Planet Bob

Contra music is rad.

 

 

That guy is also rad.

I have never liked the 2.5D stages - though I definitely agree, they break up the monotony a bit.

 

If I remember correctly, the stages go:

1st: left-to-right 2D

2nd: 2.5D

3rd: bottom-to-top 2D

4th: 2.5D

5th-8th: left-to-right 2D

 

And I love the music.

So after the first half they lost the inspiration for level design? :D

 

I had only very little time to dedicate to Probotector today. Actually I have a lot of time tonight, since my wife isn't at home, but I decided to rather spend most of it with Breath of Fire III on the PSX instead

 

Still, I finished stage 3, did the 4th and had a first glance at the 5th. (The one with the grenade launching trees )

 

I need to find my California Games manual. AFAIK did it contain a small dictionary section with skater language, so once I dig it out I can look up "rad" and see if it is an insult

 

BTW: I remember that back in the day my brother and me didn't realize that the game was kinda self-censored for the german market, instead we thought that it was amazing to get those cool robots instead of the boring soldiers. That was a much cooler localization as todays nonsense with green blood, no?

So after the first half they lost the inspiration for level design?

Maybe - I think those 2.5D levels are so boring, I wish they weren't there at all. Better to mix up a few more vertical stages if they wanted variety.

Still, I finished stage 3, did the 4th and had a first glance at the 5th. (The one with the grenade launching trees )

That threw me for a minute, then I remembered what you're talking about - I never thought of those grenades as coming from the trees, though I guess they are.

 

Though the last 4 levels are all side-scroll, they throw a lot of interesting stuff at you.

 

And yeah, green blood is dopey.

So, with my wife claiming the TV to play Fire Emblem on the Wii again, I managed to spend enough time with Probotector tonight to finally beat it. Have a look at the grande finale where our hero is flying away in his spaceship plane escaping from an exploding planet island:

 

 

Well, well... this game was almost there. Almost.

 

For my personal taste, it got a bit too hard in the middle section from stage 4-7. Some great moments in there as well, especially the boss battles, but even greater bits of frustration. The flamethrower section in the middle of stage 6 is the horror! The horror! (My tip for playing the game: Get the Shotgun and better never lose it again in the entire game!)

 

The final "Alien" level was marvellous. Konami was reaching the perfect level design by then. If the whole game would've been on this quality level I'd easily give it an A+

 

Of the two Konami NES titles I've been "Playing..." so far, my choice would clearly be Jackal.

 

Straight away the "Playing..." series will see another NES sidescrolling jump'n'something game again!

Interesting...Contra has them flying out in a helicopter IIRC.

 

My personal favorite for level design is the 2nd-to-last level, with the spiked walls. The Energy Zone (level 6) isn't my favorite either, those flame throwers are extremely annoying.

 

I'd rank the levels like this (best to worst):

Jungle (1st level)

7th level (spike walls)

Waterfall (3rd)

Alien Lair (8th)

Snow Field (5th)

Energy Zone (6th)

and last, the two pseudo-3D levels.

 

For bosses, I'd rank them:

Jumping giant robot/alien (end of Energy Zone I think)

Giant alien heart/brain (end of game)

Dragon monster (end of waterfall)

Whatever that/those are at the end of the 4th level

Whatever that is at the end of the 2nd level

Disappearing spaceship (end of Snowfield)

Last, the boring blow-up-the-sensors-to-open-the-door "bosses" at the end of the 1st and 7th levels.

 

Now, the guessing game...

 

Bionic Commando?

Blaster Master?

Bubble Bobble?

Castlevania II?

Golgo 13?

Zelda II?

Super Mario Bros. 2?

I agree on the Giant Robot being the best, I loved that one as well!

 

It was impossible for you to guess the proper game, since the NES version was released stateside in 1987 already. I choose it because the C64 version was reviewed in Happy Computer 3/88 though

 

The first letter is an 'R'

I actually beat this game without losing a life and as much as I try, I cannot find a difference in speed between this PAL version and Contra. Maybe they sped up the game?

 

My favourite level is the Snow Field level because of the background and music.