Topic: Mandatory E3 False Hope Thread.

[Guy Belmont]

Then you must think Konami makes really really good video games still? I wish I understood this logic better, but each to their own.

No I just Love CV. and any CV is still better then no CV.

[shelverton.]

No I just Love CV. and any CV is still better then no CV.

Well, after Contra I wouldn’t be surprised if Konami actually has a new CV coming. Possibly with a panda bear as the lead character. Panda Belmont!

[Guy Belmont]

Well, after Contra I wouldn’t be surprised if Konami actually has a new CV coming. Possibly with a panda bear as the lead character. Panda Belmont!

And I Love CV that much that even that would be good enough for me at this point in time.
#diehard CV fan

[VladCT]

even if it's full-priced online multiplayer-only lootbox bullshit? at this point I won't be surprised if they'd do it

[X]

I would not want to see a playable panda in CV. Castlevania's not that kind of game. Neither is Contra for that matter even though it has been going in the over-the-top direction for the last few games. Why...

[Shiroi Koumori]

I would not want to see a playable panda in CV. Castlevania's not that kind of game. Neither is Contra for that matter even though it has been going in the over-the-top direction for the last few games. Why...

Why... because KONAMI.

[BLOOD MONKEY]

I would not want to see a playable panda in CV. Castlevania's not that kind of game. Neither is Contra for that matter even though it has been going in the over-the-top direction for the last few games. Why...

What's your op on the first Hard Corps then?

[Lumi Kløvstad]

I mean, would a Panda actually be so out of place?

How quick y'all are to forget this bundle of joy, who appeared in two games and was fully playable in one of them (complete with Red Licorice Whip!).



Honestly, if Konami wanted to include a Panda as a bonkers bonus character, I don't see why they shouldn't. This is still sort of the same company that in the Konami Wai Wai World games put Simon Belmont front and center next to their Corporate Superman Expy "Konami Man" and his cyborg ninja girl sidekick.

Lunacy was clearly never off the table, and I even welcome it as a sort of return to 1980's and early 1990's playfulness that has been sadly lacking.

[Belmontoya]

Yeah no that new contra looks like hot trash.

[AlexCalvo]

I mean, would a Panda actually be so out of place?

How quick y'all are to forget this bundle of joy, who appeared in two games and was fully playable in one of them (complete with Red Licorice Whip!).



Honestly, if Konami wanted to include a Panda as a bonkers bonus character, I don't see why they shouldn't. This is still sort of the same company that in the Konami Wai Wai World games put Simon Belmont front and center next to their Corporate Superman Expy "Konami Man" and his cyborg ninja girl sidekick.

Lunacy was clearly never off the table, and I even welcome it as a sort of return to 1980's and early 1990's playfulness that has been sadly lacking.

Come on man.  A wacky Halloween themed character at least fits thematically as a cartoonish play on the game's ideas and style.  A panda is just completely random nonsense.  While pumpkin was certainly a silly/fun addition, he was far from completely random nonsense.  A little sillyness =/= anything goes.

[theplottwist]

Come on man.  A wacky Halloween themed character at least fits thematically as a cartoonish play on the game's ideas and style.  A panda is just completely random nonsense.  While pumpkin was certainly a silly/fun addition, he was far from completely random nonsense.  A little sillyness =/= anything goes.

Armed Panda is not too far away from the Contra universe. There's a gun-toting werewolf, a samurai in the far future, a reptile-man, a literal talking dog, and running-on-helicopter-blades. It is an absurd world.

But, to be fair, the Panda sucks major ass in comparison to Brad Fang. Despite the sillyness that already exists in Contra, the Panda really feels out-of-place for some reason. Maybe it's the game's apparent lack of quality in general.

[X]

What's your op on the first Hard Corps then?

Contra: Hard Corps for the Genesis? Awesome game. Some might think it over-the-top with the character Brad Fang but story-wise he was the only person on Earth to legally undergo gene splicing, unless you count Colonel Bahamut's scientist doing it to others utilising Red Falcon's DNA. It didn't feel forced because of the way it was handled. That and it was the first time seeing that in a Contra game. I also think the time in which the game came out also played a part in it. Werewolves were popular during those years. It had the virtue of having never been tried.

If it's Hard Corps: Uprising you're referring to then in some ways it is a little over-the-top, but it doesn't do anything really drastic that would constitute a mess as the recent titles/title coming out has demonstrated. Neo-Contra was definitely over-the-top and not as serious as it could have been (like it's predecessor Shattered Soldier). Animal Contra (the talking dog) was a bit much though Bill Rizer's comment to him was amusing: "You Dog! You're gonna sacrifice your own men!"

