2D and 3D elements. Neo Contra may have been in 3D but the team was able to make the game work.
Yeah those are both very good. Personally put more time into Shattered Soldier, awesome game. With Neo I couldn't get an S class in every stage to unlock the final level, I felt that was kinda unnecessary but still fun game.
Every Contra that I can think of that came out for various consoles in the last 20 years was pretty good/great until the most recent one. Rogue corps is a truly awful game that completely craps all over the legacy of Contra as badly as this game does. These days the best thing Konami can do is farm out it's games. They're only doing more harm than not at this point.
Same here,I remember wasting my weekend renting this when it came out. I was so excited that i'd be playing a Contra game on my brand new Playstation and ended up with this shart of a game!
Same! Contra III: The Alien Wars is by far the best Contra game outside of Contra, Super C, and Contra 4. Not sure why Konami or anyone else cannot or will not make a Contra 5?
@Sammy Van Dankstein The first level actually left a great first impression, but sadly I just can't get into the rest of the stages before I get sick of it. I respect your opinion though, of course.
I don't think so. Alien Syndrome actually has atmosphere & interesting visuals for its era. Much better level design too. The most you can say about LOW, is that it's not as awful as Rogue Corps. Rogue Corps has 0 level design, & recycled hordes. You do nothing but level grind in RC. Level grinding, in a Contra? LOL
Hardcorp Uprising was definitely a spiritual sequel to Contra for sure, but not being a Contra title I didn't list it. On that same note Chrome Steel is a spiritual successor to Contra and the best "Contra" I've seen in 20 years and highly recommend it.
@@TheOldest Not the main contra series, but is official a Hard corps chapter and is licended by Konami. Chrome steel is not licenced and indeed is a spiritual successor.
I just finished editing a video with this game in it (among others). Ug. Not pleasant at all. That on/off thing with the strafe is dumb. My episode will be up in about a month.
I have no idea how you guys even force yourselves to beat this whole game. It is so frustrating to play. I kinda got used to the strafe but I wish it was a hold, not a toggle thing, the prone however is just awful. It would be less of a torture to play if it had a dodge button. But to be fair, at that time most games had that clunky, slow trudging problem.
I remember playing this title on the PSONE when it was brand new. Sega Lord X hits the nail on the head here! Expectations were high for it because of the notorious CONTRA games that were released before it. To say me and my buddies were unimpressed by LEGACY OF WAR would be an understatement.
I dont think I commented on this one. Amazing videos as usual Señor Sega X. :) no joke I fr enjoy bingewatching your videos while eating or when sometimes wanting to fall asleep. You have acalm informative videos with a calm voice.
I remember playing through this to the end and enjoying it, despite its many short comings . I still consider it the most difficult game I ever finished without cheating!
Interesting game; I wonder if Ecco's developers were simply the wrong people to work on it. Because the game looks like it could have been a good game, maybe not for the Contra franchise, but generally the game engine looks like it had potential. Maybe the same game engine would have been better for a different title? What if the same engine was worked into a 32-bit Ecco game, it would need a lot more work, but maybe it could have come together?
Yep, horrible at least you got to take it back though. I really feel for the people that got this as a gift or even worse bought it for themselves. I would have tried everything to take this thing back, store credit exchange whatever I could get.
I had this for Saturn and thought it was fun. I hadn’t played any of the previous Contra games, though. So, I wasn’t comparing it to previous games, and was just playing it as a standard 3D action game.
The Contra series has been pretty consistent up until the most recent one. The PS2 games were pretty good to very good the DS game was good the Wii game was good and the 360 / PS3 game was good. But rogue corps was a return to form to the worst days of contra. As in games like this. The PS1/Saturn were the dark days of the series for sure.
This game does not look bad at all, apart from cheap hits from enemys out of screen, but saying the 3D graphics on the saturn are bad? Is an overstatement in my opinion.
Up to a rogue corps that is. That game is the biggest indicator that Konami has completely lost what magic they once had. Horrible, horrible waste of money and time right there.
I don't know why they couldn't do a fully 3D game from a locked 2D orthographic perspective that changed camera angles at certain times. Just because it's 3D doesn't mean it needs to be an overhead free roaming affair that looks more like a Beyond Oasis kind of game than a Contra.
awesome comment for 2 reasons: Shinobi actually appeared on Saturn and Shadow Dancer was not an IP but the 2nd entry of Shinobi for the Megadrive... Either way I got what you meant by that, it's such a shame not having a true 32-bit experience of Sonic or SoR.
@@parappatherapper4141 Yes, I noted that right after commenting about Shadow Dancer, what I meant for Shinobi, the original arcade, Revenge of Shinobi, Shadow Dancer and Shinobi III were great games, I tried Shinobi Legions/X and it just falls flat, even being a 2D game, specially on later stages, if Shinobi III became one of the best 16-bit games ever made, their 3D attempts on later generations are bad, in my opinion, I could never enjoy Shinobi on Xbox/Ps2 or the later Kunoichi game, the characters are posers, the overall design don't bring anything that the originals made their name from. I remember reading that Fighting Force was meant to be Streets of Rage on the Saturn, while it's not a bad game, it's better it didn't happen that way. I think Sega could have made a good 3D Sonic game on the Saturn after I played the 3D World in Sonic Jam, provided they could make an interesting gameplay and level design, admittedly, they were in a bad spot, everyone, the companies and the developers, while 2D gaming was mastered after more than a decade, since the arcade boom, 3D gaming was in their infancy and few could make something really great from that time, like Super Mario on the NES became a template for 2D gaming, it reinvented the wheel as Mario 64, yet again. It would be amazing for us, in retrospect, if Sega, instead of the fear of ruining their IPs in bad 3D attempts, they had made much improved sequels using the new hardware, in 2D, surely, at the time, it wouldn't make sense at all, but now, we'd have the best versions of Streets of Rage, Sonic, Shinobi and many more, Outrun runs brilliantly on the Saturn and many other arcade ports, at least, I commend them for bringing Shining Force 3 to the 32-bit machine, that trilogy is by far the best the Shining series ever produced.
