From there you ride a giant propeller as it crashes into the ground, before fighting a guy in a metal combat suit with sword hands, which he uses to cut down a skyscraper. Killing that tips over another building that you run up the side of in order to fight a 10-story robot that fucking throws cars at you.

Contra: Hard Corps is one of the most fast paced, intense, over-the-top crazy-ass games I’ve ever played, not just on the Genesis, but for video games in general.Īnd if it wasn’t for him, I’d have been married a long time ago.įor those of you who haven’t played it, he’s a quick recap: You begin the game running through a gauntlet of enemy fire while mowing down a small army, before fighting a giant metal ant that shoots lasers, and then run through an earthquake to fight a flame-throwing robot that breaks through a building just to get at you.

I have no idea if that’s how the game was actually made, but it’s almost impossible to imagine any other method producing a game like this. And each time, the development team went back to their drawing boards, adding as much awesome as they could, until finally, instead of repeating his request for increased awesomeness, the lead designer’s head exploded.

The best way to describe Contra: Hard Corps is to imagine what would happen if, at every point during a game’s development cycle, the person in charge kept demanding his team “put more awesome in it”.

Download contra hard corps sega