Contra Operation Galuga is a 2D Run N Gun Platformer which was released in 2024 for PS5, PS4, XSX/S, XBONE, Switch, and PC. It was developed by WayForward and published by Konami, and it is a reimagining version of 80's classic Arcade/NES title such as Contra.
Before I begin the review, I wanted to talk about the Konami's action-packed franchise that was started back in the 80s.
Have you ever you grew up watching awesome 80's action films that stars Schwarzenegger and Stallone? well glad you've asked because their movies is total badass starting with Rambo and Commando are two of my favourites action films where they started to shoot the shit out of these guys in pieces and making a large impact of explosions is what made these movies so great in my childhood days, so how are these action films becoming a major influence for video games titles? well they introduced the genre called Run N Gun which is a sub-genre of shoot-em-up games where you have on-foot soldiers goes on shooting against the attackers.
In around 80's where we had games like Taito's Front Line which pioneered the genre, then Capcom had bought Commando to arcade and home consoles release which is unrelated to the 1985 film of the same name but really good game, and then SNK's own arcade game such as Ikari Warriors came later, so these are classified as vertically scrolling shooter with overhead perspective which the side-scrolling approach wasn't been introduced until Konami had released their very first game that took the Run N Gun genre into a new level of action game which is Contra.
It is a side-scrolling action-platformer was originally released in 1987 for Arcade, and was later released on home consoles in years after the Arcade release.
You take control of two badass duos Bill and Lance went on their mission to destroy the enemy forces known as Red Falcon Organisation and uncover the true nature of the alien entity controlling them.
It was a commercial success at worldwide which becoming one of the top 4 highest-grossing dedicated arcade games of 1987, where as the NES version was also a critical and commercial success being awarded as the best action game of 1988.
The success of first Contra game had spawned with numerous of sequels such as Super C on NES which are also well-received as the first original, then the Contra 3: The Alien Wars was released in 1992 for SNES was received considerable praise for the use of Mode 7 visuals showcasing the SNES hardware power and good amount of challenging gameplay calling it addicting and quality blasting action filled with action-packed levels and intense difficulty overall are perfect for 2-player co-op, and finally the last great 16-bit game such as Contra: Hard Corps that was came out in 1994 for Genesis/MD and it's believe to be a spin-off from the mainline Contra entries, but the game is incredibly positive at the release was praised for its intense action-packed stages, 4 playable characters selection with different unique abilities, and has insanely epic bosses are the perfect recommendation for Genesis/MD owners.
While we had 4 great titles of the 8-bit and 16-bit libraries that made Contra the best Run N Gun franchises that Konami had ever produced, until they butchered up with two god-awful PS1's titles such as Contra: Legacy of War released in 1996 and C: The Contra Adventure released in 1998 which sadly these games aren't made to be designed with 3D overhead approach as opposed to previous 2D side-scrolling perspective, which is why its completely flopped at the release.
Konami went back to the 2D side-scrolling roots with Contra: Shattered Solder was released in 2002 for PS2 had gained generally positive for its returning back to the original 2D Run N Gun approach while maintaining the action-packed gameplay are also being praised.
In 2007, they released Contra 4 for DS making it a first Contra title developed by WayForward which serves as a direct sequel to 1992's SNES game such as Contra 3: The Alien Wars, and it was being hailed as a return to true form for the franchise.
In around 2011, the Hard Corps: Uprising came out digitally for PS3 and X360 which was developed by Arc System Works, a same team who created their well-known fighting game franchise like Guilty Gear and Blazblue, and it serves as a prequel to 1994's Genesis/MD game such as Contra: Hard Corps.
It received positively at the release for its hand-drawn visuals, metal soundtrack, and has great 2-player co-op action making it a worthy title that sadly weren't on PCs and later modern generation consoles...yeah it really needs a re-releasing treatment in possible future.
