Format: Wii

Release: Out now
Publisher: Konami

Developer: M2
Screenshot gallery

While retro remakes of under-the-Christmas-tree favorites are in fashion, it’s not clear why a developer would bother to make a slavish rehash of a classic instead of adding new flair. Shadow Complex didn’t hide its debts to Castlevania or Metroid, but it wove those old mechanics into an original adventure. Indie developer (and contributor to Wayforward's Contra 4) Joakim Sandberg paid tribute to the 16-bit era with Noitu Love 2, but he did it with a fresh and witty genre pastiche.

By contrast, Konami’s Contra ReBirth is a hodge podge. Assembled from pieces of past Contra games and wrapped in a story that’s just dizzy, it’s a solid package of old gameplay – and nothing more.



That said, the game nails the basics of classic running and gunning. The formula is simple: across five short stages, the game always makes it clear how to beat the enemy, and then throws so much at you that it seems impossible to pull it off. But while the Contra series is notorious for its difficulty, Contra ReBirth is perfect for beginners. Thanks to a gentle “easy” setting and infinite continues, anyone should be able to shoot their way to the end. And along the way, they’ll start to memorise the patterns and tricks to beat each sequence, and start down the road to the game’s ultimate goal: to work your way up to nightmare difficulty, beat it without a continue, and brag about it for the rest of your life.

ReBirth keeps the weaponry simple. Players can grab homing missiles, the wide-blasting spreader gun, and the rarely- useful laser rifle, but other Contra weapons like the smart bombs are left out. Two-player co-op is included, with up to four characters to choose from. The game supports the Wii Classic and GameCube controllers, but the Wiimote offers the simplest and tightest control scheme, as well as a slick use of the motion sensor: simply shake the controller and a “locked and loaded” sound effect announces that you’ve switched weapons.



Each stage is built for replay, so no one should mind that they bring few surprises. In the third and best stage, the player races across truck tops and robotic llamas to face the game’s two best bosses – a rocket that spits out more rockets, and a shiruken-tossing samurai. This is the most exhilarating and challenging level, while stage four, which includes short platforming sections and a couple of free falls, is the easiest; for the most part, the other three just barrage you with enemies in the hopes that one of them will get through, a strategy that quickly exposes the game’s paucity of fresh ideas.

From Bill Rizer’s dull-witted close-up to the screen-high scrolling text, Contra ReBirth copies the corniness of the original without commenting on it; it’s too close to its ancestors even to wink at them, and no one seems to have considered that the series’ fans might enjoy a new perspective. The shame here isn’t that ReBirth coughs up such thin nonsense, but that it doesn’t come up with its own. For Wii owners who could also download Contra 3, Contra ReBirth offers a brighter, crisper and less daunting experience. But the market is ready not just to relive its memories, but to see them warped and reimagined. A better title might have been Contra ReCycled. [6]