Lost In Translation/Super Contra

About The Game
Super Contra is an arcade video game.

The sequel to "Contra", released a full year after the original On December 2634, a disturbing distress signal from General Hal - who was on his way to South America in preparation for the GX Army's 7th military manoeuvres - is received, reporting that the GX Army has suddenly revolted. The top branch of the federation forces calls in Bill and Lance to investigate the situation.

They arrive at the base ruins, only to find out to be attacked by the members of the GX Army. Bill notices the pale blue skin and the lifeless eyes in their former allies and begins shooting at them. As it turns out, the GX Army is being possessed by a mutated form of the alien creatures they fought at Galuga. And so the battle between the Contras and the aliens has begun again.

Super Contra plays identically to its predecessor, with the usual mix of run-and-gun game-play. The main difference was that the into-the-screen stages of the original Contra were replaced by overhead stages. In addition, weapons were now upgradeable and represented by the actual guns themselves as opposed to the letter icons of the first game. Players have also gained the ability to duck underwater to avoid being shot. There are a total of five levels, many of which have sub-bosses.

The available weapons in the game are as followed :
 * Machine Gun - Fires bullets at auto-fire. The upgraded version increases the firing rate to a near-ridiculous speed.
 * Bomb Launcher - Fires bombs that spreads fire when it hits its target. The upgraded version causes bigger explosions.
 * Laser Rifle - Fires a powerful laser beam once per shot. The upgraded version fires a larger beam.
 * Spread Shot - Fires a three-way shot. Increases to a five-way spread after the upgrade.
 * Mega Shell - Available only in the top-view stages. After picking it up, the player can launch it by pressing the jump button and kill all on-screen enemies.

Level Overview
The stages are as follow :

Area 1 - Outer Base
(Side-view) Takes place in a military base overrun by possessed soldiers. Bosses includes a manned tank and a possessed helicopter. At the end of the level, the player must destroy a core protected by a pair of snipers and a grenade thrower to gain entrance to the next area.

Area 2 - Inner Base
(Top-view) Inside a tank hanger filled with manned tanks and cannons in addition to enemy soldiers. The boss at the end is the Hyper Electric Magnetic Tank Magnus, which is operated by three gunners.

Area 3 - Jungle
(Side-view) Enemies come from trees as the player progress through the level. The player will sometime have to cross a lake, which they can hide underneath to avoid fire. As the player reaches the end of the level, they begin fighting against alien eggs that produce facehugger-like creatures (the same ones featured in the original game). The boss at the end is an alien shrine with a skull.

Area 4 - 1st Alien Lair
(Side-view) Takes place inside an alien nest. The enemies are now xenomorph-like creatures and mouths that shoot alien spawns. The sub-boss is an alien hovercraft composed of skulls, while the actual boss is a flying alien.

Area 5 - 2nd Alien Lair
(Top-view) - The final stage, filled with mouths emerging from the ground, flying heads and spider-like creatures. The final boss is Gaver, a giant alien head with snake-like arms. After destroying the final boss, you can see a small alien spawn which flies off-screen if you pay close attention.

Trivia
Released in January 1988.

This game is known in Japan as "Super Contra - Alien no Gyakushuu".

King Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Music From Super Contra & AJax - K30X-7702) on 21/03/1988.

Updates
The western version ends the game after the staff roll, while the Japanese version takes the player to a second and harder cycle of the game.

Series

 * 1) Contra (1987)
 * 2) Super Contra (1988)
 * 3) Operation C (1991, Nintendo Game Boy)
 * 4) Contra Force (1992, Nintendo NES)
 * 5) Contra III - The Alien Wars (1992, Nintendo Super Famicom)
 * 6) Contra - Hard Corps (1994, Sega Mega Drive)
 * 7) Contra - Legacy of War (1996, Sony PlayStation)
 * 8) C - The Contra Adventure (1998, Sony PlayStation)
 * 9) Contra - Shattered Soldier (2002, Sony PlayStation 2)
 * 10) Neo Contra (2004, Sony PlayStation 2)
 * 11) Contra 4 (2007, Nintendo DS)

Staff

 * Written & Directed By:
 * H. Tsujimoto


 * Assistant Director:
 * K. Wada


 * Associate To Directors:
 * S. Fujiwara
 * T. Koudo


 * Production Sound Mixer:
 * Y. Uno


 * Music Editors:
 * K. Muraoka
 * Motoaki Furukawa


 * Art Director:
 * K. Nakamura


 * Set Director:
 * N. Sugita


 * Titles:
 * H. Takatani
 * N. Ishii


 * Make-up Supervisor:
 * M. Moriyama


 * Conceptual Artist:
 * T. Jinbo


 * Electronics Designer:
 * K. Hashima


 * Publicity Supervisor:
 * F. Shibuya


 * Still Photographer:
 * J. Tanaka


 * Translator:
 * K. Hayashi


 * Produced By:
 * K. Hiroshita

Ports

 * Consoles :
 * Nintendo Famicom (1990, "Super C")
 * Nintendo Game Boy (1991, "Operation C")


 * Computers :
 * Commodore Amiga ("Super C", 1990, Konami)