Genesis vs. SNES Part One: Contra

Back in the 16-bit era of games, console hardware wasn't as streamlined as it is now. While the raw horsepower of the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo were hotly debated in the 90s, it’s now common knowledge now that the Super Nintendo was simply a more powerful piece of technology; it had a superior sound chip and a much larger color palette. In fact, the hardware power and architecture varied so much that developers were often forced to make two extremely different versions of a game in order to play to each console’s strengths. As a result, many of the games during the 16-bit era were developed by different teams or re-tooled to work on the Genesis’s less powerful hardware.

Contra III: The Alien Wars sticks close to the series's roots.

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However, not every game was inferior on the Genesis simply because it lacked the hardware prowess of the Super Nintendo. It’s pretty infamous now that the original Mortal Kombat retained the arcade version’s blood on the Genesis where it was turned to sweat for the SNES version. Likewise, Disney’s Aladdin is a fan-favorite on the Genesis because of its superior gameplay compared to the SNES version. This February-long feature will focus on four games that appeared on both the SNES and the Genesis in wildly different forms and settle which is better, once and for all…maybe.

Development

Most multiplatform games during this era were developed concurrently for each system, usually by different teams, but Contra is a different case. Contra III: The Alien Wars and Contra: Hard Corps were both developed by Konami and released in 1992 and 1994 respectively. Contra III was the first in the series to be released exclusively on 16-bit hardware. The game was a huge success and is still one of the most beloved titles on the Super Nintendo. In fact, many look back on Contra III as being one of the best games during the fourth generation of consoles. Contra: Hard Corps, on the other hand, is hardly looked back on at all due to a release date late in the console life cycle when many were looking forward to the release of the Playstation, which is a real shame since it’s one of the best games in the series.

Contra has always taken cues from Hollywood sci-fi.

What’s the difference?

Contra III sticks closely to the tradition set up by the first two games in the series. The player runs forward and shoots every enemy on screen in standard shoot-em-up fashion. It sounds simple, but the series’s intense difficulty returns as well, making Contra III much more difficult than it sounds. The boss battles also return, but most are relatively unremarkable and involve a giant…thing that you have to kill. Contra III does add a breath of fresh air to the formula by adding overhead stages that take place between side-scrolling levels.

These stages added some variety to Contra III

Contra: Hard Corps also sticks close to the series’s formula but ditches the overhead stages for pseudo-3D ones. The coolest thing that Hard Corps does is that it adds a branching story to the game. Don’t expect Mass Effect levels of choice, but there are whole levels, enemies, and bosses as well as alternate endings players would only see with multiple playthroughs. The player can also choose different characters which was a welcome addition even if it was mostly just a cosmetic change. After playing both, it’s unclear why Contra: Hard Corps doesn’t get more love from old school die-hards. Hard Corps was the first game in the series to be released on Sega hardware, and it’s astonishing how much Konami was able to squeeze out of the machine. There are major chunks of the game that look on par with most SNES games and the music is surprisingly well done.

Lookin' good, Hard Corps.

Which is better?

Contra III is a great looking and great playing game, but Hard Corps outpaces it in just about every aspect. Where Contra III gives the player an extremely polished version of the Contra experience, Hard Corps ratchets the over-the-top aspects of the series to new heights. Each boss fight is memorable and insane. There are cool moments in III; however, for every one of III’s fun moments, there are about ten “Holy *#@$!” moments in Hard Corps. The game is full of levels that seem like any other game’s climax.

The first level tells you everything you really need to know; instead of simply dropping into the level and walking forward, the player careens through about ten enemies while riding in an armored car, crashes said car, and then jumps out to continue gunning down foes. And, those foes don’t simply fall off screen when they die; they explode even when they’re seemingly organic life forms. That means that at any given moment, the player’s screen will look like this:

THERE WAS A FIREFIGHT!

Contra Hard Corps isn’t just flashier than Contra III either; Hard Corps’s gameplay focuses on the sidescrolling shooting with more gun options to play around with; whereas, III’s overhead stages often grind the game’s pace to a halt with awkward controls and downright rude boss battles. To be fair, Hard Corps’s bosses can be pure evil in the precision they require from players, but they’re so awesome that it’s hard to hold their difficulty against them. The big moments in III just don’t feel big enough, and the shooting is more limited than Hard Corps’s.

This isn't even a real boss in Hard Corps.

But this is a boss in Contra III.

The Verdict

Contra began as an ode to the blockbuster movie franchises of the 80s, and no Contra game does this as well as Hard Corps. The first level alone would cost about $200 million to adapt into a live action film. The ridiculous set pieces coupled with the consistently solid gameplay give it a good leg up on Contra III’s solid if stale approach to the series. Comparing these two may seem a bit unfair considering Hard Corps was released two years after Contra III, but given the weaker Genesis hardware and the fan love for Contra III, it’s genuinely surprising that Hard Corps is as awesome as it is.