Contra: Shattered Soldier
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Contra: Shattered Soldier | |
|---|---|
 The cover art (illustrated by Ashley Wood) portrays the protagonists, Bill and Lucia, against a war-torn backdrop. |
|
| Developer(s) | Konami TYO |
| Publisher(s) | Konami |
| Designer(s) | Nobuya Nakazato (producer / director) |
| Native resolution | 480i |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2 |
| Release date | NA October 22, 2002 JPN November 11, 2002 EU February 14, 2003 |
| Genre(s) | Run and gun |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Cooperative |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: T (Teen) CERO: 15+ ELSPA: 15+ |
| Media | 1 CD-ROM |
| Input methods | DualShock 2 |
Contra: Shattered Soldier, published in Japan as Shin Contra (真魂斗羅 Shin Kontora?, "True Contra") is a video game that is part of the Contra series by Konami. It was released for the Sony PlayStation 2 in 2002. The game marks a return to the two-dimensional gameplay style of Contra III: The Alien Wars and Contra: Hard Corps.
Contents |
[edit] Gameplay
The game achieves its goal in mimicking the gameplay that made the previous 8-bit and 16-bit titles so popular by essentially duplicating the same style boss-fights and stages. The game is known as being very difficult, more so in fact than Contra: Hard Corps. Like the Sega Genesis game, Shattered Soldier has multiple endings. However, the ending received now depends on player performance, rather than the path taken. The game also introduces the concept of a "hit rate", which gauges the amount of enemies hit as a form of performance metric. Every unique target (i.e: non-respawnable), whether it be an actual enemy or an object in the environment, that is destroyed increases this ratio. A high hit-ratio, along with the minimization of lives lost and continues used, is essential to receive the better endings, and consequently unlock the hidden extra features.
The major departure in Shattered Soldier is the new weapon system, which consists of three weapons and three special shots. No weapons are acquired through the power-up 'blimps' from previous games. The primary weapons are: a rapid fire automatic machine gun (Heavy Machine Gun), a flame thrower (Flame Whip) and a grenade launcher (Diver Mines). These primary weapons may be charged for a more powerful attack. The machine gun's secondary fire launches out a "gun pod" which sprays bullets in multiple directions. The Flame Whip's secondary fire is a powerful fireball which can penetrate walls, enemies and other obstacles. The diver mine's secondary fire is a multi-shot of heat seeking grenades that home in on nearby enemies.
[edit] Plot
In A.D. 2642, Earth remains scarred from previous alien conflicts as environmental problems grow beyond humanity's control. 80% of the planet's population was completely devastated by a malfunctioning hyper-magnetic weapons grid during development. Bill Rizer, the hero of the Alien Wars, was held responsible for the incident, as well as for murdering his partner Lance Bean who reportedly tried to stop him. He was given a sentence of 10,000 years in cryogenic prison.
However, five years later, in 2647, Earth faces another threat as the terrorist organization "Blood Falcon", led by a mysterious and superhuman commander, spreads panic over the world. The ruling government, referred to as the "Triumvirate", decides to release Bill Rizer prior to completing his sentence, in view of his previous successes in defending Earth, in hope of neutralizing Blood Falcon. Lucia, an advanced cyborg soldier built by the government from Dr. Geo Mandrake's research, is sent to accompany and assist Bill's endeavors. Bill eventually finds out that Lance is still alive and is in fact the commander of Blood Falcon himself.
[edit] Development
After commissioning Appaloosa Interactive for the development of Contra: Legacy of War and C: The Contra Adventure, Konami assigned their internal KCE Tokyo team to work on the next installment in the franchise. Nobuya Nakazato, (the director of Alien Wars and Hard Corps) was in charge of the game's direction, design and scenario. A few years prior to the announcement of Shattered Soldier, Konami had plans for a Nintendo 64 installment in the series titled Contra Spirits 64 that would've been handled by KCE Osaka, but those plans were aborted.[1][2]
[edit] Advertisement error
An advertisement for the game stated that it was for the PS2 and the Game Boy Advance. However, the GBA version was neither released nor was it developed. It may have been confused with Contra Advance: The Alien Wars EX since it was the only Contra game released on the GBA.
[edit] Notes
[edit] External links
|
|||||
