If you’ve read title of this article, I’m pretty sure you’re either a fan of the Contra franchise or you’re probably very curious about the legacy of one of the most famous franchises in the run ‘n gun genre, with unbridled action, bullet hell and adrenaline.

After a curious launch with Contra: Rogue Corps, Konami wanted to redeem itself by returning to the classic molds that made Contra a big name in the market, this time called Contra: Operation Galuga.

Is Contra: Operation Galuga a blast from the past?

As I mentioned, Operation Galuga tries to follow the mold of the older Contra games so faithfully that it brings back much of what was introduced in the series in the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis games, with the possibility of carrying two different or identical weapons, depending on your taste, as well as the possibility of upgrading the weapons you’re using.

In some way, Operation Galuga is a looks like a “remake” that tries to “continue” the first game!

At first I thought it was strange, but I could understand the idea, given that Contra has never been a franchise that has had such wide appeal on the market…

It all sounds interesting, doesn’t it?

Well, depends…

Although it faithfully follows the number of stages in the original game released on the NES back in 1987, here those scenarios where you walk down a corridor have been replaced by motorcycle stages, which sounds interesting, until you play with them, wich makes the new interaction float around the coolness and unnecessary weirdness.

Sometimes I had the feeling that it was an attempt to innovate which ended up leaving the game with new things to do without the necessary excitement.

The same essence with a few new things

The essence of Contra still here, shooting all over the place, high difficulty, new game modes with different challenges, new characters and old battle buddies, but at the same time I particularly felt a lack of replay factor.

Although having a challenge mode, the challenges themselves don’t add anything “different” and “appealing” to the game, you follow the same 8 scenarios as in the story mode, only with some meaningless “extra” objectives in between, not to mention that the campaign mode, despite adding an interesting context to the lore of the franchise, ends up in a way “holding the player back” with long and sometimes unnecessary dialogues.

Despite these problems, playing with 4 people is a good idea, since the game’s difficulty is scaled according to the number of players in the game.

Is it good for a livestream?

So the question is, would I recommend this game to you?

And again, it depends…

Contra: Operation Galuga, is the kind of game for people who are big fans of the franchise, for new players it might not be so attractive, so if your audience is the kind that really likes run ‘n gun games and the Contra franchise itself, it’s interesting to stream and even play with them.

Now, if you’re the kind of creator who would like to try it out and bring it to your audience, well, I think there are more interesting and innovative options within the genre or even the franchise itself, such as older games like Contra: Hard Corps or Contra: Rebirth, which would certainly add more than the latest release.

Contra: Operation Galuga

PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch (2024)

Performance

Streamability

Audience Engagement

Replayability

Summary

Despite having new game modes, Contra: Operation Galuga relies so heavily on the past that it leaves the impression of being a dated game for today’s standards, whether it’s due to its “outdated” graphics for a renowned company like Konami, or its difficulty in adding really interesting challenges after the first completion of its short campaign, turning the game into just another in the tiny run ‘n gun niche.