@@roberto1519 That's the thing the Saturn was a 2-D powerhouse and the best games it has/had are either 2-D or 2.5 D. I don't know how many times SLX has mentioned in these videos how much better the games would have been had they just done it in 2-D using all the powered has for special effects and backgrounds and stuff. Sadly both companies and the general public had a real hard on for 3-D at the time making games 2-D only almost impossible and most of the best ones never left Japan.
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu That's most people's vision, but the Saturn was meant to be a 3D console from the get go, don't believe everything people say, even said specialists, Sega was teasing 3D in the arcades since the early 90's, the obvious follow-up was 3D, there's no discussion about it, making a super 2D console in 1994 sound absolutely wrong, the market was flooded by 2D since the beginning. With that, there are a lot of 3D games on Saturn better handled than the PS or N64 could, if you really know the Saturn library, you'll understand that. The thing is, the Saturn never reached its full potential because of how Sega handled its business, the PS and N64 better games started coming out as soon as the Saturn left, you didn't see Gran Turismo, Metal Gear and many more 3 to 4 years after the PS1 release.
@@roberto1519 Fair enough. I try my best to speak only from my own personal experience and the fact of the matter is I had little to no experience with the Saturn. Never owned it at the time (or knew literally anyone even a mild acquaintance that had one) and have come across very few in the decades since it came out. I remember experiencing it a couple times at a kiosk at Toys R Us or other places like that but other than those brief experiences I had very little experience with the console because it did so poorly here in the US (by and large) compared to Japan. So yes it is very difficult for me because perception is 99% of reality and my perception of the Saturn *was* that it was inferior in most ways to the PlayStation. (At the time) Of course I've learned quite a bit in the decades since but that perception proceeded the Saturn for quite a while and to a lot of people I think it still endures. The truth was that Sega really dropped the ball, there's no two ways around that how they marketed it and various other things completely led to its failure outside Japan. Honestly I don't think I've ever heard a breakdown of how well it did 3-D or I guess technically it would have been how well it could have handled 3-D since it never really like you said was used to it's full potential.
At least: 1. This game is NOT part of the official Contra series timeline along with Contra Force (NES) and C: The Contra Adventure (PS1). 2. Yeah, Konami made a mistake outsourcing development to another studio. Fun Fact: Around the same time this game was released, a Contra title for Nintendo 64 was announced, but it was canned due to how poor this game did critically. I assume Appaloosa was also behind development of Contra 64 as well--who knows it would've been a port of this game. 3. I do feel the franchise redeemed itself with Shattered Soldier and Neo Contra (PS2). Contra Advance (GBA) was a lazy effort, especially when the overhead stages in Contra 3 got replaced with a few stages in Contra Hard Corps. 4. Contra 4 (DS), Contra ReBirth (Wii), and Hard Corps Uprising (PS3/360) definitely were much winners with development of those games being outsourced to WayForward, M2, & Arc System Works respectively.
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu I sorta liked Rogue Corps. Not terribly bad, but not great either. It plays somewhat like Expendable for Dreamcast. Mr. Nakazato did produce that game as well believe it or not.
@@KTJohnsonkidThunder I described it elsewhere in these same comments as extremely disappointing and well below expectations. It isn't the worst game in the series by a long shot but considering what came before it it was not nearly as good as it should have been not by a wide margin. I think they may have even done some patches and stuff to fix some problems since it first launched but it should have been a digital only release as far as I'm concerned and they could have done far better with the switch version from what I've seen. Of the 10-ish or so games between the PS2 and now it is definitely the worst and I think the least impressive and least replayable by far.
I grew up playing the nes contra, so I didnt even know this one existed. (FYI up,up,down,down,left,right,left,right,b,a,start will give you 30 lives :D)
Nah, everything excluding the crappy sequel to this was good to great. Up until rogue corps that is that was the lowest point in the series since these appaloosa ones.
Yeah, I've heard this game was an embarrassment to the Contra name before, but I'm glad to finally hear some of the reasons why it sucks. If Konami had kept this sequel 2D and developed it in-house, this may have been a different story. It would have been great to see Contra given the same love and care that Castlevania Symphony of the Night received. I will admit, the soundtrack does sound pretty great! Too bad it was wasted on such a mediocre game.
@@PlasticCogLiquid C: Contra Adventure was developed Appaloosa, too, I think. Konami never should have outsourced one of their main franchises to another studio. Konami usually did their best work when they developed their games in-house. Although, the exception would be to let Treasure develop the new Contra. Treasure was comprised of ex-Konami developers anyways and had a great track record when it came to over-the-top action games.
@Matt B - ... not entirely true. Way Forward did a superb job on Contra 4 for the Nintendo DS. That PS1-era 3D push + a less reputable developer are the primary reasons for Contra's 2 misfire PS1 outings. Can't believe Konami went & did it again with the latest Contra 3D disaster. They're so fucking stupid.
I hadn't played this in such a long time that I had forgotten just how bad it actually was. There is no nice way to say it. This game was five flavors of ass. Simple and plain. And its a prime example of its time. Alot of early 3D games from this timeframe were absolute trash, but devs and execs refused to let go of the notion that games HAD to be 3D polygons. On top of looking like pure garbage, the gameplay was terrible also. Veering so far out from what made Contra, well, Contra, is part of why it failed so miserably.
Oh come on. It can’t be that bad. Maybe it’s because I’ve already been exposed to Bubsy 3D, a game with no art direction whatsoever, but I genuinely want to play this specific Contra game on my Saturn someday. I honestly think it looks really fun.
What sad is for the longest time it seems like Konami had learned it's lesson. But then they had to go and make rogue corps, a game that truly proves Konami has lost the magic.
The first generation of 3D polygon games was a nightmare for classic game franchises...except for Mario. Instead of creating great 2D games, everyone had to get on the 3D bandwagon and ruin the franchises we loved. With that said, new franchises like Twisted Metal, Wipeout, Metal Gear Solid (it's not really comparable to Metal Gear), and Resident Evil took advantage of the new hardware and were actually good.
