When I downloaded Contra and Super C for NES, I was blown away, and then I got this for the Wii's VC, PURE AWESOMENESS!
GAMEPLAY:
Well first to start of, this is one very hard game, one of the hardest SNES games I have ever played. It's even harder then Contra and Super Contra for the NES, but it's so much fun, you just won't care. At times it can feel punishing so I do admit it may feel like you take a cheap hit once in a while, and this has been true of all Contra games, but it's never been a serious downside, I have played other games where things like that are and this is not one of them. One hit and you lose a life like in all Contra games, but you at least continue in the spot where you were killed. The controls are great and easy to adapt to, not a very hard learning curve on the controls, just maybe one on how you need to stay alive and what power ups do, but that's not really a big deal, that's one of the points of a game, and it's no fun unless you get stuff like this. My one gripe I have is that some enemies move faster then you do for you to get away, it's beatable, but still very hard even so.
GRAPHICS:
Very nicely done, I also noticed that this game was on the Game Boy, and looking at it there, it was graphicly awesome there as well, and it has nice cut moments as well with well detailed graphics.
SOUND:
As this is a 16 bit game, I will be brief. The sounds are very good and the music is great as well. Very fitting of the Contra series and very exciting.
OVERALL:
If you want a hardcore classic, this is it, got on the Wii Shop Channel, Download this for the Virtual Console, and play it. Best Contra yet in my opinion.