Contra: Legacy of War (PS1) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

A playthrough of Konami's 1996 run-and-gun shooter for the Sony PlayStation, Contra: Legacy of War.

Played through on the hard difficulty level with Ray.

Konami's iconic macho shooter series' introduction to three dimensions was the first main-line Contra game that wasn't developed internally by a Konami development team, and the first title in the series to be released under the Contra name in PAL territories. It was also the first game in the series to not have a Japanese release.

Contra: Legacy of War has taken a lot of heat over the years. It wasn't positively received when it first released in 1996 on the PS1 and Saturn, and opinions don't seem to have shifted much in the past twenty-two years.

It's a fairly representative example of early 3D third-person shooters - there's no analog control, the perspective makes lining up shots is far more difficult than it should be, and precision jumping is a chore due to the lack of reliable character shadows. It's not ideal, but it's not a complete wreck. It merely highlighted many of the challenges developers dealt with in the difficult shift from 2D to 3D gameplay. Contra: Legacy of War is an entertaining, albeit frustrating, game saddled with the baggage of its era.

I think the real problem with the game is the title: it doesn't feel like Contra, and the name set the bar too high. While Contra: Legacy of War was a perfectly acceptable shooter when taken by its own merits, people expected Contra, and that's not what they got.

While I'd never hail Contra: Legacy of War as a classic, it's nowhere near as bad as hype makes it sound. It just brings a crushing feeling of disappointment with it that can be quite difficult to shak.

And wtf were they thinking with that anaglyph 3D mode? Neat idea, if you love blue and red games, paper glasses, and headaches.
_
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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