Super C Review

 (Originally published to Glitchwave on 11/8/2024)

[Image from glitchwave.com]

Super C

Developer: Konami

Publisher: Konami

Genre(s): Run 'n Gun

Platforms: Arcade, NES

Release Date: January 8, 1988

As far as the remembrance of the assorted Contra games is concerned, the series second outing, Super C, has received the short end of the legacy stick. Diminishing the legacy of the second title is a common trend for several of gaming's classic franchises that churned out several titles during the early, pixelated eras of gaming, namely on the NES. Because Super C was rarely spoken of compared to the two Contra entries chronologically between it, I assumed that it was yet another example of a sophomore pratfall. Was Super C an instance of a misunderstood deviation in gameplay like Zelda II, or was it a half-assed experiment like Simon's Quest that attempted to execute a methodical approach to gameplay? I highly doubt it's a case of mistaken identity like the American Super Mario Bros. 2, even if the first Contra inspired several imitators. No, to my surprise, Super C is an exemplary run n’ gun experience on the NES. Dare I say, it’s even better than its predecessor which manages to still receive all of the due credit when discussing the iconic examples from this early era of gaming.

If we must assess every aspect of Super C to properly critique it, the only instance of sequel fatigue is that its narrative replicates the one from the first game. The Soviet soldier and extraterrestrial imperialist coalition has returned to enact another attempt at laying waste to the Western world, enslaving the American population either economically or erasing all autonomy completely. While their persistence is honestly admirable, the two causes of their first failure, the testosterone-oozing duo of Bill and Lance, are still ripe and ready to defend the inalienable freedoms given to everyone born in the US of A. Even though our courageous heroes aren’t hesitating to jump into the line of fire again, the player(s) will likely approach this second Contra outing with a cautious sense of dread. If we can confidently state anything regarding Contra’s legacy, Konami’s series is notorious for being so goddamn difficult that playing it will instill a gaming PTSD as deep-seated and intense as stepping into the role of a soldier and experiencing combat in real life. One piece of context regarding Super C, in particular, is that Konami has eliminated their namesake code from this title. It was a precious ten-digit sequence that better ensured the player’s survival during the first game. Now that it’s disappeared without a trace, any player’s confidence is bound to burst from their being like a disembodied soul. Before the player begins to cope with the inevitability of eating borscht and whatever unholy diet that aliens subsist off of for the rest of their lives, I can say with conviction that they won’t struggle to the same extent in Super C even without the generous safety net.

Immediately, Super C’s comparative accessibility should be apparent by the first screen. Unlike the jungle where bullets were shaking from the trees like little lead coconuts, the commie military base presents a more reasonable barrage of deadly objects to contend with for an introductory level. All angles of the screen will see firepower flying toward the player as they move, but they’ll have ample opportunity to react accordingly because the bullets seem to move at a glacial pace. Enemies from behind proceed towards the player at a brisk jog, and the turrets are situated at an incline above a pit in the route. If the player uses the sunken support to their advantage, they can eradicate the machine while avoiding its projectiles completely. If there is one noticeable consistency with Super C’s level design, it’s that the developers decided that the bottomless pits that were littered throughout the first game’s battlegrounds were too common for comfort. In a game where the protagonists will become lifelessly cold and stiff as cardboard by even the slight graze of anything in this environment, they figured that misstepping platforms was too extraneous of a casualty. When the player returns to the jungle in the third area, the humid wilderness has been flattened to a crepe. Swimming in the neck-deep water doesn’t even put the player in a spot of vulnerability as it once did, for they can duck beneath the surface to protect themselves from the whizzing offense of bullets from above. One might state that Contra’s level design has been streamlined, but areas with intensive platforming are still available–just later in the game as an additional obstacle to overcome along with keeping an eye out for enemies and their projectiles. Platforming becomes an intense bout of timing and precision during one particular section in the surreal and sublime alien hive where the roof sequentially rises and falls on the player like a piston. Ascent levels also return from the first Contra, but the player can climb at their own pace without having to worry about being consumed by the screen. Just be wary of enemies materializing on screen and a rogue purple boulder falling from the sky in the fifth area and all other sorts of enemy onslaught can be flexibly mitigated.