Then again goes bad with Contra: Rogue Corps was released in 2019 for PCs and consoles which is far even worse than the two PS1's titles that I've mentioned before, so it was criticised for its not only just for poor gameplay design, dull visuals, and boring as f**k missions, but the use of season pass DLCs which left uncomplete package just adds-up the huge insult to injury which makes it one of the worst game in the series next to Legacy of War and C: The Contra Adventure.
Konami then learned the lesson by going back to the roots again with the recent game that was released this year titled Contra Operation Galuga for PCs and Consoles.
This game borrows the characters, enemies, events and other assets from several previous games of the series and implements them into a new story, while also introducing new characters and storyline elements of its own into its narrative which makes this game quite interesting to play...so I've bought the physical copy for my PS5 to see if this game actually took the lesson from the previous 2019's title that are actually downright sucked, so I'm glad Konami did a right choice to bring WayForward to develop an even better title that everyone else like me been asking for because I really loved the series that are being well-known for its hard as nails design which adds up a fun factor of the game especially playing on both solo and co-op which is madly addicting to play with big challenges.
Is this game yet a great again or is it just completely waste of time? so you're about to find out what so good about this game and what others could have been done better.
So without go further do, let's start the review
Presentation
The game starts off with the story that took place in year 26XX AD when the terrorist group known as Red Falcon invades the island near the coast of New Zealand. In 6 months later after the attack on island, the Earth Marine Corps sends the Contra Unit's elite soldiers Bill Rizer and Lance Bean to investigate and neutralize any potential threats.
The story in the game is kinda basic, but quite straight-forward which focuses on two heroes went on their mission to fight off enemy bases and confront the evil leader of terrorism that are responsible for invading the once peaceful islands turned into a horrible warzone areas...yeah that's about it I guess.
You have two badass duos such as Bill and Lance which resembles two action stars such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone...yeah remember the Contra's NES front cover back in the 80's is what made these characters likable for the series.
The game also introduces two new characters in the game such as Ariana, a female guerrilla warrior native to the Galuga Archipelago went on her quest to seek revenge on Red Falcon Army Forces who threatening her home on the island.
Then you have Stanley Ironside who is GX Army's heavy-duty destroyer joins the fights to assist the heroes during the operation.
It also had the returning character like Rachel Lucia Drake which I believe she's just an alternative incarnation of the mainline character appearing in this game since you may know her from some games like Contra: Shattered Soldier and Neo Contra which is totally in a different timeline of the series, so going back to this game she just an Major Agent provides support to Contra organisation working under the Earth Marine Corps alongside two heroes.
The main villain in the game has to be General Varanis who is a supreme leader of the Red Falcon Army happens to be an alien humanoid from Zagard Empire.
He attempts to seek and destroy the ancient artifact called Lemris which is the source of energy waves produced a shield around the planet that prevented the Zagard Empire from the invading Earth.
The presentation design is actually quite decent for 2D side-scrolling platformer which I really liked the choices of stage settings and art direction that really fits the style of the series pretty good.
The character art design during the cutscenes are kinda look like it has sort of the G.I Joe vibes to it which is looking really neat.
I do really appreciate the design of the stages that really captures the feel of the original game with additional layouts to make the game quite stand-out.
Stuff like the classic Jungle stages returns in yet another redesigned layout which starts from trees and stones at the background to dusky looking flaming area to the mountain top.
The Enemy Base is just the fortress area with hoverbike sequences driving through the base facilities while battling bunch of enemy mechs, soldiers, and the armored vehicle.
The Village is the place where its been occupied by Red Falcon forces filled with broken homes and areas, as well as the iconic waterfall hills.
The Lab is an area filled with test tubes within a tall elevation shaft in each section rooms.
The Ice Train that travels past the snowfield mountain range that could lead you closer toward the lemris artifact.
The Ruins is a ancient temple filled with mysterious looking man-made objects and traps.
The Alien Hive is the place look like an area filled with alien-bodies everywhere are kinda looking creepy inside.
Lastly Escape Ship is where you're inside the belly of the beast filled with large intestines and green acid stuffs around it.
Overall, it has straight-forward story cutscenes, likable cast of characters, and decent presentation design.
