Hello Guys,This is Sourav hope you are doing extremely well and we are back with The Rise and The Fall where we get to see how our popular childhood games became so popular and what led to their downfall that today's generation is almost unaware of! Let us revisit and take a look at the The Rise and The Fall of Contra 💪.

Introduction and Origin

The History of video games goes way back to 1950's but the Era of Gaming started in 1987 when a Japanese company Konami introduced a game that revolutionised the gaming, it is none other than CONTRA. It became an instant hit due to the pop culture references as the game was based on the popular movie franchises like Predator series and Aliens. The game was build on the similar concept of Soldiers Vs Aliens that instantly became a hit among audience. The game includes 2 players- Bill Rizer and Lance Bean who were fighting against an Alien group named Red Falcon.

History and Development

The Development team consists of  the Great Shigeharu Umezaki and Koji Hiroshita. Both the developers build the game and Hiroshita was the one who did production, lead designing and technical aspects. The main focus was always to make the game look and feel the same as the famous action movies of 1980's that truly reflected in the game and the response marks the stamp on their efforts.

The Rise and The Hype

The Hype was indeed real, tge sales were off the chart and by the end of 1996 Contra alone sold 4 Million Copies worldwide. The developers did the right marketing and it was the most hyped game of that time. The reason for tge popularity was not only the movie franchise's adaptation but also the core gameplay where the fast pace action, the mechanics and the obstacles and non repetitive levels contributed in the success. Another factor that leads to the ultimate rise is the Co-Op mode where 2 players can simultaneously play and that was the USP. Remember, playing it with your friends, brother or sister the memories we made was the selling point.

If that was not enough there was a thing called as The Konami Cheat code whereby using the code can give you extra lives and more powerups, wish I knew this while playing it with my brother right? 

Everything was going the Contra way the release of Super Contra 1988 put the game to a new heights and indeed it was the contra you all remember from your childhood.

The Problems and The Fall

As we always see things come and go and nothing is permanent. Times were changing and so were the trends, although contra cop uped with the changing trends but there were some root problems in some successive games like Contra legacy of war that came back in 1996 that was made in 3D and the transition was something that started the problems, gamers were not connecting with the newer games, never had the same fun and there were technical glitches and issues that were annoying and spoiled the core gameplay.

The Final nail in the coffin was put up by the new generation of games like COD, GTA that introduced newer dimension of gaming with the FPS and open world online gaming, infront of which Contra feels super outdated.

A Potential Return

We can accept or deny the controversial rise but Contra can't be ignored and leaves a substantial mark in the gaming history and there is always a hope for a comeback like the recently launched Contra Operation Galuga which provides the same nostalgic gameplay with modern graphics. The nostalgia is what people want right Spiderman fans 😉. So, there's always hope that our childhood games will revive and especially games like Contra that once changed the landscape of the gaming.

So, that's The Rise and Fall of Contra. Hope you liked it, let me know your thoughts in the comments and don't forget to follow for more 🙌.

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