Super C also continues the trend of swapping the perspective of level progression for every other area to shuffle the gameplay up a bit. Instead of charging through a facility from a quasi-third-person perspective, Super C adopts a top-down drone view more appropriately fitting for an 8-bit title. From this perspective, Bill and Lance have a clearer view of everything closing in on them, plus the player isn’t forced to readjust entirely to a different control scheme. Discerning where one’s bullet trajectory is also much clearer, for the angle at which the player was aiming at was hard to determine from the backs of Bill/Lance’s thick skulls. Overall, the change that occurs with every other level in the name of diversifying the gameplay isn’t as jarring. The alien base infiltrations were essential to the narrative of the first Contra, but I vastly prefer levels that feature something more compatible with the 8-bit hardware.

The developers also evidently noticed that players tended not to fall as frequently as leaves in autumn when they were properly equipped with effective weaponry. I’m not stating that the standard blaster should be removed or that reverting to using it upon death is an inappropriate penalty. Still, the punishment extends to being stuck with the default weapon in the game for a long swathe of time, and the player is likely to exhaust plenty of lives in that vulnerable period. In Super C, the developers have granted the player with a Berlin Airlift of aid. Flying weapon capsules appear nearly thrice as much as they did in the previous game, and each of them is generous enough to bring a friend if one of them doesn’t suit your fancy. Every single weapon and enhancement item from the first game transfers over as well, so the player should already be accustomed to how each of them will serve their mission. However, even though one’s inkling for a certain weapon should be subjective, it’s guaranteed that every player will be salivating at the chance of a capsule revealing an “S” to signify the almighty spread gun. While the divine beast of weapons technology will still eradicate all that stands before it in three different directions, I’m afraid that our beloved has lost a bit of its unabated luster. Don’t worry–the nerfing of the spread gun is like tweaking an atomic bomb to disintegrate a city instead of an entire country when dropped.

I noticed the spread gun’s relative decline in destructiveness when I was faced against the level-ending bosses of Super C. Unlike the enemies that crumble with one strike of a spread gun bullet, the bosses are obviously heftier challenges. The helicopter boss at the climax of the first level shouldn’t have had enough time to deploy any auxiliary defenses when I was sticking spread gun shots up its ass like an enema. Alas, liberally using the once-divine weapon did not relieve me from dodging its obstacles to prevent losing it upon death. Illustrating this experience may connote that the bosses of Super C are a more formidable bunch but really, it just conveys how the developers knocked the spread gun down a peg so the other weapons stood a fair chance. The reality of the situation is that like every other aspect of Super C, the bosses are another example of comparative ease. The aforementioned helicopter and the Krypto-crustacean unleash smaller enemies on the player, which are far more detectable than swarms of bullets. The Laser Chandellier’s blast pattern is learnable like first-grade arithmetic, and the “Babalu Destructoid Mechanism” will short circuit in seconds when the player notices that his top doesn’t have a cannon attached. The two-phased Jagger Froid fight is as difficult as any of the bosses from the first Contra, but I wanted to highlight him anyway because his horrific alien visage the player will be bombarding with bullets is quite the Gigerian spectacle. The same could be said about the final bosses’ design, achieving the same balance between cool and grotesque. In terms of it's position as the game’s final challenge, it’s a perfect test of one’s proficiency without stepping over into the territory of impossibility.

Is Super C inherently better than the original Contra because it’s easier? Yes, any other questions? Accessibility isn’t always imperative to enhance a gaming experience, or at least that’s an applicable statement for modern video games. In the case of the cruel and unrelenting NES era, I’ll take every helping of sugar to make this medicine go down smoother. Reworking the assets of the previous game to reach something smoother should always be an integral goal of any sequel, and it’s a wonder why so many other franchises of the NES era decided to abscond entirely from the first game’s fabric instead of fixing its foundation. As a result of giving Contra a coat of fresh wax, Super C is one of the most agreeable experiences I’ve had with an early, pixelated video game. Why then isn’t Super C the prime representative for the Contra franchise, or why is it still undermined by the first game? I’ve explained this before, but NES enthusiasts gaming when the system was released are like ODB in that they like it raw. Sorry oldheads, but I don’t think we share the same kink.