Contra III: The Alien Wars

by Konami

Product Details

• ASIN: B00005C7P7
• Item Weight: 5 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,542 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Welcome to 2636, the year the Notorious One gets even, with an unprecendented alien onsalught orchestrated to push 16-bit technology and its commandos to their ultimate reaches. Plunge through a molten hot massacre on a high speed voyage to the guts of the archenemy alien. Scope out the side and top perspectives and backgrounds that do a 360 to engulf you in 3-D sensation. Pick off solar slimedogs like the Mutant Megasquitos and the Psycho Cyclers while you scale over walls, swing from girders and ropes, hitch rides on a missile, whatever it takes. Sweat through six gut splitting stages, including the Battle of the Blazing Sky and the Mucho Grande Badlands. The graphics are so real the explosions will nearly knock you off your feet. And the Boss Enemies are so gigantic, your screen can hardly hold them. You'll need to wrap both hands around artillery powerful enough to make today's weapons look like squirt guns. The Contra legacy is alive and dangerous!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps the Best of all the Contra Games, July 30, 2001

By 

S. Rhodes - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Contra III: The Alien Wars (Video Game)

Contra III: The Alien Wars was really one of the first games that really showed people what the Super Nintendo was capable of. Released in 1992, this classic is now available on the Nintendo Wii's virtual console for 800 Wii Points (eight dollars respectively). It's a short game, but it's fairly addictive and easy to get into.

The Red Falcon is trying to take over the world, and the only two people who can stop this even alien menace are Bill (the blue guy) and Lance (the red guy). Contra has NEVER been about story. It's always been about gameplay. No matter how you look at it, and Contra III is divine.

The gameplay has been brought to new heights since the NES versions. You've got guns, super bombs you can use and to make things even better, you're able to carry two guns and switch between them on the fly, and even use both at the same time. Graphically it was one of the first SNES games to have a stylish look, and showed us just how much you could really put on the screen at any one time. The environments are decorative, the explosions look good, and the bosses are still some of the most detailed the Super Nintendo ever had.

Contra has always been known for its difficulty, and Contra III is no exception. Old fans of Contra, of course, remember the classic Konami cheat. It doesn't work in Contra III, but to compensate there are difficulty levels and you can choose to start off with more lives. Of course hardcore fans will go through the game on Hard Mode with the default 3 lives. If you thought the first two Contra games were hard, you haven't seen anything until you've played through Contra III on hard mode.

The only real drawback to the game is that it's pretty short. It's only six stages long and the levels themselves aren't really that long. It's got a ton of replay value to its credit, however, and fans will probably be dying to go through the game without getting hit once. So it has some good replay value at least. The only other drawback to the game, for Virtual Console, users is simply that while the Virtual Console version supports the Gamecube Controller, it's almost impossible to use, unless you want to find out just what ways your fingers can bend. A Super Nintendo game was no designed to be played with a Gamecube controller. So those downloading on Nintendo Wii's virtual console, keep in mind that without a Classic Controller, gameplay will be next to impossible.

Contra III is arguably the best one in the series, with the Sega Genesis version Hard Corp competing for this position. Both are strong games, and both were probably the last good Contra games to ever be released. Any fan of Run and Gun shooters will absolutely love this game.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Contra at its peak, September 2, 2003

By 

Axel Law "The Happy Seizure Kid" (Derby, KS, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Contra III: The Alien Wars (Video Game)

The Super NES is my personal favorite Nintendo system mainly for its large list of great games. When it first came out, it automatically had great games to start off with, which normally a system doesn't bring in the good batch until a few months later. This game, Contra III: The Alien Wars, is among the first batch of Super NES to be released into the market. And how did this game turn out? Nothing short than a gaming masterpiece.

THE GOOD
Contra brings back the elements of the original games, such as the "one hit equals death" aspect that many dislike, infinite ammunition and the variety of guns, and good ol' fashioned beatdown that can either be taken solo or you can bash your enemies with a friend in its two-player mode. In addition to this, you have the ability to "switch" weapons using the L and R buttons and when you hold onto both, you fire each weapon simultaneously (you can have two different or identical weapons at a time). In fact, if you wanted to keep the weapon, you can always select the other one in case. Also, the graphics are quite good for the time period, but really, if you're a true gamer you could care less.

The difficulty is a major point for me in the Contra series because the enemies keep coming at you and then at the end of each stage, you fight a humongous boss. Pure gaming bliss.

THE BAD
Find something wrong with this game usually causes fatality. If you think the lack of save points is a drawback, you're just a [....].

OVERALL
This game is among the elite entries in the Super NES's library. THIS IS A MUST HAVE. If you dislike this game and think that it's bad, you are wrong.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic graphics, gameplay, sound and fun, October 18, 2001

By 

Jeff Johnson "Jeff Johnson" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Contra III: The Alien Wars (Video Game)

You are a soldier in a futuristic year where aliens have appeared (from under the Earth) to take over the world while destroying it in the process. This game has said to be one of the most difficult ever, because of the exciting challenge in seven levels and the fact that if anything touches you, your dead! The gameplay is very good and offers several forms of gameplay from side scrolling platform shoot-em up action to overhead play against waves of soldiers, aliens and insects. You start off in a large US city with side scrolling, and then go onto the highways with an overhead view and work your way to the desert with a hidden alien structure deep in the Earth. There are tons of nice weapons, spread guns, homing missiles, lasers, flame throwers and more. The graphics and sound are amazing and each enemy is very detailed and overall challenging. The only downfall is that dying over and over again may get very annoying. 2 player similtaneous game.