[RichterB]

For better or worse, Contra's been on this over-the-top kick for a while. Contra ReBirth had an undercover cross-dressing Lance Bean, an alien lizard enemy leader who decided he wanted to be a Contra soldier (who was partially referencing Metal Gear's Solid Snake), a tiny robot that looked like a little girl with pigtails, an enemy robot boss that gets hit with its own head, robotic purple camels, a robot ninja surfing a missile, and goofy movie references like this (http://www.klustr.net/contra/images/articles/trivia/contra_rebirth_victory.png) that made the characters look like goofballs. That was just some of it.

We need to be more honest about this series, perhaps.

I'm not sure the "core" of Rogue Corps is that far removed from the Contra series as a whole. Even as far back as the NES games, you had camera shifts to behind-the-back or overhead perspectives on stages. Oddball characters with unique weapons started in Contra Hard Corps on the Genesis (or to a lesser extent, the Contra Force spinoff on NES), and selecting different loadouts before missions and having additional 3D-type perspectives was in the unexpectedly enjoyable Neo Contra on PS2.

This looks like an evolution from Neo Contra, adding more of the classic elements back in, like the rolling-jump platforming. (Seeing that is a huge step in the right direction alone.) As a Contra fan, I think it shows a lot of promise, despite being somewhat unconventional and [somewhat unfortunately] even more over the top in its humor than Contra ReBirth or Neo Contra. But that same off-the-wall attitude is giving us a rolling spherical version of what looks like an old-school Contra foe, and that's amusing and interesting from a gameplay perspective.

I am glad to hear longtime Contra producer Nobuya Nakazato is overseeing this one. He's been involved with the series since Contra III, and while he sometimes takes things too far, he knows about the extreme scenarios Contra presents and is good at giving them unique spins. I hope this gets an honest try by fans and newcomers, because this will be a good learning experiment, if nothing else, and only solid sales will allow this series to continue to grow. Contra requires a 360-degree action component that most (if not all) FPS and/or modern 3rd-person cover shooters can't deliver; this Rogue Corps is a compromise to provide a little bit of everything the franchise is known for. I think there are other, likely better, options for this franchise in the next-gen realm, but it's not like it should be a copy off of Halo or Gears of War. Neither of those has the all-around hectic craziness and personality that Contra demands. (And to that point, I'm very curious how aerial enemies will be handled in Rogue Corps.)

I hope the music is as good as the last few Contras, especially Neo Contra. As much as Contra 4 and Contra ReBirth were touted--and they both had amazing standout moments--I felt they did have a certain amount of staleness to them and couldn't quite top the 16-bit era they were emulating overall, so I appreciate the effort to try to evolve Contra's level design. It looks like there's a good mix/balance of shooting, platforming, and bosses. (When there are too many mini-bosses, it breaks things up too much.)

Anyway, all in all, I'm not ecstatic yet, but I am hopeful, and feel that everyone needs to keep the franchise in perspective versus comparing it to, say, Contra 1 on the NES, or just a few of the games. That's unfair in some ways, and sort of shortsighted in terms of what the franchise could come to be. I'm not saying the 2D era has to be completely replaced, but having 2D and 3D Marios and Zeldas works fine and is healthy, and I'd like that for franchises like Contra. This right here, with all its potential issues, is an attempted culmination of the whole franchise, both the classics and the fun, underrated gems. Again, I think the tone could and should be more balanced, but there's a fine line before it becomes overly westernized, as it was always a Japanese take on western scifi-military action tropes.

[X]

For better or worse, Contra's been on this over-the-top kick for a while. Contra ReBirth had an undercover cross-dressing Lance Bean, an alien lizard enemy leader who decided he wanted to be a Contra soldier (who was partially referencing Metal Gear's Solid Snake), a tiny robot that looked like a little girl with pigtails, an enemy robot boss that gets hit with its own head, robotic purple camels, a robot ninja surfing a missile, and goofy movie references like this (http://www.klustr.net/contra/images/articles/trivia/contra_rebirth_victory.png) that made the characters look like goofballs. That was just some of it.

I had almost forgotten about all that. Lance cross-dressing? He never did that in the entirety of the series till this game came along. And from a story perspective it did feel forced.

[Foffy]

I would not want to see a playable panda in CV. Castlevania's not that kind of game. Neither is Contra for that matter even though it has been going in the over-the-top direction for the last few games. Why...

I know some people kinda already called out how Contra has had absurd characters, but this is the same series with time traveling super soldiers who try to hide as drag queens during an invasion into the past. I'm not even kidding.

The Tencent Contra game seems to be the inspiration for some of these out-of-the box designs. In fact, the most absurd is the hybrid woman-alien character, not a robot panda. This new Contra is the second Contra game with a playable character that has the design of a bear. Snowbell, the panda from Contra Return, is a literal panda trained as a soldier.