I'm talking the incredible Super Cyborg by Artur Games.
Vintage Run N' Gun action for modern consoles!
Super Cyborg is a clone of Konami's legendary Run N' Gun game Contra, that means I'm sure many of us (including myself) will be extremely familiarized with the demanding amounts of skill this series ask. So before you go out shooting monsters nonstop, better have a quick look to the weapons provided by this game.
D (DEFAULT): Your standard autofiring machine gun. It's Charge Attack is a Mega-Buster styled Charged Shot.
E (ENERGY): This one is the like the Flame/Fireball (F) in Super C. A fireball that splits upon impact. Its Charge Attack splits the fireball in more balls.
L (LASER): A powerful linear beam of considerable power. The beam stream can be interrupted like the Cyclone Laser from Gradius III. Its Charged Shot fires an R-Type like cross-stream.
M (MACHINE GUN): A fast firing vulcan. Its Charge Attack is an energy ball that passes through enemies.
S (SPREAD SHOT): The classic Spread Gun from the Contra games. This one behaves more like the Contra III and Hard Corps versions. Its Charged Shot is a spiral of huge bullets
Contra's Run N' Gun action also has a couple of items designed in a more defensive way or as speed increasing enhancers.
B (BARRIER): The Shield of the game, provides you temporary invincibility.
R (RAPID / RATE UP): Like in Contra and Super C, the "R" increases the fire rate, and speed of your current weapon. You'll lose it if you pick a different weapon.
Now that we know about the weapons, let's go with the gameplay. Being a Contra clone means one thing: Fast-pounding action, and that's what this game will throw at you as soon as your cyborg drops from the ship. While you are only limited to a single weapon like Contra, Super C and Operation C, you can charge your weapon for a powerful attack like in Contra Shattered Soldier. This comes in handy during boss battles, especially the charged S weapon. You can lock your character's movement while controlling his aim like in Contra III and Shattered Soldier, giving a more complete control to an already solid gameplay system. Unlike the japanese version of Contra Hard Corps, this game lacks of the three Hit Points rule of said game, making it a "One hit and you're dead" type of game where the difference between success and failure is determined by quick reacting and memorizing attack patterns.
I am in the Eye in the Lab.
Looking at yo-oooo-ou, I can read your mind.
No Contra game (clones included) is complete without the gargantuan monsters to fight against. Super Cyborg follows that rule by the numbers and tosses you on heavy combat with creatures that will attack you with some tough but fun to learn attack patterns. You've might lose a couple of lives or even get two or three Game Overs in the process, but unlike Contra's limited continues, the game grants you unlimited credits and even saving the game after reaching a checkpoint on large levels and after clearing a level. Fortunately there's no pits or additional surprise hazards during those fights. It's face-to-thing, you against the boss.
It's vertical scrolled gunfights on the sewers!
Once you're done, your next target is Shred-Head.
While the game is heavily influenced by the first Contra, it borrows a few elements from Super C, and that's the vertical scrolling level. However, the layout is not the simple all the way up, the game will make you walk up, right, down, right and finally up. Super Cyborg takes liberties with the Contra formula as it features a small branching element on stage 5 where you can decide if you want to go up and face a worm sub-boss or go down and navigate through more obstacles and enemies. Another inclusion of new features is the "Hidden Items" (you can call this element "Controid" if you want to). You can get power ups by shooting and destroying "marked" parts of the stage, granting you a weapon or like in the final level, a 1up. It was kinda disappointing that we didn't had motorcycle stages or missile jumping boss fights like in the good ol' Contra III, but Super Cyborg is still amazing and really worth playing.
Nice work, kid!
Think you can do it again?
Once you've finished the game, your saved game will be deleted, but if you select New Game again on the same "session" you'll start again with the score you've got. This is important to learn if you want to go for the half million point achievement 'cos you'll be clearing the game more than once. This game has achievements that will demand the upmost capabilities of any Contra enthusiast. Even a "Self-imposed" challenge like clearing the game with the default gun is an Achievement. If you're good enough with the game you can try to get the no miss achievements for clearing Normal and even Hard without losing a single life. Well, here's a hint for those two: Play like normal making sure you don't get hit throughout a level. If you take a hit, quit the game, open the saved file and try again. Doing this will require patience and tolerance, but it is definitely possible.
The (Mechanical) Hero of the Day.
