Any veteran of the first game will feel just at home in the sequel as you control the same commando as before, and have essentially the same weapon upgrades. There are some minute differences in the weapons - such as the Fire gun has been changed to having a giant fire ball bursting into four smaller fire balls. Aside from that, it's the same - and again, that's a good thing. Why mess with such a successful formula? The great folks at Konami have made yet another classic side-scrolling run and gun shooter.

     If you've played Contra already, is it worth playing Super C? Of course! The NES had its fair share of bombs on the system when it came to make side-scrollers, so why pass up such a terrific game here? If for some reason you didn't like the original game, there isn't much here that would change your mind. However, if you're a fan, you are in for a big treat.

     As I alluded to earlier, the graphics are slicker here. While the original Contra featured some of the best NES visuals available, Super C does just the same. Some levels have more complex looking backgrounds, some with lightning effects (like the first level), and nice glowing effects too in some of the level backgrounds. There is one really cool level where you descend from the top of this base, and it's as if you are jumping down from the side of this colossal structure, and enemies pop out of each door from each platform - it's awesome.

     I would say that Super C is much more challenging than the first game - and that is saying a lot, considering this series is known for its fairly high difficulty. However, it doesn't detract from the enjoyment level because these games are not frustrating because they are made poorly, they are high quality games that are just with high difficulty threshholds. Anyway, this game is not nearly as tough as Contra III: The Alien Wars for the Super Nintendo (previously reviewed here on Ethos by the way), but still stands as a formidable challenge - especially the final level. Also, it doesn't feature the "Konami Code" where you can instantly start with 30 lives like in the original, however, there is still a code you input on the title screen that gives you 10 lives.

     In a nusthell, Super C is a bonafide NES classic, ranking up there with many of the system's best. It is available on the Wii's Virtual Console, if you dare to undertake its strong challenge, but ultimately uber-fun gameplay. As something of a sentimentalist, I prefer to play it on the good old NES, but an original cartridge may be hard to come by these days. In any case, it's worth the purchase. It's a heck of a lot of fun.

-Kurt L.

     *Also, if you haven't already and are interested, I made a Video Review for the original Contra game. It's now on the Ethos YouTube Channel. Here's the link if you'd like to check it out. Thanks for watching and reading our reviews!*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypu8h2Ap12g

_______________________________________________________