E3 2007 Preview
Do you wanna die? Do you want to
feel the pain as a group of enemies that are armed with nothing more than basic
weapons? Do you want to know that if you defy your destiny and survive the
attack that you really accomplished something?
That sensation — the feeling that
you’ve conquered an excruciatingly difficult game — has been lost for some
time. It returned for a brief stint with the Xbox version of Metal Slug 3 but
was quickly dummied down by PS2 and Wii iterations that offered infinite lives.
Contra 4, an exclusive 2D action
title for the DS, looks to pick up where its beloved predecessors left off. The
series has had a few ups and downs, but any blemishes you remember will be
forgotten the second you start to play this sequel.
Two-D Bliss
The controls aren’t Contra-perfect
— they’re better than that. This game is not complete, but it already controls
more freely than any of its predecessors. I love how you can run toward a pack
of enemies, open fire, jump over a low-shooting sniper, run back to avoid
vertical gunfire, shoot downward and destroy the enemy — and it’s all based
entirely on the skill of the player. You can’t know how cool that is (unless
you’re a contra fan, in which case you’re likely passed out on the floor in
excitement).
The demo began outside in a colorful
world that’s filled with enemies. Most aren’t visible until it’s nearly too late
to do anything about them. You have to get into a groove and attempt to predict
what they are going to do next. Or just play the game enough to know exactly
where the majority of them will appear — either strategy is effective. But even
then, if you make one mistake, a bullet will make contact. Bam! One life gone.
Another shot connects. Bam! Two lives gone. Only three are available, so you
won’t want to get shot a third time.
After fighting through streams of
enemies on the lower screen, I made it to the first area played from the top
screen. A grappling hook is provided for these scenarios, which you’ll use to
pull yourself up to the next part of the stage. What I saw of the screen
shifting was not a big deal, but the final game will contain elements that
appear on both screens simultaneously, including a level where you have to climb
up instead of moving sideways. Needless to say, the idea of that is very
exciting.
I can’t tell you how long the demo
was since I could not reach the end. I played somewhere between 10 – 15 games
(and lost all of them) before having to move onto my next E3 objective. That
right there is proof of how challenging the enemies are. Konami said that it is
currently reviewing the difficulty and that the demo may not represent the
content of the finished game. At first I was happy to hear that, but after five
minutes of practice, I really hope they leave it as is. Yeah it’s tough, and you
will die so frequently it’ll make your head spin. But where else can you play a
game that at times feels impossible to beat but is also impossible to put down?
