The pinnacle of the Contra series.
The basic idea of any Contra game is to pretty much shoot anything that moves. Enemies come at you from all sides so a sharp eye is keen to survival in this game. Thankfully there's plenty of firepower for you to play with. Outside of the default machine gun there are five different weapons and you can carry up to two at a time. The spread gun, a fan favorite since the original Contra is ideal for taking out hordes of enemies and has a nice range. The laser gun also returns and it turns out to be a pretty useful weapon this time. Homing missiles rock, especially if you're lazy and you don't like aiming directly at your targets. Concussion missiles may not fire as many rounds as the homing gun but they do big damage. Lastly, there's the flamethrower and even though it has a limited reach, the fact that it stays lit when you fire it makes it a force to be reckoned with.
As previously mentioned Contra III has two types of levels, side scrolling and top view. Side scrolling levels mostly involve scrolling to the right of the screen, having you pick off any enemies that try to get at you. The third level borrows some upward scrolling from the original Contra's jungle level, so if you're playing a 2 player game, you'll have to be careful not to accidentally kill your partner by advancing the screen too fast. Top down levels have you taking out five set targets before moving on to the stage boss. Depending on what type of two player game you select (A or B), you'll either have a split screen or shared screen. Top view levels make the most use of dual weapons as pressing both the L and R buttons at the same time will cause your character to rotate, firing both weapons at once.
Easy, normal, and hard. Those are Contra III's difficulty settings. If you're new to Contra games or Contra III, you may want to start out with the easy mode since normal and hard will throw a lot more at you. There's also no Konami code to help you out here, so once you use up all your continues, the aliens win.
Contra games have been well known for having awesome bosses and the Alien Wars is no exception. One of the game's coolest bosses makes his entrance by tearing open the walls to the boss chamber, shooting homing lasers at you, attacks you with fire and then tries to blow you up with five second detonator bombs. The boss of the fourth stage is also memorable for requiring you to jump from missile to missile, shooting to expose the bosses weak point. If you love a game that isn't afraid to pour on the bosses, you'll get a huge kick out of Contra III. Even some of the mini bosses are intimidating.
Originally released in 1992 on the SNES, Contra III still holds up both on the audio and visual side. Boasting a truly superb, pulse pounding, apocalyptic soundtrack, there isn't a single forgettable tune in the game. The sprites to this day remain some of the finest the system has ever produced and the devastated backgrounds do a wonderful job of sucking you into the ruined world that is Contra III's Earth. If you're looking for the best Contra game in the series, look no further.