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Gradius V had: a line.
Now, for most games at E3, being two deep behind a video game kiosk is more like a rest for the ankles than a wait. But Konami, in their wisdom in all things game marketing related, decided to put the two Gradius V machines on:
FREE PLAY
It seems that the art of mannerly demo play is lost on today’s hip gaming crowds. If there is no clear stopping point, then people will go on playing, regardless of the fact that they are using their eighteenth or nineteenth credit (between two players.) Unapologetic of the fact that they just used forty minutes of time trying to beat two demo levels.
So, it was nearly an hour before I had a chance to refresh my love for Gradius. When that chance came, I enjoyed it. Admittedly, it was a similar amount of enjoyment as that I had last year, when the same first level was paired with a slightly different and arguably more exciting second level. Enjoyment it was, nonetheless, though it was slightly tarnished by the conversation that people were having behind me.
“Damn, that guy has no problem with this thing.”
“I would have so died five hundred times by this point.”
“How the heck is he surviving?”
And this was just the first boss. For those unfamiliar, while the boss shoots the constant yellow lasers, the inside is bombarded with rings (and latter, electric-ish orbs), thus making it slightly more difficult than a cakewalk for the player to survive. Well, at least I thought it was only slightly more difficult than a cakewalk. For everyone else, surviving past 15 seconds on a single life was a pleasant surprise.
Hence the hour long wait. People just couldn’t defeat the bosses within the time limit.
Rather than reiterate the usual spiel on how well the game plays, I ask you: are we a gaming world that does not value precision in the gaming repertory, or is the shooter already so alien to us that even a non-bullet hell shooter like Gradius so easily eludes us? (And earlier today I got my ass handed to me in Street Fighter III Third Strike by a Hugo-playing teenage girl from San Francisco, so I’ll strike one of those possibilities, if you don’t mind. I’ll let you guess which one.)
Neo Contra actually was not enough of a name to convince me to try it on the first day. I eventually did try it, but until after Tim Rogers convinced me of its power. And I deemed it: a neat game. It was far from a difficult game.
“Even the part where you fall through the hole to fight the boss while dropping?” asked fellow writer Eric-Jon.
“Even that,” I said. “It’s no Shattered Soldier, at least…”
Neo Contra provides a lot of firepower to the player in a relatively slow-acting, hostile, top-down environment. A choice of two primary weapons which can be switched between and fired at will, a secondary “scanning” weapon, strafe and pivot options, and a dodge move are plenty when it comes to surviving what was available on the show floor, including goons, vehicles, a sewer worm, and an insane mechanized commander. The game is poised for a fall release, so I don’t see the balance getting totally out of whack; for people who disliked Shattered Soldier’s speed and difficulty, Neo Contra could provide a good remedy.
My opinion is that there is a certain lack of the feeling of vulnerability in the game. The dodging feels too quick and immediate and easy. The spacing feels too large and the main characters feel too small and nimble. The timing between warning and attack arrivals feels too long.
And this is not a matter of difficulty. It’s at least as easy as your typical arcade machine of Shock Troopers. Though both are of similar difficulty level, Shock Troopers just feels more exciting…
Why? Because you can see how slow your character is when he jumps or rolls in Shock Troopers. The immediacy just isn’t there... and that's a good thing. Functionally, the player more fully experiences this slow travel path during the dodge, compared to the extremely quick dodges of Neo Contra, and thanks to that that, Neo Contra actually feels less exciting. With that one move, Neo Contra became more a game of position than a game of motion, and the excitement level immediately drops; no amount of difficulty raising or vomit dodging (yes, it's in the game) or crazy commander insanifying can rectify that situation.
But it’s Contra… and heck, we all love Contra, right?
Vincent Diamante
lives for bullet hell...
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