The graphics are a nod to late 8-bit and early 16-bit titles. The color palettes used throughout the game are more reminiscent of the Sega Master System and the TurboGrafx-16 than the NES, as we have brighter colors, very detailed scenarios, more than two layers of parallax scrolling in most of the game and fancy technological "lighting" effects that look and feel like an early 16-bit console. Only Stages 6 and 7 are NES-like, and not to mention the cutscenes, which are quite Amiga-PC Engine styled rather than NES-like. The explosions aren't just the classic random placed explosions when something big dies. This game throws a blazing boom-fest of explosions on fast spinning patterns just like in Contra: Hard Corps, making the action more intense and fast-paced.
It's the Visceral Pool Party 2022! Just in time for this summer!
Guest Artists: KoRn, Metallica and Pantera!
Super Cyborg is clearly influenced by the Contra series not just in the nostalgia factor, but also on the alien repulsive appearance which looks influenced by Contra: Shattered Soldier with wretched aberrations and bio-technological monstrosities that rivals said game. Stage 4 has more "mundane" designs like bats and spiders making it look like a Castlevania game. Yeah, out of the Contra context, but still Konami-nodding anyway.
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The character design is obviously a clear nod to the European Probotector, the censored versions of Contra and Super C where Bill and Lance were replaced with robots 'cos back then, having humans with guns on videogames was considered violent. Back then, they thought games were for kiddies.
Introducing the UNSC Combat Cyborg.
Once you start a new game, you're granted the option of selecting Cyborg Version 1 or 2, and the most important aspect of all, change the colors of your character. ¿Did you know you can have a Gypsy Danger-like robot with a rifle by selecting blue as main color and red visor-detail? The color changing feature also improves one major detail: Your rifle's colors. ¿Hate the baby-toy colored gun?, CHANGE IT! Your Cyborgs are mean fighting machines and you want to make your robot look like a real threat, not a joke.
Rizer, go ahead uproot it.
Clearing the game grants you the option of playing as a human like the good ol' Contra. While the default colors sends your soldier in red pants like Lance Bean, you can change the colors for a custom Bill Rizer, and even change his skin color if you want your soldier to be Lou Ferrino's Hulk with a bandana and a rifle. "Hulk Smash" indeed. It's too bad we don't have the option of picking a female character in the style of Sheena, Lucia, Sally and Erica.
The sound department takes liberties from the traditional Contra-style soundtrack and feel more like a mixture of other action games. Stages 1 and 2 sound like a cross between Natsume's Shatterhand/Solbrain and Capcom's Codename: Viper, Stages 3 and 5 feel influenced by Tim and Geoff Follin (Sky Shark, Silver Surfer) with a mix of Sunsoft's Batman: The Video Game, Level 4 is quite Castlevania-ish with a hint of Turrican, Level 6 sounds like something out of a TMNT game and finally Level 7 which returns to the Sunsoft Batman style. The sound effects are very similar to those of Contra and Super C, mostly on the weapons and the "Puchaauung!" heard when you die. This is basically a homage to the NES in terms of sounds and music rather than just homaging a simple game.
You can also drop the game's music volume to zero if you want to play your MP3 player of your cellphone and hear your own music. So, here's a playlist for this game.
Lamb of God - Black Label
Meshuggah - Corridor of Chameleons
Metallica - Prince Charming
Overkill - Damned
Rob Zombie - Scum of the Earth
Guns N' Roses - Shackler's Revenge
SUPER CURIOSITIES
- This is the first game developed by Artur Games.
The Cyborg's right, Nina.
It's Party Time!
Artur Games really made an astonishing debut on the Indie gaming scene. Super Cyborg is a great Contra clone for those who are looking something more 8-bit like. I strongly recommend this game for those who are hunger for some Run N' Gun action and want to definitely forget the trash that was Contra Rogue Corps. Looks like this is a great moment for Run N' Guns. First Blazing Chrome, Contra Anniversary Collection, the ACA Neogeo Metal Slug releases, now Super Cyborg and the upcoming re-release of Spidersaurs, the only thing left is a release of GunForce and GunForce II/Geo Storm on the Arcade Archives series to complete the retro Run-N-Gun fun.
All the scales are on their most positive today.
I guess pics say more than many words.
is on sale via NA PSN @ $3.49 and @ $2.79 for PS Plus now thru 12/22/2022