Contra: Hard Corps
From Sega Retro
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| Contra: Hard Corps | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| System(s): Sega Mega Drive | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Publisher: Konami | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Developer: Konami | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Genre: Action[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series: Contra series | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Number of players: 1-2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Official in-game languages: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Contra: Hard Corps, known in Japan as Contra: The Hardcore (魂斗羅 ザ・ハードコア) and in Europe and Australia as Probotector, is a side-scroling run and gun-style shoot-em-up for the Sega Genesis by Konami. It is the only Contra installment on the Sega console aside from Contra: Legacy of War. The game is also notable for being one of the hardest games in the Contra franchise in the west, as the hit points system from the Japanese version was removed.
The game's story takes place after Contra III: The Alien Wars (which was never released on the Sega hardware) and revolves around the theft of an alien cell. The story unfolds in a nonlinear fashion due two two crossroad points in the game. Depending on the players selection, the following stages become different. A total of 5 endings exist, one is a spoof ending found by clearing the secret arena in stage 3 (climb up the wall before going to the boss)
Contents
Gameplay
Each player can shoot with 
(aiming and rapid-fire work the same as with any Contra title or other Konami titles like Sunset Riders), change weapons with 
(as unlike other Contra games, you accumulate weapons), and jump with 
. 
+ slides, which also grants full body invincibility for the duration of the slide. Pushing and simulatneously switches shooting mode between "I" and "II". "I" allows to run and fire at the same time, while "II" forces the player to stop while firing.
The functions of , and can be remapped from the default key config via the options menu. With a 6 Button Arcade Pad, 
, 
or 
can be used to switch between shooting modes without the need to press two buttons.
A parody of Simon Belmont, from the Castlevania series (also by Konami) is featured as an optional boss. He also has his respective theme, Simon1994RD, a remixed version of Vampire Killer.
Characters
In the game you can control one of four characters.Each character has his or her own special weapons special to them. The only shared weapons are the standard gun and smartbombs. Also, a second player can join in at any time during the action.
- Ray Poward a male soldier
- Sheena Etranzi a female soldier
- Brad Fang a cyborg genetically-altered werewolf
- Browny a tiny robot.
Stages
Levels in Contra: Hard Corps are not played in a linear order - the player is given the opportunity to choose a path at several points in the game. While the level select suggests there are 13 stages in total (many of these actually being cutscenes or bosses), the manuals only allude to 6.
| Stage 1: | |
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| Stage 2: | |
| Stage 3: | |
| Stage 4: | |
| Stage 5: | |
| Stage 6: | |
History
Development
The development team called themselves "TEAM機知GUY" (Team Kichi Guy). This is actualy pun and not present in the western staff roll. The Japanese "機知"(Kichi) alone translates to "wit", but together with "GUY" is sounds like "きちがい" (Kichigai), a slang word for crazy.
Legacy
Two levels from Contra: Hard Corps would be recycled for the Game Boy Advance release of Contra Advance: The Alien Wars EX in 2002.
Versions
Like many Contra games released both before and after Hard Corps, the game differs significantly depending on region. In the Japanese version, a three point health bar exists for for each character, where getting hit removes one point and grants a short timeframe of invincibility. Continues are also unlimited, and there are also various cheat codes that were disabled in the other versions such as a stage select and a 70-lives code.
Conversely, the North American release removed the health bar system, meaning a single hit results in death (which is consistent with most games in the series). Continues here are limited to four retries.
In Europe the game was reskinned as Probotector (not to be confused with the original Probotector on the NES - a reskinned version of the first Contra game), replacing living humans and an anthropomorphic animal with robots or aliens, and consequently replacing Ray, Sheena, and Fang with CX-1, CX-2, and CX-3, respectively. Browny was simply renamed to CX-4. The story was rewritten to remove elements of human betrayal and the alien cell was replaced with the mechanical X-Drive. This version also lacks the health bar and the number of continues have been reduced to three retries.
Aside from the aforementioned changes and an added langauge select option (which was uncommon for the era), Probotector is the same game as the North American release of Hard Corps. This extends to the game's performance, with no optimisations put in place for PAL systems, resulting in a slower game that only runs at the correct speed on 60Hz systems.
Localised names
| Language | Localised Name | English Translation |
|---|---|---|
| English | Probotector | Probotector |
| English (US) | Contra: Hard Corps | Contra: Hard Corps |
| Japanese | 魂斗羅 ザ・ハードコア | Contra: The Hardcore |
Production credits
- Director, Scenario Writer, Graphic Supervisor: N.Nakazato
- Programmers:
- Main Program: Miyaoka♪Kenji
- Enemy Program: Takeda☆Takashi, Hamada Hidemi, K.Karasawa
- Help Man: Kenichiro Horio
- Design Works:
- Nice Guy: S.Shimamura
- Bike Man: K.Suzuki
- Sound Works: H.Devi Kobayashi, Akiropito, Miyaoka♪Kenji, Chiru2 Yamane, Gajokai, Nitachigu
- Package Design: S.Kumasaka
- Special Thanks: Yutaka Haruki and all Konami staff
- Producer: Tomikazu Kirita
Uncredited
- Translation, voice direction: Jeremy Blaustein[8]
Digital manuals
- ContraHardCorps MD US digital manual.pdf
Mega Drive Mini US manual
- Probotector MD EU digital manual.pdf
Mega Drive Mini EU manual
- Contra MD JP digital manual.pdf
Mega Drive Mini JP manual
Magazine articles
- Main article: Contra: Hard Corps/Magazine articles.
