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Contra Spirits, also known as Super Contra 3, is a pirated Famicom port of Contra III: The Alien Wars (Contra Spirits in Japan and Super Probotector: Alien Rebels in Europe) for the SNES, made by Ei-How Yang (and possibly others) in 1995. It was only released in 1997.

Gameplay[]

The powerups are limited when compared with the original games, with the only collectable weapons being the laser and spread guns, and these function slightly differently. The spread gun only fires in 3 directions as opposed to 5 and the laser only does 2 regular shots of damage. The smart bombs are also kept in this version and function similarly to those from the SNES game.

The player can start with anywhere between 3 and 9 lives (between 3 and 30 in the rerelease) through the use of the options screen, although there are no continues in this game. (there also appears to be no way to gain extra lives here either) There is also a sound test there, although the difficulty option was removed.

The controls are similar, although the player can change direction while crouched. Due to the limited number of buttons, the player now only has one gun as opposed to two. The controls are actually very similar to the original Contra.

ContraSpiritsGameplay

Contra Spirits' gameplay.

Audiovisuals[]

The audiovisuals were remade from the original game and simplified, and they were used on the appropriate levels. There is some sprite flicker in this game though, including the ending.

Levels[]

Like in the original game, this pirate is split up into six areas. The first is similar to that of the original's, although the tank mini-boss was omitted in this version. The second level is actually the third from the original game, and is mostly accurate aside from the start where the rolling enemies can't be killed.

The third level is the fourth from the original game, and the multilayered scrolling is glitched in some versions of the game, being applied at the tunnel at the start when it shouldn't be. There are also no powerups on this level. The fourth level is the second from the original game, and is very different to the original. The screen only scrolls upwards and (due to the lack of Mode 7 effects) doesn't rotate.

The fifth level is almost identical to the second level (in this version) except the sky is pink as opposed to blue. The rolling enemies use different sprites here for unknown reasons. The final level is in a similar form as it was in the original, although some parts were cut out such as the starting area.

Intro & ending[]

The intro clip of this game has English text available neither in the original Contra III: The Alien Wars nor in the Japanese original: WELCOME / THE WORLD OF GAME / A GAME / END. There is also at least one Japanese mistake in the intro as well.

The ending to this game is your player holding on to a helicopter with the word "THEND" written at the bottom of the screen.

Trivia[]

  • When the player jumps, the sprite faces backwards for unknown reasons.
JYCompanyLogo2

J.Y. Company's logo, as found in this game.

  • There is a level select cheat which can be accessed by pressing A, B and Select simultaneously on the intermission screen.
Contra spirits alt title

"Rambo Gaiden" title logo.

  • Graphics for a seemingly unused title screen, reading "Lanbo Waichuan" (Rambo Gaiden) can be found in the ROM.
  • This game also includes the J.Y. Company logo which can be accessed by pressing Up X4, Down X4, Left X2 and Right X2 during the intro. However, this one is somewhat smaller than those which can be found in some Hummer Team games, but larger than in that in Donkey Kong Country 4. Like those games, you'll have to reset to get past this screen.
  • Despite containing the J.Y. logo, this game has yet to be discovered on a J.Y. cartridge.
  • The level complete theme from this game was reused in Toy Story.
  • The cartridge features Duke Nukem on it, rather than any Contra characters, and also uses screenshots of Contra Hard Corps in the background.
  • This game was re-released one year later, in 1996, featuring a different selection of starting lives, up to 30.
  • Whenever the "falling" sound effect plays (used here when, for example, you take damage), the channel that played it (Square 1) will be muted until the next sound effect (that is not the "falling" sound) plays, meaning the background music loses one "instrument" temporarily. This sound effect is also present in Ei-How Yang's other games (Mickey Mania 7, Super Donkey Kong, Pocohontos and Toy Story), with the exact same issue.

Gallery[]

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