I actually like the way this game uses the infinite plane and water effects from Panzer Dragoon. Appaloosa's art style and subject matter was always organically oriented. They did Chakan on the Genesis as well, and this loosely reminds me of that.
Good breakdown as always. I wanted to try the 32 bit contras, but the camera issues actually make me nauseous from the pan and zoom being over used. Not that I am missing much. I don't know,how,the playtesters didn't quit unless they were ex-Virtual Boy ones, then they thought it was a vacation.
I owned this game during the Sega Saturn era. I'm not going to lie. I actually thought it was decent. Now by saying that doesn't mean it was great. I simply thought it was a playable game. It's just NOT Contra. If you look at it as a polygon overhead shooter then it's ok. But once you compare it to any of the previous 16-bit Contras even for a second then yeah, it sucks big time. But as a stand alone game it's ok. It's greatest flaw is it's difficulty which interrupts the flow of the game. The graphics and music are very good. And I really did like the old school 3-D glasses. It was a cool gimmick at the time. However as a stand alone overhead run and gun, LOW is decent. It just should have never been called Contra.
I guess you have to have LOW expectations? ...sorry for the pun. I really wanted to get it, but I wasn't earning a lot of money at the time, and had to be really picky with what I did get. Magazines ripped this one apart, so I steered clear
You say the visuals were underwhelming, but if I’m being completely honest, I can’t help but be impressed that the game runs in 60 fps most of the time. Just goes to show how well a Saturn game can run if put in the right hands.
@@SegaLordX It did seem like the VDP2 chip was being used a lot, specifically for things like the ground and water effects. Obviously, the Panzer Dragoon games used these same effects with better visual pizzazz, but I can appreciate Konami's approach with targeting a higher frame rate. I'll admit that it would be nice to have better art direction for this game though.
The memories of this version had been long forgotten until I happened to see it on eBay with a $249.99 dollar price tag on it plus tax.😳 Insane doesn't even begin to explain that price for it. As a kid from the 90s being around 13 when this game came out I'm only left to wonder what this game could of been if Konami had passed this title over to SNK to create the ultimate arcade experience with their Neo Geo AES hardware. I suspect it would of been the must have most sought after game for the system today maybe even surpassing the first Metal Slug which would of been the primary reason Contra never showed up and then the definitive reason being the hefty premium price tag it would of had. But despite all of that I would of gladly donated a kidney to have had a Neo Geo copy and I'm sure many others would have too.👍😎👌
My best memory of this game was taking it back to Walmart (copy didn't include the advertised 3d glasses) and exchanging it for Castlevinia Sympathy of the Night for PS1. That was the luckiest thing that has ever happened to me. Lol
I know it wasn't any better and it was only on the PSX but I'd love to see you review C: The Contra Adventure at some point. Might as well give both 32 bit Contra games the lashings they deserve! 😅
Both games made by appaloosa and both took massive steaming dumps all over the Contra name. Are they still here thank goodness the following generations gave us some absolutely great games they completely redeem the series for the most part.
The early 3-D days are easily the worst times to revisit. There were a few standout exceptions but so many either were horrible and are even worse now or just have not held up at all especially compared to updated and or newer versions of it. 2-D games on the other hand have held up remarkably well. I mean yes I did grow up in that era but I can go back and play a lot of those games still and enjoy them just as much if not more than I did back then.
Oh man, I never played this and I’m kind of glad. I feel like it would be a total letdown as a continuation of the series. Have you played the new mobile game “contra returns”? There’s some good stuff there but it follows the mobile game formula with micro transactions and side challenges that if not complete, won’t let you proceed in the game. It does have promise though, I think it’s time to give us a new contra game to give hardcore fans something to truly pay respect to the original and get us pumped. It’s probably wishful thinking but until then, I will play the classics. Thanks so much for this awesome video. I have been watching you for years but don’t comment often. You’re one of my absolute favorite content creators. Keep up the awesome work!
anybody else prefer the NES contra's graphics to the SNES Sequel? idk, just something about it being fewer colors, the contrast makes it look more visually appealing to me
I like the nes version better as well. I try to get into the SNES sequel but I’m like you. There’s something visually that’s more appealing on the nes version. I thought I might be the o lay one in the planet that thinks so, so I appreciate the comment! 💪🏻
@@RetroRalph haha glad I'm not the only one, yeah it's just a really well done art style that just happens to also be a limitation of the hardware, but it's easier to follow what's happening on screen vs the SNES game, which just looks too "busy" if that makes sense. more isn't always better
No DLC, no extra Game packages, no extra subscriptions and other $hit! Just power on the console and kaboom! Pure Gameplay! This was the GOLDEN ERA OF GAMING!
I had my red and cyan glasses ready to see how it looks in 3d. Red/cyan 3d is able to be captured by VCRs and Computer Capture cards easily. I'm surprised you didn't slip the video ahead one minute unless you got those 3d glasses. If you got them, put them on now. BTW any pair of red/cuan 3d glasses will work. You don't need Contra's particular pair.
Oh man, this looks painful. Great video but it really makes you appreciate a dual analogue controller. Edit: Did the video go blank for a while around the 4:00 mark or am I crazy?
There seemed to be the feeling that 3D was what the gamer wanted. It was seen as progress. Of course, that's a very deluded way of seeing the matter. There might not have been enough people in gaming to make both 2D and 3D games so perhaps it was a choice between one or the other. I wonder if there are people still around who could actually make a CPS1 or CPS2 game of the same quality. Skills fade when you don't use them.
Back in the mid 90s with the 32 bit machines many games had transition from 2d to 3D, in my opinion most of them did not translate very well, look at for example Street Fighter ex, 2d beat em up translated in 3d like fighthing force (thank God Sega cancelled it as a successor of Streets or Rage), Sonic extreme were Sega was not sure what to do with it, some of the castlevania games, Mortal Kombat which in the transition lost the main reason why it become famous . A few games had good 3d translation like Mario 64 (great game!) Nintendo re-designed a lot of things in terms of gameplay to make it work right. Its probably worth making a video about it showing games originally made in 2d and ported in 3D.
