On Reflection

If you’ve read what we said about Cloning Clyde, you’ll already know that we quite like this. It’s still the best platform-based shooter on XBLA (some would pedantically put Castlevania in that category, but those people smell are stupid). And it’s still cripplingly hard and none of us have finished it. Why not download it, finish it, then send us a letter stating how much more of a worthwhile human being you are?

The Score

If you moan about game saves ruining the exclusivity of Achievements simply because you wanted to be the only ultra-leet gaming god in the universe who can lay claim to having conquered a game, good news. Contra is the toughest game ever made. An endless barrage of enemies, gunfire and twitch gameplay means you need razor-sharp reactions and nothing less than 100 per cent control to survive. It’s tougher to complete Contra than it is to smile while playing Frogger. While some of this is due to wonky game mechanics – not being able to shoot diagonally downwards is an unnecessary pain – it’s mostly by deliberate design, with Konami adamant about throwing you through the ringer with nothing more than an ever-increasingly deadly arsenal of weapons to survive. It’s gone slightly crusty and yellowed with old age but the sheer difficulty ensures this remains as addictive a challenge as ever before.

8 out of 10