Gameplay
In this game, you have an options to select any two modes to play such as the story mode is basically a original game with cutscenes and dialogues in each section of stages, where as the arcade mode that plays like the classic game with no story cutscenes and dialogues during the gameplay, so you take control of any playable characters in either the solo campaign or 4-player co-op in side-scrolling perspective as your main goal is to beat the entire level by defeating bosses at the very end of the stage.
Pushing the left or right with left-stick controls or d-pad button to move your on-foot soldier, and holding down with the left stick or d-pad button down to crouch on the floor which can be used to take cover while evading enemy's projectiles.
Press the cross button to jump which can be used to jump and reach on the platforms, and tapping or holding the square button is to fire your weapon which your firing projectiles will hit your enemies.
You can shoot in multiple direction with the left-stick controls can be used for 360 degree aiming or d-pad button used for classic-style 8-way aiming, but you can also fire in multiple direction while standing still by holding with the right trigger button to lock-on aim.
You will have several of weapons to pick-up which can be found on flying pod on above, so stuff like you have machine gun which shoots rapidly in long-range shot, spread shot that fires 3 waves of projectiles, flame thrower that blows out the stream of flame, homing missile that fires rockets that homes in on enemies, crush bombs that deals with heavy explosion damage, and laser beam that shoots range of laser projectiles deals higher damage on enemies.
Your equipped weapons will also converted into a level 2 power-ups when collecting same coloured weapon item twice which gives your equipped weapons taking an advantages such as faster firing-rate machine gun, 3 to 5 waves of spread bullets, longer-range flames, faster firing-rate homing missiles, turning crush bombs into wormhole shot preventing incoming enemy's projectiles, and of course making the laser projectiles ricochet toward other nearby targets.
You can perform a new special moves called overload which deals an advantage range of moves depending on which weapons you're equipping, so stuff like you have barrier that creates a field that protect you from damage, salvo launches a storm of ricocheting bullets, shield that will block enemy attacks, drones provide support for a brief time, barrage releases a flurry of targeted rockets, and of course hyper that allow player moves impossibly fast and slowing perception of the surrounding world.
Each of the characters will have different abilities such as Bill and Lance's dashing and double jumping that will allow them to reach higher platforms, Ariana's will able to slide through the narrow spaces below, Lucia's uses her grappling hook to reach top-platforms, and of course Ironside's hovering through the stages with his flying jet-pack.
I got to say that the controls plays really great especially with the additions that weren't featured on the previous entries, so stuff like you have an options to choose between the 360 degrees aiming and 8-ways directional which gives the player a suitable playstyle.
The 360 degrees aiming gives a smoother aiming target when rolling with the left-stick controls makes it very easier to aim precisely and being able to shoot in directions without fixed directional aiming, where as the 8-ways directional are basically an fixed-standard classic aiming like the early Contra games if you're one of those people who much preferred the standard directional aiming controls for its nostalgia purposes.
I also wanted to praise the use of power-ups system where you can level it up to level 2 which adds the weapon enhancement providing more hit damage on enemies, and I got to say the overload is done incredibly good for most part because this gives the player to use their special weapon attacks that are very effective against not just the big enemies, but also worked on both mid and main bosses as well.
While the gameplay combat and controls are quite impressive, I wanted to say that each of the playable characters has their advantages like Bill and Lance has their standard weapon choices just like the previous classic Contra games, where as others has their alternative weapons like Ariana uses crush grenades instead of crush bombs and uses vortex which opens in the sky and absorbs all enemy attacks, Lucia uses charge spread instead of spread shot and uses counter which absorbs enemy attacks for a set time then releases the gathered energy, and of course Ironside uses rapid discs instead of machine gun and uses cascade which triggers a stream of cascading bullets for a limited time.
This brings a new ways of playing the game which has the playable characters that has different weapons and abilities delivering a playstyle to this game.