Street Fighter Ex was really good, tf? And it wasn't an actual 3D fighter like Tekken or VF, it was the exact same gameplay as the 2D but with polygon graphics.
Hey say Lord x I know this has nothing to do with the video but did you see they released Quake Remastered. I was always curious to see what Quake was like on the Sega Saturn. I owned it back in the day for the N64
at least they went back and made a lot of good games on ps1 and ps2 , the other ps1 game was amazing, but the 2 ps2 games were mind blowing , shattered soldier was great, but that other one , NEO CONTRA, it is fun fun fun fun ..... shame the weird spinoff on ps3 never got any traction HARD CORPS UPRISING , and now i am playing the mobile version and for a F2P , it is great.
Contra was a massive draw for me through the 8 and 16 bit eras; when I spotted this in a 1996 magazine preview there was immediate excitement from the title which was quickly doused by complete dismissal after going over the screenshots and general description. This video is the most coverage that I have ever looked at of the game as a result. The attempted conversion to 3D perspectives was a sign of the times and overall I'd still say that the good probably outweighed the bad, in spite of duds like this.
konami did release a few games for the saturn, but ports of fighting wu-shu and racing jam from arcade; the first teenage mutant ninja turtles game based on the cartoon from 2003 and castlevania: harmony of dissonance would have saved the saturn in the west, considering the n64 had legacy of darkness and GASP fighters nextreme; and the gamecube had a powerstone like beat 'em up. the wonderswan should have had a castlevania game, a contra game, a racing game and a pro evolution soccer title as well.
Konami could've sent it out to an external studio, but they needed to pick a quality developer, who actually had solid designers and understood the property. Clearly these guys DIDN'T.
Yeah I remember this time in gaming everyone was pushing for polygons. Anything in 2D was just low tier. So any big title had to make the jump to 3D or be pushed down. It's sad that even today this prejudice remains
"Games that failed to translate to 3D" and "Games that made the successful jump to 3D" would make a great series, although the later is likely a much shorter list. Great video though as usual!
When I bought this game the guy actually warned me it was crap. I told him "I collect bad video games"
It should've stayed 2-D! The Saturn with 2-D Contra on steroids would have been unreal! I miss my days growing up with 8-bit and 16-bit machines the variety was off the charts. I love Nintendo and I love Sega of days gone past!
Great video!
Cheers!
Problem was back then everyone was OBSESSED with polygons it was the next big "thing" so had they just released a 2-D version it would not have sold.
Hey, at least we got metal slug
@@eskanda3434
Yeah that irony always hits me so hard. As these are the games that have also aged the worst by a large margin. (Most of the time) Early 3-D compared to almost any 2-D is almost always a non-starter it's 2D wins nearly every time.
@@eskanda3434 I don't know? Castlevania Symphony of the Night wasn't exactly a bomb. Capcom games on the Saturn are amazing! SNK was still waving the torch for 2-D. I truly believe if publishers didn't outright crap on 2-D. It would've transitioned better or held on a little longer? I just don't think 32-bit 3-D was ready nor does it hold up to 16-bit 2-D graphics. 3-D should've been held back to Dreamcast and other similar systems. Most of the 3-D from 32-bit era is just plain bad. I will always love pixel art. A lot of today's games just don't do much for me but thats me.
Cheers!
Totally agree, for one this game is so ugly compared to the amazing Snes and Megadrive Contras. It should of stayed 2D with all the flair of Contra 3. Just imagine what the Saturn version could of been like, sprite scaling, rotation, huge bosses the works:)
Contra: Shattered Soldier and Neo Contra were done right. Konami had the right team to develop a game that was more 2.5D with its mixture of 2D and 3D elements. Neo Contra may have been in 3D but the team was able to make the game work.
Yeah those are both very good. Personally put more time into Shattered Soldier, awesome game. With Neo I couldn't get an S class in every stage to unlock the final level, I felt that was kinda unnecessary but still fun game.
Shattered Soldier was definitely dedication at its best. I feel like Konami has lost best of its best of its team in making great games.
Agreed. Hard Corps: Uprising is a great game it seems not many know/talk about. Contra gameplay + Guilty Gear art style + upgrade system
We spent more time with Neo Contra than Shin Contra (Shattered Soldier). Great game!
Every Contra that I can think of that came out for various consoles in the last 20 years was pretty good/great until the most recent one. Rogue corps is a truly awful game that completely craps all over the legacy of Contra as badly as this game does. These days the best thing Konami can do is farm out it's games. They're only doing more harm than not at this point.
I remember being so excited to play this on PlayStation after contra 3. This game killed my love for Contra and I gave up on the franchise after this.
It was konami direction
Same here,I remember wasting my weekend renting this when it came out.
I was so excited that i'd be playing a Contra game on my brand new Playstation and ended up with this shart of a game!
I think you should consider the games that came out between the PS2 and PS3 era, they are great!
Like the comment above me said, you pretty much missed out on some GOOOOOD Contra games.
Same! Contra III: The Alien Wars is by far the best Contra game outside of Contra, Super C, and Contra 4. Not sure why Konami or anyone else cannot or will not make a Contra 5?
C: The Contra Adventure makes this game look like pure gold.
Appaloosa also did C: The Contra Adventure.
@Sammy Van Dankstein The first level actually left a great first impression, but sadly I just can't get into the rest of the stages before I get sick of it. I respect your opinion though, of course.
@Sammy Van Dankstein Pretty much, yeah. I do give it credit for being more 3D than LoW, but almost every level just does a lot wrong to me.
Had this game been a sequel to Alien Syndrome instead of Contra, maybe it would've been accepted better.
I don't think so. Alien Syndrome actually has atmosphere & interesting visuals for its era. Much better level design too. The most you can say about LOW, is that it's not as awful as Rogue Corps. Rogue Corps has 0 level design, & recycled hordes. You do nothing but level grind in RC. Level grinding, in a Contra? LOL
@@BoozeAholic I hate RC so much, I feel ya!
Contra Shattered Soldier for PS2 was the last "new" Contra that felt like classic Contra to me.
Don't forget Contra 4 (DS), ReBirth (Wii), & Hard Corps Uprising (PS3/360) having that classic Contra feel.
