Contra: Operation Galuga is Developer Fan-Fiction (Review)

Contra: Operation Galuga is Developer Fan-Fiction (Review). Over the years I have found that the most interesting reviews are for flawed but ambitious games, and this game certainly falls into this category. Because even though this review is certainly critical of Contra: Operation Galuga, I am happy to have such a clear example of issues with current attitudes and approaches when it comes to mechanical design, weapon balance, aspect ratio, progression systems, graphics, visuals, music, scoring, lack of leader boards, boss fights, and so much more.

Wayforward are an interesting developer and publisher because in a lot of ways they are fulfilling a lot of the things I want to see western developers and publishers do, like picking up on franchises that have been abandoned by the larger Japanese Studios like Konami. But one MASSIVE problem with western developers and with Contra: Operation Galuga is that they are not designing these revival games with the fundamentals of the series in mind. Instead, what they tend to do is pick and choose through all the previous games in the series from a fan's perspective, and then try to blend together a lot of the surface aspects of the games into one ultimate mega mix of fan fiction. This makes the game sound like an advancement on the surface, especially when they mix in modern game design trends (like a parry in Metroid Dread), but what often happens is that the fan fiction completely overlooks why certain game play elements of each title in the series cannot be mixed in with the level design of other titles. A big example of this is of course the homing weapons of the boss rush games being mixed into the stage design of the NES era games. The level design of the earlier games absolutely requires a limitation in player aiming and homing weapons completely obliterate this form of challenge.

Then there is weapon swapping glitches that over ride the boss fights and really bland plodding side scrolling stages, but I'll get into all that in the vid.

In summary, while I did have some casual fun with Operation Galuga, this game has a lot of really fundamental design oversights that I hope can be at least a learning lesson for future Contra games by Wayforward, if they ever manage to recover from the overall negative reception of this game.

You can pick up the game on PS5/PS4, Steam (PC), and Nintendo Switch, but from the sound of it the only solid version of the game is the PC version and definitely do not spend full $40 on it, a deep discount of $10-$15 would be my recommendation.

Awesome thumbnail made by ‪@boghogSTG‬

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STG Revision 2020 Discord:
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00:00 Is This Game Underrated? No.
03:00 The Graphics Are A Problem
05:00 3D Camera is not Being Utilized Well
07:00 Revival Games Have a Duty to Maintain Quality
08:45 Too Much Effort Spent on Contra's Story (Bad Use of Resources)
11:50 The Curse of Western Developer Fan fiction Design
13:20 The Aspect Ratio Issue is HUGE
16:30 Homing Weapons BREAK this Game's Level Design
17:50 Developers: STOP BALANCING GAMES AROUND SPEEDRUNNING
19:55 The Game's Design ENCOURAGES Lame Play, That's a Problem
22:45 The Auto scrolling Stages are EASY, BORING, AND TOO LONG
25:30 Weapon Swapping Glitch BREAKS Boss Fights (So Easy)
28:20 This Game Feels Unfinished, it's Bland and Easy
30:10 Lack of a Real Scoring System is a HUGE Missed Opportunity
32:00 STOP Locking High Difficulty Modes Behind Grinding.
33:45 Final Thoughts

#contra, #konami, #shootemup