Promotional material
Physical scans
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80 |
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| Based on 34 reviews | |
| Mega Drive, JP |
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 Cover
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  Cart  Manual |
| Mega Drive, US |
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 Cover
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 Cart  Manual  PCB |
| Mega Drive, US (alt) |
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 Cover
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Cart  PCB |
| Mega Drive, US (cardboard) |
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   Cover
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  Cart  PCB  PCB back |
| Mega Drive, EU |
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 Cover
|
 Cart |
| Mega Drive, PT |
|---|
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| Mega Drive, AU |
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 Cover
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| Mega Drive, KR |
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 Cover
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   Cart |
Technical information
ROM dump status
| System | Hash | Size | Build Date | Source | Comments | |||||||||
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2MB | 1994-09 | Cartridge (US) | ||||||||||
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2MB | 1994-10 | Cartridge (EU) | ||||||||||
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2MB | 1994-09 | Cartridge (JP) |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://sega.jp/history/hard/megadrive/software_l.html (Wayback Machine: 2020-07-02 23:21)
- ↑ Beep! MegaDrive, "August 1994" (JP; 1994-07-08), page 9
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Sega Magazine, "November 1994" (UK; 1994-10-15), page 76
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Mega, "November 1994" (UK; 1994-10-27), page 42
- ↑ Sega Magazine, "November 1994" (UK; 1994-10-15), page 74
- ↑ Sega Megazone, "December 1994" (AU; 1994-1x-xx), page 36
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 MAN!AC, "02/95" (DE; 1995-01-11), page 15
- ↑ @JeremyBlaustein on Twitter (Wayback Machine: 2018-08-27 17:06)
- ↑ GamePro, "January 1995" (US; 199x-xx-xx), page 52
- ↑ Beep! MegaDrive, "October 1994" (JP; 1994-09-08), page 18 (20)
- ↑ Sega Saturn Magazine, "September 1995" (JP; 1995-08-08), page 83 (85)
- ↑ CD Consoles, "Décembre 1994" (FR; 1994-xx-xx), page 140-143 (140)
- ↑ Computer & Video Games, "November 1994" (UK; 1994-10-15), page 94-95 (94)
- ↑ GamesMaster, "November 1994" (UK; 1994-10-20), page 40-42 (40)
- ↑ Joypad, "Novembre 1994" (FR; 1994-1x-xx), page 122/123 (122)
- ↑ Mean Machines Sega, "November 1994" (UK; 1994-09-30), page 60-64 (60)
- ↑ Next Generation, "Premiere Issue 1995" (US; 1994-12-08), page 99 (105)
- ↑ Player One, "Novembre 1994" (FR; 1994-1x-xx), page 128/129 (124)
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 VideoGames, "November 1994" (US; 1994-1x-xx), page 83
- ↑ 1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 50
- ↑ 1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 181
- ↑ Beep! MegaDrive, "October 1994" (JP; 1994-09-08), page 20
- ↑ CD Consoles, "Décembre 1994" (FR; 1994-xx-xx), page 140
- ↑ Cool Gamer, "9" (RU; 2002-10-13), page 55
- ↑ Computer & Video Games, "November 1994" (UK; 1994-10-15), page 94
- ↑ Electronic Games (1992-1995), "October 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 88
- ↑ Electronic Gaming Monthly, "October 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 34
- ↑ Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 1, "" (RU; 1999-xx-xx), page 302
- ↑ Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 3, "" (RU; 2000-xx-xx), page 28
- ↑ Famitsu, "1994-09-30" (JP; 1994-09-16), page 41
- ↑ Game Players, "Vol. 7 No. 10 October 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 92
- ↑ Game Players, "Vol. 7 No. 12 December 1994" (US; 1994-1x-xx), page 51
- ↑ GamePro, "November 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 78
- ↑ GamePro, "Oktober 1994" (DE; 1994-09-30), page 40
- ↑ GamesMaster, "November 1994" (UK; 1994-10-20), page 40
- ↑ Games World: The Magazine, "December 1994" (UK; 1994-10-28), page 15
- ↑ Hobby Consolas, "Diciembre 1994" (ES; 1994-xx-xx), page 110
- ↑ Joypad, "Novembre 1994" (FR; 1994-1x-xx), page 122
- ↑ Mega Fun, "11/94" (DE; 1994-10-19), page 63
- ↑ Mean Machines Sega, "November 1994" (UK; 1994-09-30), page 60
- ↑ Next Generation, "Premiere Issue 1995" (US; 1994-12-08), page 105
- ↑ Player One, "Novembre 1994" (FR; 1994-1x-xx), page 128
- ↑ Play Time, "12/94" (DE; 1994-11-09), page 102
- ↑ Sega Power, "November 1994" (UK; 1994-09-29), page 53
- ↑ Sega Pro, "December 1994" (UK; 1994-11-03), page 70
- ↑ Sega Mega Drive Review, "1" (RU; 1995-04-03), page 33
- ↑ Sega Saturn Magazine, "September 1995" (JP; 1995-08-08), page 85
- ↑ Todo Sega, "Enero 1995" (ES; 199x-xx-xx), page 40
- ↑ Tricks 16 bit, "Tricks Sega Gold 800 igr" (RU; 1998-03-20), page 11
- ↑ Tricks 16 bit, "Tricks Sega Gold 800 igr" (RU; 1998-03-20), page 201
- ↑ Video Games, "10/94" (DE; 1994-09-28), page 96
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