Konami recently revealed a new game in its storied Contra franchise at E3 2019. The company’s new Contra Rogue Corps twin-stick shooter blasts its way to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC on September 24.
While its name evokes the classic Contra: Hard Corps and its sequel Hard Corps: Uprising, Contra Rogue Corps plays quite differently from those classics games. As a twin-stick shooter, Contra Rogue Corps eschews the 2D side-scrolling perspective of those games for a third-person 3D one.
Of course, Konami has gone down a similar route with Contra before. Contra III: the Alien Wars on the Super NES featured top down stages using the consoles Mode 7 feature. After that, Appaloosa Interactive created a couple of 3D Contra games, Contra Legacy of War, and C: the Contra Adventure for the original PlayStation.
The PlayStation Contra games from Appaloosa received negative reviews from both critics and fans alike, however. For Contra Rogue Corps, Konami seems to be trying to avoid the follies of the past by having Hard Corps and Contra III director Nobuya Nakazato take charge of the game.
Contra Rogue Corps introduces a new cast of characters for players to blow stuff up with. Kaiser served in the Alien Wars before being “rebuilt” after suffering massive injuries. The assassin Ms. Harakiri also fought in the Alien Wars, surviving by fusing with an alien that now resides in her midsection. The scientist now known as the Hungry Beast on the other hand inserted his brain inside a cyborg panda. Finally, Gentleman happens to be a brain bug raised by humans, and finds the rest of the team to be vulgar and ill-mannered.
Players will get to upgrade and customize these characters in the game’s “Operation Room.” They’ll then get to use them in both the game’s story campaign and PvP multiplayer mode. The former allows for solo play as well as both local and online cooperative play with up to four friends.
Whether or not Contra Rogue Corps can live up to the legacy of its predecessors remains to be seen. In the meantime, fans can check out this “Red Band” trailer released by Konami.