Don't forget Hard Corps: Uprising
@@cybermx8896 I actually mentioned it.
Hardcorp Uprising was definitely a spiritual sequel to Contra for sure, but not being a Contra title I didn't list it. On that same note Chrome Steel is a spiritual successor to Contra and the best "Contra" I've seen in 20 years and highly recommend it.
@@TheOldest Not the main contra series, but is official a Hard corps chapter and is licended by Konami. Chrome steel is not licenced and indeed is a spiritual successor.
ahhh when a franchise hit 3d puberty back in the day. AWKWARRRRD
I just finished editing a video with this game in it (among others). Ug. Not pleasant at all. That on/off thing with the strafe is dumb. My episode will be up in about a month.
Yeah. You combine that gameplay with the cheap hits and it’s just a chore to get through. Konami really dropped the ball here.
I read the last sentence of your comment as "my episode will be about meth."
I have no idea how you guys even force yourselves to beat this whole game. It is so frustrating to play. I kinda got used to the strafe but I wish it was a hold, not a toggle thing, the prone however is just awful.
It would be less of a torture to play if it had a dodge button. But to be fair, at that time most games had that clunky, slow trudging problem.
you just condoned emulation and therefore piracy nice job.
@@blob5907 Lmao. Because a 25 year old game being downloaded will SURELY affect konami's employees. OH, WAIT A MINUTE...
I remember playing this title on the PSONE when it was brand new. Sega Lord X hits the nail on the head here! Expectations were high for it because of the notorious CONTRA games that were released before it. To say me and my buddies were unimpressed by LEGACY OF WAR would be an understatement.
Remember this game like it was a Dream. I had it a long time ago and it seemed too terrible to be real
I dont think I commented on this one. Amazing videos as usual Señor Sega X. :) no joke I fr enjoy bingewatching your videos while eating or when sometimes wanting to fall asleep. You have acalm informative videos with a calm voice.
I remember playing through this to the end and enjoying it, despite its many short comings . I still consider it the most difficult game I ever finished without cheating!
Interesting game; I wonder if Ecco's developers were simply the wrong people to work on it. Because the game looks like it could have been a good game, maybe not for the Contra franchise, but generally the game engine looks like it had potential. Maybe the same game engine would have been better for a different title? What if the same engine was worked into a 32-bit Ecco game, it would need a lot more work, but maybe it could have come together?
I was so excited when I rented this at blockbuster one time. I tried to have fun with it for that whole weekend. Mission not successful lol
Yep, horrible at least you got to take it back though. I really feel for the people that got this as a gift or even worse bought it for themselves.
I would have tried everything to take this thing back, store credit exchange whatever I could get.
that floating raft part looks like some kind of futuristic mind-torture experiment
Probably one of the best channels on UA-cam
I had this for Saturn and thought it was fun. I hadn’t played any of the previous Contra games, though. So, I wasn’t comparing it to previous games, and was just playing it as a standard 3D action game.
Your videos are very well made. Thanks for making this.
The Contra series has been pretty consistent up until the most recent one. The PS2 games were pretty good to very good the DS game was good the Wii game was good and the 360 / PS3 game was good.
But rogue corps was a return to form to the worst days of contra. As in games like this. The PS1/Saturn were the dark days of the series for sure.
This game does not look bad at all, apart from cheap hits from enemys out of screen, but saying the 3D graphics on the saturn are bad? Is an overstatement in my opinion.
Matt McMuscles needs to do a What Happened? On this game. Later Contra games, while not like HC or AW, were much better also, let alone prior titles.
Up to a rogue corps that is.
That game is the biggest indicator that Konami has completely lost what magic they once had. Horrible, horrible waste of money and time right there.
Ironically, i think the best Konami's 3d run'n gun game was Gungage on the ps1...lol...very cool and somewhat underrated gem
I don't know why they couldn't do a fully 3D game from a locked 2D orthographic perspective that changed camera angles at certain times. Just because it's 3D doesn't mean it needs to be an overhead free roaming affair that looks more like a Beyond Oasis kind of game than a Contra.
Honestly, lots of IPs got lost after the 16-bit days, Shinobi, Streets of Rage, Sonic, Shadow Dancer, to name a few.
awesome comment for 2 reasons: Shinobi actually appeared on Saturn and Shadow Dancer was not an IP but the 2nd entry of Shinobi for the Megadrive... Either way I got what you meant by that, it's such a shame not having a true 32-bit experience of Sonic or SoR.
@@parappatherapper4141 Yes, I noted that right after commenting about Shadow Dancer, what I meant for Shinobi, the original arcade, Revenge of Shinobi, Shadow Dancer and Shinobi III were great games, I tried Shinobi Legions/X and it just falls flat, even being a 2D game, specially on later stages, if Shinobi III became one of the best 16-bit games ever made, their 3D attempts on later generations are bad, in my opinion, I could never enjoy Shinobi on Xbox/Ps2 or the later Kunoichi game, the characters are posers, the overall design don't bring anything that the originals made their name from. I remember reading that Fighting Force was meant to be Streets of Rage on the Saturn, while it's not a bad game, it's better it didn't happen that way.
I think Sega could have made a good 3D Sonic game on the Saturn after I played the 3D World in Sonic Jam, provided they could make an interesting gameplay and level design, admittedly, they were in a bad spot, everyone, the companies and the developers, while 2D gaming was mastered after more than a decade, since the arcade boom, 3D gaming was in their infancy and few could make something really great from that time, like Super Mario on the NES became a template for 2D gaming, it reinvented the wheel as Mario 64, yet again.
It would be amazing for us, in retrospect, if Sega, instead of the fear of ruining their IPs in bad 3D attempts, they had made much improved sequels using the new hardware, in 2D, surely, at the time, it wouldn't make sense at all, but now, we'd have the best versions of Streets of Rage, Sonic, Shinobi and many more, Outrun runs brilliantly on the Saturn and many other arcade ports, at least, I commend them for bringing Shining Force 3 to the 32-bit machine, that trilogy is by far the best the Shining series ever produced.
