Mini Review – Hard Corps: Uprising

Arcade shooter

Another day in the corps!

Gareth

Thanks to games like the original Contra, Metal Slug 3 and Gunstar Heroes I have become quite a fan of the run and gun shooter. For those that are unaware, this is a Contra game. Contra: Hard Corps was released on the Mega Drive and this is a prequel created by Arc System Works, the makers of the 2D fighting games Guilty Gear and BlazBlue, and has just been released on XBLA. Does this live up to the Contra name (which is doesn’t use)?

Looks totally fair.

Well it’s hard, that’s for sure. Hard Corps offers two game modes, Arcade and Uprising. Arcade is a simple playthrough of the game with limited lives, continues and minimal abilities. Uprising on the other hand is where you’ll spend most of your time and offers the most replay value. Uprising mode allows you to pick from any stage you’ve reached so you don’t have to start from the beginning every time you play like in Arcade mode and most importantly you can spend upgrade points to strengthen your character. These upgrades can be anything from extra lives or continues, faster movement speed to even special moves. They can be quite expensive so you’re not going to be buying them all too quickly but they do help a lot. Once you’ve bought an ability you can also turn it off so you can practise for Arcade mode with minimal assistance once you’re confident enough.

No matter which mode you pick the levels are the same and you can play it all in co-op (online and offline). As you’d expect you generally travel from left to right killing stuff before it kills you although not always on foot. Hard Corps borrows a lot of ideas from many other games of this type, from a section very similar to the mine cart level in Gunstar Heroes to a hoverboard level akin to TMNT: Turtles in Time. Not in itself a bad thing but I do feel the other games did it better. Whether it’s the overly flat visuals (reasonably impressive 2D hand drawn characters over a less impressive 3D background) or the level design itself, it’s obvious Hard Corps is trying to craft epic set pieces but for the most part in just falls flat. Leaping over a gorge on a bike should feel more exciting, but it doesn’t. It’s the same story with the bosses. Yes, they’re tough, but I’m not intimidated by them.

That’s not to say Hard Corps: Uprising is awful. The shooting is fun, it’s as challenging as you’d expect or want from this type of game, the upgrade system adds depth and a different way of playing and you can share the whole experience with a friend. It’s just a shame it fails to reach the heights of the games it tries so hard to emulate.

6/10