TL;DR – Contra: Rogue Corps is not a contra game, and also quite a rough game. It’s a twin-stick shooter with a weapon cool-down feature, tons of enemies, a lot of content and a whole host of rough edges. There are some good ideas and some terrible ones to be found in this game. But at it’s core, Contra: Rogue Corps is a 3D shoot em up with a bad camera and a whole bunch of loot to equip so that you can upgrade your character, shoot the baddies better and then unlock new stages with tougher bad guys and better loot. This honestly could’ve been a Borderlands game, if they’d changed the branding and made the dialogue absolutely insufferable. Instead we have a weird Contra game, that I enjoyed but I imagine the typical gamer wouldn’t – because they’d rather be screaming themselves hoarse at people in a Battle Royale game or a MOBA.
Contra: Rogue Corps is a game that’s extremely rough around the edges, yet I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think it was exactly what I was looking for. Not so much in terms of the game itself, but more in what the game represents. For me, gaming is about heading into town with £10 and emerging a few hours later with lunch and a game of questionable pedigree. Sometimes this game will be a “hidden gem”, sometimes it’s just mediocre and sometimes it’s actively terrible. Yet this ordeal in and of itself is why I enjoy buying games. I could pirate everything, but there’s no cardio involved nor is there any skin in the game. As a consequence the bargain bin is what holds the most appeal for me, and Contra: Rogue Corps is definitely a bargain bin game these days. Between middling reviews, a piss-poor PC port and modest sales this is a game that’s easy to overlook. Yet in the finest traditions of the bargain bin haul, I actually thought it was fun – even if it was quite janky at points and had some questionable design decisions. If you can endure the occasional bout of frustration, I can safely say that Contra Rogue Corps is one of the better twin-stick shooters for the 8th console generation.
Which is my seamless segue into discussing what Contra: Rogue Corps actually is. First and foremost it’s barely a Contra game in any sense of the word, and most likely wasn’t one until Konami realised they were in trouble if they didn’t staple a brand to this game. Outside of a handful of modest references, there’s really nothing related to Contra here – especially not the gameplay. Contra: Rogue Corps is not a 2D or overhead shooter, but is instead a 3D twin-stick shooter with a few… additions that arguably suit the game but would alienate any actual Contra fans who bought it. For example, I doubt that Contra fans would enjoy the concepts of their weapons overheating after a few seconds of shooting. Nor would they enjoy a quasi-RPG drop system wherein they can equip 4 augmentations to their characters and multiple augmentations to each weapon. So you’ll end up finishing a mission, getting 20 pieces of loot and then checking if any of them offer something good. Most of the time, you just get thrilling bonuses like “-7.4% damage from Enemy Type D” or “+2metre dodge roll” although equipping all this nonsense does eventually make a difference. Then you’ve got the enemy types which get a bit repetitive and gain more health/attack with each tier of missions, of which there are 7. Finally while the game does have a co-op mode, it’s entirely separate from the campaign and will require decently levelled characters to be beatable.
So on the face of it, Contra: Rogue Corps sounds a bit hopeless. It’s not anything like Contra, and the additions sound pretty boring. Why then am I, your humble bargain bin scout, recommending it? Well for the simple reason that if you aren’t hung up about what a Contra game should be, then you will probably be able to have some fun with this one. While the enemies are a bit repetitive, the game loves to throw them at you in hordes which actually results in some pretty frantic and enjoyable gameplay. There are a few missions later on in the game that are basically horde defence missions, and I had a great time playing them because they really encouraged you to learn the game. You had to know what enemies to prioritise, you had to know the enemy patterns and if you did know these things then they were a tight, punishing but fun experience. After having played so many tedious, sluggish and whiny games over the past few years it was nice to have something that was just an honest-to-God arcade experience. It reminded a bit of Mothergunship, in the sense that this was a high-octane game that no one seems to have cared about (sadly). As for the character customisation and stat systems, while the game does a terrible job of explaining how they actually work – these systems do help a bit. There are a lot of different weapons to develop for starters, which helps the variety up. Then by giving better gear on higher levels and for higher mission completion ranks Contra: Rogue Corps does a good job of encouraging you to just keep trying the higher levels and to reward you (somewhat) for going back to earlier levels and crushing them with ease. Of course as the game is admittedly a bit challenging, there’s some risk reward going on here and sometimes the scale tips a bit too much towards risk as you get nothing except weapon XP should you fail a mission.
With that being said, I actually found the game to be finely balanced most of the time. Some other reviews have cried many tears over how hard the freaking is man :'(( but I’m not sure what they were doing. You need to learn the enemy patterns, dodge attacks A LOT and then you should be fine. There are a few really annoying enemy types, like the turrets that lock-on to you and one of the bosses – but most enemies are if anything a bit easy. Plus you don’t need to complete all the levels to progress, so you can leave some for later if you are getting filtered. Generally the game is fun and lets you progress to the disappointing final boss without too much trouble. There are a few things I wanted to mention though, because as mentioned at the start of this review Contra: Rogue Corps is a bargain bin game. Which is to say, that it’s a diamond in the rough at best. So you should be aware that you can’t pause, even when playing in Single Player… for some reason. You should be aware that the graphics aren’t amazing and neither is the soundtrack. You should be aware that while you do get some invincibility frames after getting hit, these won’t save you from any other damage that happens before you hit the ground. There are just a few niggles like this that make the game feel a bit janky. Especially when we consider how many stages just repeat the same bosses (but now as mini-bosses yay) or how often you’ll go from full health to no health on some of the later campaign stages. As I said, it’s finely balanced most of the time but is sometimes a pain in the backside.
At this stage I should probably mention that there is a multiplayer mode, and some people have said it’s fun. You’ll need to faff around with it for all the CHEEVOS as well. Unfortunately for me and by extension you dear reader, I don’t have an Xbox Live Gold subscription so… I can’t tell you what it’s like. I can tell you that Contra: Rogue Corps has plenty of single player content though, including 41 campaign missions and a further 9 missions split between co-op and the HARDCORE mode. So there’s plenty of content for what is a fairly cheap game, just be aware that I would recommend the console version (hence my purchase of it on the Mighty Xbone due to the PC Port being hopeless). One last thing to mention, finding information about this game online is a nightmare so… I hope you speak Spanish, to access the one comprehensive guide that some kind soul has uploaded via Google Sheets.
In conclusion then, Contra: Rogue Corps is barely a Contra game. It’s also an exceedingly rough around the edges game, with poor reviews and a terrible PC port. Yet if you can deal with some weird quirks, it’s actually a pretty fun arcade twin-stick shooter extravaganza and one that I would actually recommend… to the right sort of person. Ask yourself whether you want a fast paced if slightly janky twin-stick shooter, because you are oh-so-tired of lousy modern FPS/Action-Adventure bollocks. If the answer is Yes then go grab the game for cheap. If the answer is No, because you love games like Uncharted 3 and whatever the latest flavour of the month game with crafting in it is, then you’ll probably be repelled by Contra: Rogue Corps. For me, it’s what gaming is all about. For you, it’s either a fun little throwaway purchase or a nightmare.