@@roberto1519
That's the thing the Saturn was a 2-D powerhouse and the best games it has/had are either 2-D or 2.5 D.
I don't know how many times SLX has mentioned in these videos how much better the games would have been had they just done it in 2-D using all the powered has for special effects and backgrounds and stuff.
Sadly both companies and the general public had a real hard on for 3-D at the time making games 2-D only almost impossible and most of the best ones never left Japan.
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu That's most people's vision, but the Saturn was meant to be a 3D console from the get go, don't believe everything people say, even said specialists, Sega was teasing 3D in the arcades since the early 90's, the obvious follow-up was 3D, there's no discussion about it, making a super 2D console in 1994 sound absolutely wrong, the market was flooded by 2D since the beginning. With that, there are a lot of 3D games on Saturn better handled than the PS or N64 could, if you really know the Saturn library, you'll understand that. The thing is, the Saturn never reached its full potential because of how Sega handled its business, the PS and N64 better games started coming out as soon as the Saturn left, you didn't see Gran Turismo, Metal Gear and many more 3 to 4 years after the PS1 release.
@@roberto1519
Fair enough.
I try my best to speak only from my own personal experience and the fact of the matter is I had little to no experience with the Saturn. Never owned it at the time (or knew literally anyone even a mild acquaintance that had one) and have come across very few in the decades since it came out. I remember experiencing it a couple times at a kiosk at Toys R Us or other places like that but other than those brief experiences I had very little experience with the console because it did so poorly here in the US (by and large)
compared to Japan. So yes it is very difficult for me because perception is 99% of reality and my perception of the Saturn *was* that it was inferior in most ways to the PlayStation. (At the time)
Of course I've learned quite a bit in the decades since but that perception proceeded the Saturn for quite a while and to a lot of people I think it still endures. The truth was that Sega really dropped the ball, there's no two ways around that how they marketed it and various other things completely led to its failure outside Japan. Honestly I don't think I've ever heard a breakdown of how well it did 3-D or I guess technically it would have been how well it could have handled 3-D since it never really like you said was used to it's full potential.
Another proof 3D doesn't necessarily make an established 2D franchise better. Contra, like other classic games, should had stayed 2D all along.
At least:
1. This game is NOT part of the official Contra series timeline along with Contra Force (NES) and C: The Contra Adventure (PS1).
2. Yeah, Konami made a mistake outsourcing development to another studio. Fun Fact: Around the same time this game was released, a Contra title for Nintendo 64 was announced, but it was canned due to how poor this game did critically. I assume Appaloosa was also behind development of Contra 64 as well--who knows it would've been a port of this game.
3. I do feel the franchise redeemed itself with Shattered Soldier and Neo Contra (PS2). Contra Advance (GBA) was a lazy effort, especially when the overhead stages in Contra 3 got replaced with a few stages in Contra Hard Corps.
4. Contra 4 (DS), Contra ReBirth (Wii), and Hard Corps Uprising (PS3/360) definitely were much winners with development of those games being outsourced to WayForward, M2, & Arc System Works respectively.
Then they made rogue corps and I was very sad. They really need to outsource those games again.
Contra deserves better.
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu I sorta liked Rogue Corps. Not terribly bad, but not great either. It plays somewhat like Expendable for Dreamcast. Mr. Nakazato did produce that game as well believe it or not.
@@KTJohnsonkidThunder
I described it elsewhere in these same comments as extremely disappointing and well below expectations. It isn't the worst game in the series by a long shot but considering what came before it it was not nearly as good as it should have been not by a wide margin.
I think they may have even done some patches and stuff to fix some problems since it first launched but it should have been a digital only release as far as I'm concerned and they could have done far better with the switch version from what I've seen. Of the 10-ish or so games between the PS2 and now it is definitely the worst and I think the least impressive and least replayable by far.
100k subs congrats
Congrats on 100k
I had the PS2 version and I miss it, great idea 3D glasses, I liked the glasses. 🎮
Great job! Thank you for the video!
I grew up playing the nes contra, so I didnt even know this one existed. (FYI up,up,down,down,left,right,left,right,b,a,start will give you 30 lives :D)
Its always nice to see a Saturn game that I didnt know existed til you brought it to my attention. Even if I wouldnt have liked it myself.
This game was a prelude of the beginning of the end of the great Contra franchise.
Nah, everything excluding the crappy sequel to this was good to great.
Up until rogue corps that is that was the lowest point in the series since these appaloosa ones.
Yeah, I've heard this game was an embarrassment to the Contra name before, but I'm glad to finally hear some of the reasons why it sucks.
If Konami had kept this sequel 2D and developed it in-house, this may have been a different story. It would have been great to see Contra given the same love and care that Castlevania Symphony of the Night received.
I will admit, the soundtrack does sound pretty great! Too bad it was wasted on such a mediocre game.
They released "C: The Contra Adventure" too, it was 3D but played 2D......................and it sucked :D
@@PlasticCogLiquid C: Contra Adventure was developed Appaloosa, too, I think. Konami never should have outsourced one of their main franchises to another studio. Konami usually did their best work when they developed their games in-house.
Although, the exception would be to let Treasure develop the new Contra. Treasure was comprised of ex-Konami developers anyways and had a great track record when it came to over-the-top action games.
@Matt B - ... not entirely true. Way Forward did a superb job on Contra 4 for the Nintendo DS. That PS1-era 3D push + a less reputable developer are the primary reasons for Contra's 2 misfire PS1 outings. Can't believe Konami went & did it again with the latest Contra 3D disaster. They're so fucking stupid.
I hadn't played this in such a long time that I had forgotten just how bad it actually was. There is no nice way to say it. This game was five flavors of ass. Simple and plain. And its a prime example of its time. Alot of early 3D games from this timeframe were absolute trash, but devs and execs refused to let go of the notion that games HAD to be 3D polygons. On top of looking like pure garbage, the gameplay was terrible also. Veering so far out from what made Contra, well, Contra, is part of why it failed so miserably.
LOL just the small viewing area made me go 'ugh!'. I'm so used to that wide viewing format.
