This official 1988 sequel to the original Contra sees Bill Rizer and Lance Bean return once again as they are sent to thwart another alien invasion. A year after the battle with the Red Falcon organization, Bill Rizer and Lance Bean are sent on another mission. This time, the alien forces have taken over an allied military base somewhere in South America, possessing most of its troops. Bill and Lance must not only fight against their former comrades-in-arms, but also newly mutated forms of the same alien creatures they fought during their previous mission, as well as new alien monstrosities they may encounter along the way.
Before we begin our review, maybe you've looked into the Super C instruction booklet, if you still have it, that is. You've probably noticed that Bill Rizer is referred to as "Sergeant Bill Ko", in reference to Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko, the main protagonist of the last 1950s black-and-white US television series The Phil Silvers Show. Likewise, Lance Bean is called "Corporal Lance", in reference to the "Lance corporal" military rank.
The "C" in Super C and Operation C was originally intended to be short for "Commando" and not "Contra". This is stated on the box and packaging materials for all the home versions of Super Contra in North America (including the DOS and Amiga versions). This was likely due to the word "Contra" being associated with the Iran-Contra affair, which was still going on at the time.
Once again the gameplay is absolutely fun to play as it had lot of actions happening on screen and those who love the hard NES games will had an absolute blast playing this game, or even those who just want to play a good game. Additionally, the controls are just as tight if not better than in the previous games as while they are similar, they are slightly more smooth and fast, and because of this, you will never had any cheap deaths because of the controls. The weapons are still very good and are very fun to use, most notably the S and F weapons, and in fact there's not any really terrible weapon.
The graphics on the NES version are outstanding, and are even better than in the first game, since here the sprites are even more detailed and colorful, and the backgrounds themselves look extremely detailed for it's time, almost looking like a 16-bits game, as what you would expect from a Konami game on NES, which often are some of the best looking NES games ever released.
It's once more challenging but in a good way, since the franchise is know for being difficult games, this game is no exception but even then, the game doesn't feel frustrating due to how fun it is, and in fact the challenge is so high that it feel rewarding to complete a stage without getting any annoying unneeded game over screen. I like a challenge whether I need it or not, anyways. The level design is spectacular, which is just as good as in the first game as it is designed toward Bill and Lance abilities.
The soundtrack as usual with a Konami game on NES is amazing, having a lot of catchy and epic sounding music and to make all of this even better, the soundfont is way more developed this time, having a 16-bits like soundfont, which feel similar to Gremlins 2: The New Batch which also game out the same year on the NES.
The boss fights are a blast, which are once again very challenging and unique, and in fact they are even better than in the first game. Even if the final boss is still way too easy, especially in comparison to most of the bosses from the game, the ending is quite epic.
A NES super-thriller not to be missed. Rated Teen and up.