What makes the game so great to play is that each of these stages are full of action-packed shooting mayhem, so you will find several of sections from the stages quite cool like the forest area are covered in fire in Jungle, motorcycle ride in Base, jumping up the hills of waterfalls in Village, running on the Ice Train, there are sets of deadly traps everywhere in Ruins, the pools of green acids are going up in level in Escape Ship, and of course it shared with epic mid and main bosses that adds the excitement of the game such as the crazy enemy base weapons in Jungle, there are a vehicle attacker chases you with their turret gun and that big ugly cyborg launches with large laser beam and throws electric bombs on you in Bases, there are a giant headed alien came bashing you with big ass spiky arms and tail while spiting out fireballs at you in Village, there are weird looking heart attached with wire followed by large mechanical arm in Lab, there crazy looking robot came down running towards at you and the long-ass caterpillar alien came crawling under the track in Ice Train, it has gigantic looking skynet armed with two large hands blasting you with laser beam in Ruins, and there's plenty more of bosses to encounter is the reason why I get to enjoy the game.
While both the story mode and arcade mode are really fun to play, the game also features local 4-player co-op where you can bring your friends and families to join 4-player couch co-op action which is also amazing, but it's kinda shame that there are no online co-op mode option which could have made the game bit better, so I wish they should consider adding the online co-op in future patch updates.
I also wanted to point out the online leaderboards are also missing in the game which is not a good news for high-scorers nerds out there because having to earn enough scoring points is what makes it feel rewarding to play this kind of game is about gaining a highest scores as possible in order to becoming number 1 ranking is the reason to play the game, so this needs another patch update in the future as well.
My least favourite part of the game is got to be challenge mode because there are some of the challenges where you need to complete the task of each stages, but unfortunately it's definitely not that fun because you keep dying multiples of times when trying to finish the stage whether if its time limits or beating the stage without instant death. It took so much forever to finish the whole challenge stages, so it would have been played better if they wiling to design the challenge mode a less tedious to play.
The best part of the game is that it has tons of unlockable stuffs, so if you completed each of the stages will reward you with credit points, so you can spend these credit points in perks shop to unlock stuffs, which I will explain it for later on this review.
This adds up a high amount of replay values which I am glad that the game let's you unlock the content by earning enough credit points when completing each stages in both story and arcade mode and spend it on the perks shop menu, as opposed to that stupid season pass DLCs on previous title like Rogue Corps which you had to pay an additional money off from digital storefront which we don't really need.
This makes Operation Galuga a huge win for the fans of the series wanted to have an complete Run N Gun experience that we all wanted from the game publisher did a right decision for bringing a well talented development teams to create a really good Contra game again.
Overall, it has great controls and combat, solid action-packed stages, epic boss encounters, and fun 4-player couch co-op.
Graphics
The graphics in this game is excellent because I really liked the details of the stages to make it look more arcadey and less cartoony.
In Jungle stages, the environments of these stages has sharp textures and fine surfaces on foreground area gives it a bold looking structures, where as the background layouts has the hue looking effects on the hill and trees making it more softer tone.
The water effects in Villages has the soothing waterfall and crystal as clear streams, the use of snow effects are full of blustering winds in Ice Train, the lighting effects are considered as shiny and bright on some areas in Ruins, there are a large open-areas of body organs in Alien Hive, and the best of all that the each stages has the fair shares with impressive parallax scrolling and special effect techniques because I liked the use of 3D-like rotation in some areas where you keep going forward till the stage that makes twist and turning in some places like in boss battle in Bases, the camera system changes the 2D side-scrolling perspective into the vertical-like perspective when encountering with mid-boss in Ice Train, and there are a green crystals has weird looking illusion making platforming quite goofy in Ruins.
I also liked many of destructible environments going on with tons of explosions and objects falling apart in some stages just feels like you're watching really cool action films is what makes the stage environmental design quite awesome.
Like I said it earlier ago but I say again, the character's model in this game is fantastic just gives sort of G.I Joe vibes to it especially on the cutscenes is what I find them quite likable.