Oh come on. It can’t be that bad. Maybe it’s because I’ve already been exposed to Bubsy 3D, a game with no art direction whatsoever, but I genuinely want to play this specific Contra game on my Saturn someday. I honestly think it looks really fun.
What sad is for the longest time it seems like Konami had learned it's lesson. But then they had to go and make rogue corps, a game that truly proves Konami has lost the magic.
Thank goodness for neo,shattered solider, hard corps uprising and rebirth ;)
Sometimes we can take for granted the headaches you go through for us...
The first generation of 3D polygon games was a nightmare for classic game franchises...except for Mario. Instead of creating great 2D games, everyone had to get on the 3D bandwagon and ruin the franchises we loved. With that said, new franchises like Twisted Metal, Wipeout, Metal Gear Solid (it's not really comparable to Metal Gear), and Resident Evil took advantage of the new hardware and were actually good.
I actually like the way this game uses the infinite plane and water effects from Panzer Dragoon. Appaloosa's art style and subject matter was always organically oriented. They did Chakan on the Genesis as well, and this loosely reminds me of that.
Good breakdown as always.
I wanted to try the 32 bit contras, but the camera issues actually make me nauseous from the pan and zoom being over used. Not that I am missing much. I don't know,how,the playtesters didn't quit unless they were ex-Virtual Boy ones, then they thought it was a vacation.
I owned this game during the Sega Saturn era. I'm not going to lie. I actually thought it was decent. Now by saying that doesn't mean it was great. I simply thought it was a playable game. It's just NOT Contra. If you look at it as a polygon overhead shooter then it's ok. But once you compare it to any of the previous 16-bit Contras even for a second then yeah, it sucks big time. But as a stand alone game it's ok. It's greatest flaw is it's difficulty which interrupts the flow of the game. The graphics and music are very good. And I really did like the old school 3-D glasses. It was a cool gimmick at the time. However as a stand alone overhead run and gun, LOW is decent. It just should have never been called Contra.
I guess you have to have LOW expectations? ...sorry for the pun. I really wanted to get it, but I wasn't earning a lot of money at the time, and had to be really picky with what I did get. Magazines ripped this one apart, so I steered clear
I also thought that while the color scheme was not good, some parts of the game looked cool
That is the one i need but could not find. Awesome Review from our Lord
My friend and I used to joke about this being the hardest game ever made. We used it as a benchmark for how hard a game was.
Well done my man.
This game embodies what went wrong in the 32-bit era. Shattered Soldier put the series back on the right path.
The lack of solid sound FX coupled with the lack luster control/ player connection makes it really like an Anti-Contra.
The frame rate looks pretty good though.
You say the visuals were underwhelming, but if I’m being completely honest, I can’t help but be impressed that the game runs in 60 fps most of the time. Just goes to show how well a Saturn game can run if put in the right hands.
It’s 60fps because very little is taxing the hardware. Enemies are always just out of view and there’s no real geometry complexity to speak of.
@@SegaLordX It did seem like the VDP2 chip was being used a lot, specifically for things like the ground and water effects. Obviously, the Panzer Dragoon games used these same effects with better visual pizzazz, but I can appreciate Konami's approach with targeting a higher frame rate. I'll admit that it would be nice to have better art direction for this game though.
Great work segalordx
The memories of this version had been long forgotten until I happened to see it on eBay with a $249.99 dollar price tag on it plus tax.😳 Insane doesn't even begin to explain that price for it.
As a kid from the 90s being around 13 when this game came out I'm only left to wonder what this game could of been if Konami had passed this title over to SNK to create the ultimate arcade experience with their Neo Geo AES hardware. I suspect it would of been the must have most sought after game for the system today maybe even surpassing the first Metal Slug which would of been the primary reason Contra never showed up and then the definitive reason being the hefty premium price tag it would of had. But despite all of that I would of gladly donated a kidney to have had a Neo Geo copy and I'm sure many others would have too.👍😎👌
A lot of classic series faceplanted when making the transition from 2D to 3D but Contra is definitely high on that list.
also would love to see a Contra-vania type game!
How about the top 10 rarest games for the sega
My best memory of this game was taking it back to Walmart (copy didn't include the advertised 3d glasses) and exchanging it for Castlevinia Sympathy of the Night for PS1. That was the luckiest thing that has ever happened to me. Lol
I remember renting this back in the day and so glad I didn’t out right buy it when it came out.
thats why i really enjoy the contra for PS2
I know it wasn't any better and it was only on the PSX but I'd love to see you review C: The Contra Adventure at some point. Might as well give both 32 bit Contra games the lashings they deserve! 😅
Both games made by appaloosa
and both took massive steaming dumps all over the Contra name.
Are they still here thank goodness the following generations gave us some absolutely great games they completely redeem the series for the most part.
This was not contra we wanted. Awesome episode!
Love this channel
This era of gaming is so depressing, going back to it, well...it's rough.
The early 3-D days are easily the worst times to revisit. There were a few standout exceptions but so many either were horrible and are even worse now or just have not held up at all especially compared to updated and or newer versions of it.
2-D games on the other hand have held up remarkably well. I mean yes I did grow up in that era but I can go back and play a lot of those games still and enjoy them just as much if not more than I did back then.
Those things that pop up out of the ground and shoot look like Gypsy from MST3K
The best polygon Contra game was actually a PS1 game called Apocalypse.
Oh man, I never played this and I’m kind of glad. I feel like it would be a total letdown as a continuation of the series. Have you played the new mobile game “contra returns”? There’s some good stuff there but it follows the mobile game formula with micro transactions and side challenges that if not complete, won’t let you proceed in the game. It does have promise though, I think it’s time to give us a new contra game to give hardcore fans something to truly pay respect to the original and get us pumped. It’s probably wishful thinking but until then, I will play the classics. Thanks so much for this awesome video. I have been watching you for years but don’t comment often. You’re one of my absolute favorite content creators. Keep up the awesome work!
