Wild Canine borrows nearly all the things from Konami’s basic Contra collection, and it is a good factor. Initially glowing in good shades of monochromatic inexperienced and shaped like a superbly detailed Recreation Boy title, it’s each visually pleasing and profitable in its nostalgic reimaginings.
Enjoying as mercenary Frank.Williams and his doggy companion Teddy, this run-and-gun pits you in opposition to alien hordes via a number of prolonged missions. It’s filled with excellent bosses and pacy automobile pursuits, starting from missile-rocking helicopters to gun-laden automobiles and bikes. It has Contra III’s twin weapon wielding and switching construction, the flexibility to repair your intention with the ZR set off, and a double soar obtainable proper off the bat. The weapons vary from homing missiles and boomerang lasers to flamethrowers and the all-eclipsing, nonetheless wildly profitable unfold gun.
Enemies stream in from the left and proper whereas gun emplacements, cannon-laden partitions, and floating alien monsters all beg for fast destruction. Whereas not good, it’s definitely a number of enjoyable, stuffed with creativity, and able to hit you with a couple of surprises in a while. The primary mission is not notably robust, though the display screen can get busy and require a eager eye till you get your subsequent well being drop. There’s a time restrict so you possibly can’t simply camp and spam re-spawning enemies for point-based life extensions, and there are cute sections the place Frank will wait when you lead his canine via tight tunnels plagued by traps. At one level your canine pal jumps into a large mech and will be seen piloting it via the hooded window. It’s gimmicky, maybe, however a pleasant contact that adjustments the tempo of play and retains issues attention-grabbing. Bosses, too, look fabulous and have actually rewarding patterns to be taught and overcome.
Wild Canine does get fairly difficult by the third mission, and we’d want sure smaller enemies to die somewhat extra rapidly to maintain issues flowing at a gentle tempo, however on the entire, developer 2ndBoss clearly understands what makes Contra tick. Though there are set items, and a fantastic, fittingly retro soundtrack, it doesn’t have the dimensions of Konami’s best — these moments the place issues would shift into pure, adrenaline-soaked cinematic spectacle — and a number of the automobile sections are a tad cumbersome. These are pretty minor criticisms, nevertheless.
The one situation that irks us essentially the most is that it’s typically onerous to discern incoming fireplace amidst the motion. It’s extremely probably that the monochromatic color scheme is the wrongdoer right here, however because it stands you’re often consuming bullets you possibly can’t spot. You may have a beneficiant life bar, nevertheless it nonetheless implies that you could transfer extra cautiously and abandon that full-on, gung-ho Schwarzenegger bravado — a minimum of till you may have the lay of the land. You possibly can’t use a proceed mid-mission, so observe makes good.
The Recreation Boy-inspired color palette will be modified with the shoulder buttons on the fly, which is able to clarify the tonal disparity of our screenshots. Whereas we just like the sepia hues, it is good to modify them out everytime you need — if you happen to fancy a change, that’s Its CRT and filter settings, too, are shaped very well, with scanlines and curvatures for the old-school fanatic to toy with.
Regardless of the bullet-soaking and clunky automobile sections, we like Wild Canine. It’s a Contra tribute in an sudden however genuinely eye-pleasing type that largely hits all the suitable notes and can fulfill any die-hard fan of Konami’s collection or retro gaming typically.