For each platforms, I say the level saturation is definitely better on PS5, XSX/S, and PC with more vibrant colours to it, as opposed to Switch seems to be quite less in comparison.
The performance on PS5, XSX/S (both models), and PC is running really well with the 60fps with no sign of slow downs, where as the Switch just locked on 30fps is just a little bit slow but not quite as severe.
The PS5, XSX/S, and PC had managed to run up to 4K resolution delivering a clean picture quality, as opposed to Switch can run to 1080p docked mode which is fine, but 720p handheld mode may not be as good in comparison.
So far, the PS5, XSX/S, and PC are the best way to play the game with smoother performance and cleaner resolution, while the Switch version is not exactly that bad as many says in terms of frame-rate and resolution may not sounds perfect but it's plays okay once you get hang of the Switch version.
Overall, it has excellent destructible stage environments, impressive parallax scrolling and special effects techniques, and smooth performance.
Music and Sounds
The soundtrack in this game is wickedly awesome because I really liked the epic orchestrated music just giving sort of 80s action films style of soundtrack, so if this default music aren't motivating you enough then try the retro remix which is the fully remixed version of recognisable classic Contra games that we loved to get our heart pumped up for shooting action.
It was composed by Eirik Suhrke, Yuko Komiyama, Norihiko Hibino, and Konami Kukeiha Club did an fabulous job on their score.
The sounds design are filled with exploding effects and destructible environmental noises just perfect on many arcade stages, and props to voice casting did a good job on their character's role.
Overall, it has wickedly awesome soundtrack, perfect sound design, and good voice acting.
Special Features
The game has tons of unlockable stuff that you can get it unlocked by earning enough credit points, so you will have spirit perks for characters, weapons cheats, many lives stock and health boost, new game modes to play such as speedrun mode, extreme mode, and extreme ultra mode, more music stuff like 8-bit Contra and Contra 4, using Konami code to unlock 30 lives, and of course 3 playable characters for arcade mode such as Brad Fang, Sheena Etranzi, and Browny from Contra: Hard Corps which can be unlocked on perk shop. Speaking of additional playable characters, we also have these two Probotectors which are directly based on their UK/EU exclusive variants with the same name from the Contra series are also playable in Arcade mode as well.
Overall, an amazing chunks of content.
Advantages
Decent presentation
Solid action-packed stages
Great controls and combat
Epic boss encounters
Fun 4-player couch co-op
Excellent graphics
Wickedly awesome soundtrack
So many amazing unlockable content
Disadvantages
Missing online co-op option
Missing online leaderboards
Tedious challenge mode
Final Verdicts
Presentation 8/10 - Straight-forward story cutscenes, likable cast of characters, and decent presentation design.
Gameplay 8/10 - Great controls and combat, solid action-packed stages, epic boss encounters, and fun 4-player couch co-op
Graphics 8.5/10 - Excellent destructible stage environments, impressive parallax scrolling and special effects techniques, and smooth performance.
Music and Sounds 8.5/10 - Wickedly awesome soundtrack, perfect sound design, and good voice acting.
Special Features 9/10 - Spirit perks for characters, weapons cheats, many lives stock and health boost, new game modes, and more playable characters.
Overall 8/10 - Contra Operation Galuga is a stunning 2D Run N Gun title which is what Konami should have done the same job with the Rogue Corps for the first place.
This is what we want from 2D side-scrolling action game filled with fast-paced gameplay design, packed with over-the-top action stages, has cool bosses to fight against, well-designed visuals, has 4-player couch co-op to join forces, and has tons of unlockable contents including new game modes and more playable characters to play is what makes this title a complete package for old-school fans of the genres will definitely feel much appreciated to see the game had done it right.
The price of the physical copy is somewhat cost between £35 and £40 seems to be just about the same price as the digital storefront releases for all platforms including PS Store, Xbox Store, Nintendo eShop, and Steam.
I say this game is recommended for mostly 2D Run N Gun fans will likely to consider picking this game up whatever what the PC or console platform suits you best to play this game, so give it go and let's attack aggressively.
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