C: The Contra Adventure (1998). Play online

Summary

C: The Contra Adventure aimed to reinvent the classic run‑and‑gun feel by swapping pure side‑scroll action for a hybrid of perspectives. Across ten stages you’ll jump from classic 2‑D side‑scrolling to free‑roaming third‑person, overhead 360‑degree movement, and even a quirky “Weightless Elevator” that mixes multidirectional and 3D shooting on a single screen.

The game packs a variety of weapons—shatter gun, rockets, grenades and the trusty machine gun—while the player battles alien soldiers, tanks, UFOs and more. Three difficulty settings shape the experience, though Easy halts progress after the Pyramid 1 stage, limiting the adventure’s length.

Critics were harsh. GameSpot gave it a 3.6/10, calling it a disappointing Konami release, while IGN slashed it to a 1.0, saying it wasn’t what fans expected. Even so, some reviewers noted the title’s ambitious mode variety and praised its stylistic attempts, albeit with obvious flaws.

Storyline

In C: The Contra Adventure, a meteorite carrying an alien infestation hurtles toward Earth after the events of Contra: Legacy of War. The rock crashes near a remote Mayan temple in South America, and the alien presence quickly overtakes the site, causing the local natives to vanish and the surrounding wildlife to be decimated. Tasha, a member of the elite Contra Force, is dispatched to infiltrate the occupied temple, but she disappears during the mission. Ray Poward—who had retired following Legacy of War—is recalled to the front lines. His objective is to locate Tasha, re‑establish contact, and eliminate the alien invaders threatening the temple and the world.