Contra III: The Alien Wars (Super Nintendo, 1992)

Contra III is a great platform/action game, and is probably the best in the series. In addition to the standard machine gun, you can also use additional weapons such as lasers, spreaders, and homing missiles; all of which are very fun to use. The mix of action and platforming can get pretty intense at times but it never gets frustratingly difficult. Contra III has challenging yet fun levels and bosses that are all different and never get boring. Contra is played from a side perspective as well as a top down perspective which adds a lot of variety to the game. Although Contra III tends to be pretty expensive and difficult to find, I would highly recommend that any SNES owner buys it.

Pros:
- Fun classic shooting game
- Tons of power-ups and weapons
- Two different modes of gameplay

Cons:
- May be too difficult for some people

I do agree that this game is pretty difficult. But the challenge factor is the center part of the game.

This game takes the previous two Contra games to new 16-bit levels with new weapons. My personal favorite is the homing missile which tops out the spread gun on the previous two games. But that's all balanced out by loads of enemy fire and more enemies on screen than the previous two games.

The difference is that because the game is hard, you automatically start off with the machine gun, unlike the pistol in the previous two games. You also have new weapons like the homing device which actually is far more useful than the ever-popular spreader in the last two games.

Other than that, you get the favorite 2-player co-op that you get in the previous two games, along with the difficulty setting. However, you don't get the true ending until you beat the game on "hard" mode.

I think it's one of those classic games that you should re-buy should you sold this or gave it away when you were moving on to your N64, but are now going retro. However, I think you should get this game if you haven't played it before, but you decided to go retro on your gaming style. This is the game that was not only great back in 1992, but has aged well, and I believe it's selling well on the Wii virtual console.

Amazing great fun old school action game. This is definitely one of the top of it's kind. It's all about memorizing and learning levels and bosses pattern to get anywhere in this and every time you'll get just a bit further.

It's a very fun and great game to play co-op in so if you have a friend and a extra controller this is one of the must haves. Be warned though the the controls work very weird with the Gamecube controller but perfect with the Classic controller. The game works a bit different then others, that I have played anyways, as you have no energy or life bar and die in one hit but it's possible to not get hit at all the better you get. More realistic if you can call it that and you feel like a better player when actually getting anywhere. You can set the difficulty and life total yourself to best suit your own preferences so there really is no reason not to be playing this.

Wow....Contra III This Game is probably the best in the series.There are 6 levels 4 side scrolling and 2 overhead view.Two player mode as always,All of the original weapons like the SPREAD gun!The replay value is very high as well.The only thing is that you can't use the good old Konami code for 30 lives you have to play with 7 lives max,unless of course you have the Game Genie. It is a must have for any Super Nintendo fan!

GRAPHICS: 9/10

You can't get much better for the SNES. Huge detailed sprites, big explosions, awesome backgrounds. Despite all the carnage, you can still tell exactly what's going on.

MUSIC/SOUND: 8/10

Great music, sets the mood perfectly and adds to the tension.

REPLAY VALUE/DIFFICULTY: 8/10

This is an awesome 2 player game, and one of the hardest to beat as well. The three difficulty settings also add to the replay value. The one thing I could do without is the 2 overhead stages - it takes some getting used to the controls (and the second one is just plain annoying).

OVERALL: 9/10

This has got to be the best iteration of Contra ever. It plays just like the original, and they didn't try to break the game with any new innovations (except the overhead levels - it seems the SNES had to show off its "Mode 7" scaling/rotation as much as possible so this seems kind of forced-in).

A timeless classic. One of the top SNES games ever.