Contra: Operation Galuga Review

ign.com:

Like returning to a beloved amusement park as an adult, Contra: Operation Galuga instantly reconnected me with the 2D run-and-gunners from the quarter-slinging arcade days of my youth. And just like revisiting a childhood fancy, I quickly remembered why I had so much fun with this series, while also feeling a bit underwhelmed by how little things have evolved in all that time. This reimagining of the original Contra offers a perfectly adequate modernization of a bonafide classic that makes for an enjoyable jaunt alongside your friends, but it’s also perhaps overly faithful to its predecessors, allowing for only the slightest tweaks. I don’t regret the handful of hours it took me and my buds to get through all of Operation Galuga, but it’s one of those games that’s likely to fade from my memory just as quickly.

This sidescroller plays it safe with the reliable, if not particularly exciting, formula of fighting through stages filled with enemies before taking on a boss. Despite being framed as a sequel to the original Contra, Operation Galuga is a lot closer to a remake. It features the same macho dudebro protagonists, Bill Rizer and Lance Bean, on the same island going through many of the same stages in the same order. You and a friend will blast your way through familiar levels, like the waterfall stage with a giant alien at the end, the icy train ride stage, and even that part where you end up inside a massive alien’s body to do battle against the big guy’s gross parasites – just like in the original Contra from 1987. That said, Operation Galuga sets itself apart with some substantial additions, including fully voiced characters (complete with cutscenes), new playable characters with their own abilities and playstyles, and most notably, new 2D stages to replace the less interesting pseudo-3D shooting gallery levels from the original. All of these things do help to refresh an experience that plays things extremely close to its roots in almost every other sense.

Operat