Why didn't more games just use four face buttons as a second d-pad for aiming like Smash TV on SNES? It worked perfectly there.
anybody else prefer the NES contra's graphics to the SNES Sequel? idk, just something about it being fewer colors, the contrast makes it look more visually appealing to me
I like the nes version better as well. I try to get into the SNES sequel but I’m like you. There’s something visually that’s more appealing on the nes version. I thought I might be the o lay one in the planet that thinks so, so I appreciate the comment! 💪🏻
@@RetroRalph haha glad I'm not the only one, yeah it's just a really well done art style that just happens to also be a limitation of the hardware, but it's easier to follow what's happening on screen vs the SNES game, which just looks too "busy" if that makes sense.
more isn't always better
No DLC, no extra Game packages, no extra subscriptions and other $hit! Just power on the console and kaboom! Pure Gameplay! This was the GOLDEN ERA OF GAMING!
Well, I know I need Legacy of War music in my life now.
I had my red and cyan glasses ready to see how it looks in 3d. Red/cyan 3d is able to be captured by VCRs and Computer Capture cards easily. I'm surprised you didn't slip the video ahead one minute unless you got those 3d glasses. If you got them, put them on now.
BTW any pair of red/cuan 3d glasses will work. You don't need Contra's particular pair.
Some games just weren't meant to be in 3D. As we finally realize now, in many instances 2D just plain looks and plays better!
SLX gonna give it to ya
Oh man, this looks painful. Great video but it really makes you appreciate a dual analogue controller.
Edit: Did the video go blank for a while around the 4:00 mark or am I crazy?
Great video
I own this with case and everything - very good condition
Contra returns!!!
There seemed to be the feeling that 3D was what the gamer wanted. It was seen as progress. Of course, that's a very deluded way of seeing the matter. There might not have been enough people in gaming to make both 2D and 3D games so perhaps it was a choice between one or the other. I wonder if there are people still around who could actually make a CPS1 or CPS2 game of the same quality. Skills fade when you don't use them.
I want to give this a chance but I am not paying an insane amount to play it!
How much is it and that is that only for the Sega Saturn version, which I had no idea existed. I own all PSOne/PS3 Contra games.
Great music
Loaded one of the best run and gun games on Saturn!!!
Switching from 2D to 3D was similar to the transition from silent to sound films.
The thing about the beginning of the 3D era was that most devs only thought if they could make the games 3d, but never if they should do it.
It's not too bad, actually. Only The camera that is irritating blocking you to see anything.
Oh man this game seems exhausting even in brief footage...
Nice video about one of Konami's Saturn games. Speaking of Konami, any chance you can make a video about the Sega Saturn version of Suikoden?
Unless it gets a full English translation, no.
Sega and Sega Lord X are equally pog
I really like the graphics.
So any chance we get a review if it's Sequel C The Contra Adventure next?
It sucks to jajajaja
Hard to say if it was another project. Konami was really big into throwing their big IP's to the lowest bidder.
Little did we know that Konami would fuck up the series again with 2019's Contra: Rouge Corps
Similar formulas, similar failures. But Konami likes slot machines. They don’t care this. They only see $$$$
Back in the mid 90s with the 32 bit machines many games had transition from 2d to 3D, in my opinion most of them did not translate very well, look at for example Street Fighter ex, 2d beat em up translated in 3d like fighthing force (thank God Sega cancelled it as a successor of Streets or Rage), Sonic extreme were Sega was not sure what to do with it, some of the castlevania games, Mortal Kombat which in the transition lost the main reason why it become famous . A few games had good 3d translation like Mario 64 (great game!) Nintendo re-designed a lot of things in terms of gameplay to make it work right. Its probably worth making a video about it showing games originally made in 2d and ported in 3D.
Street Fighter Ex was really good, tf? And it wasn't an actual 3D fighter like Tekken or VF, it was the exact same gameplay as the 2D but with polygon graphics.
1996 had to be the brownest year in gaming (Quake came out in 96 too)
Hey say Lord x I know this has nothing to do with the video but did you see they released Quake Remastered. I was always curious to see what Quake was like on the Sega Saturn. I owned it back in the day for the N64
at least they went back and made a lot of good games on ps1 and ps2 , the other ps1 game was amazing, but the 2 ps2 games were mind blowing , shattered soldier was great, but that other one , NEO CONTRA, it is fun fun fun fun ..... shame the weird spinoff on ps3 never got any traction HARD CORPS UPRISING , and now i am playing the mobile version and for a F2P , it is great.
Oh yeah, the one Contra game developed by frickin' ARC SYSTEM WORKS! (Hard Corps Uprising, I mean)
Contra was a massive draw for me through the 8 and 16 bit eras; when I spotted this in a 1996 magazine preview there was immediate excitement from the title which was quickly doused by complete dismissal after going over the screenshots and general description. This video is the most coverage that I have ever looked at of the game as a result. The attempted conversion to 3D perspectives was a sign of the times and overall I'd still say that the good probably outweighed the bad, in spite of duds like this.
Hate the game as an adult but as a kid playing it with my cousin I had alot of fun with it
It's kind of depressing that this trash came out at around the same time Metal Slug appeared on the Neo Geo.
Metal Slug is badass total mayhem
No, you are just bad a the game, it is hard, but it is a masterpiece, the atmosphere and music alone.
konami did release a few games for the saturn, but ports of fighting wu-shu and racing jam from arcade; the first teenage mutant ninja turtles game based on the cartoon from 2003 and castlevania: harmony of dissonance would have saved the saturn in the west, considering the n64 had legacy of darkness and GASP fighters nextreme; and the gamecube had a powerstone like beat 'em up. the wonderswan should have had a castlevania game, a contra game, a racing game and a pro evolution soccer title as well.
Konami could've sent it out to an external studio, but they needed to pick a quality developer, who actually had solid designers and understood the property. Clearly these guys DIDN'T.
so what has been the best contra game since Hard Corps/Contra 3?
Hard Corps Uprising.
Despite knowing its crap i still wanna own this for the Saturn lol great video as always brother
There was a contra game on the saturn?
Yeah I remember this time in gaming everyone was pushing for polygons. Anything in 2D was just low tier. So any big title had to make the jump to 3D or be pushed down.
It's sad that even today this prejudice remains