This Is the Run: Contra - Part 07

This is it! I can feel it!

This was QUITE the run.

Is this the run?

This is the rum?

Edit: This series is getting more and more hilarious and frustrating at the same time! I don't remember laughing this hard since the last "This is the run".

You might be the run.

For the bridge in level 1, you want to jump to land on the first segment that blows up. It will give you time to jump.

It was a good run. :)

"I hate this stage, it's the worst."

"It is!"

They have no idea how much worse it actually gets!

Well this video's off to a good start!

This is the best feature that's ever been on Giant Bomb.

Contra's 30th birthday is February 20. I hope they beat the game on that day. One, it would be poetic, and two, it means we get almost another month of this. #blessed

Why are they playing this as a duo?

Damn, Vinny is a god of Contra in this.

Because it's way more entertaining.

I love this and scream at the screen at the same time.

This is cool because they actually did make progress with every episode

Wait isn't the thing at the end the end boss?

Oh my god that boss fight was so tense. You could tell Dan was holding his breath.

Papa Vino putting on a clinic! #bigplays

Vinny's solo boss fight was epic.

This might be my favourite Giant Bomb video of all time. Dan and Vinny have this teenage kid/cool dad dynamic going on that's really working for me.

Just when you think the previous parts couldn't be beaten for intense, hold your breath, holy shit are you in the Matrix moments, the next one manages to top it still.

So many great moments. I think I made all the same noises at the same times as Dan on Vinny's solo boss fight. Amazing work.

I managed to make it to the final boss fir the first time on my last run of the Arcade version. I was ill equipped and got stomped but hurrah for progress all round.

That was the most intense 30 seconds of video game ever recorded ever.

@gregalor said:

Yeah they haven't even seen the claws yet.

Well we're off to a great start.

I tried playing through Contra solo the other day because of this feature. After a few hours I had to give up and use the Konami code. Let me ASSURE you 2 player Contra is far easier than single player Contra(except maybe for the couple stages that are more about platforming than shooting).

The enemies split their focus, giving you opportunities to fire without worrying about dodging(i.e. you can bait turrets while your partner takes it down). You can fire in 2 directions at once taking down double the soldiers in the same amount of time(taking down the spiked snowplow things by yourself is very very hard, you just can't fire fast enough, 2 of your 3 lives gone unless you have the spread gun). Most importantly, you have double the lives.

There's a large amount of unavoidable bullshit in singleplayer Contra that is mitigated by having a partner. Watching Vinny or Dan slowly lose their minds grinding out a singleplayer run would just be frustrating.

Vinny beating that boss at the end of stage six was one of the most heroic things I've seen in a video game context, ever.

Amazing.

The only way this could have been any more epic was if Vinny beat football guy on the first try.

You'll lose your lives and your continues. All of them. Over and over again. *creepy laugh*

Spoilers for this video in the preview bar.

That moment, we all know it, when Vinny becomes the most hardcore man on the planet. If I was any further on the edge of my seat i'd be through the floor... Well done

That was great, a shoe in for the next Best of Giant Bomb video.

This is my favourite Giant Bomb series ever.

Wowowowow. Vinny beating that boss while almost dying 18 times was genuinely the illest shit ever. You are amazing Vinny. Best moment or sequence 2017.

holy shit dans reaction at that spike wall 30 minutes in

I must have watched that Energy boss scene 10 times by now. Dan's faces are priceless.

This whole series is fucking amazing. Watching this live I was losing my shit far more than I ever should watching two grown men play contra.

This is easily my favourite series in a long time. Vinnie and Dan work great together. Thanks duders!

Can someone make a gif of Dan's goofy dance in the beginning?

@echozs: I watched it live too. It was 3:30am in Australia. I had to try not to wake my housemates by yelling along with the boys. Loved every minute.

Dan better be buying Vinny lunch for the rest of this week for that solo boss kill. I don't care that he said it the run prior, man needs a reward for that.

*yes*

Get a load of these two goof 'em ups.

dan "oh no we died- MEH!" ryckert

they're a regular bunch of chuckleheads, that's for sure.

"I killed that man for you!!"

They're brothers in arms at this point.

The run this is?

I'm not sure how they did here, but like with spiked trucks on the ice level, that boss is best beaten by getting RIGHT on him and learning his attack pattern. You can get many more shots off per "cycle" by being close and not being limited by how many shots the NES can put on screen.

IDK, I haven't watched all of this, but most of that singleplayer stuff can be mitigated, admittedly by never losing that Spread gun you get in the first level. I find two players get distracting and there are death traps in the energy level and hangar that are designed to mess with two players. Like that pit where your spawn point is set so if you are aggressive you will just drop into that pit. I think bosses are helped with two guns going, and maybe the base levels, but yeah I've died enough times with a partner that scrolled the screen too much to know it takes a lot more coordination in a duo than solo.