History YMMV / Contra

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** In ''Contra III: The Alien Wars'', the most powerful weapons in the game include the Laser Gun, which fires at a slow rate but pierces through enemies and kills bosses faster; and the Fire Gun, which does high damage to enemies and kills bosses in seconds if you aim at their weak spots, which is easier since it can get past parts of the enemy that normally block projectiles. Then there's the Crush Missiles, which are supposed to balance their incredible damage with a slow firing rate and not quite fullscreen range, but since the game allows you to instantly switch between two weapons, rapidly spamming two alternating Crush Missiles makes every boss a joke.

* NarmCharm: ''Contra III'''s "Let's attack aggressively." Has so much DullSurprise it loops back into being manly. Or maybe [[ButForMeItWasTuesday it's just another Tuesday for our heroes.]]

* PortingDisaster: ''Contra: The Alien Wars'' for the Game Boy and ''Contra Advance'' for the GBA, which tried to bring the SNES version to those handheld platform, which weren't that good. ''Contra Advance'', for instance, had a lot of graphic downgrade, removed the top-down POV stages and replaced it with stages from ''Contra: Hard Corps''. Oh, and they switched around the death scream for the player character and a latter motorcycle-riding {{Mook}}'s, so the player's death [[OneHitPointWonder (which happens a lot)]] get rather {{Narm}}y.

** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpK01tyv2-U Game Over music]] of ''Contra III: The Alien Wars'' sounds quite similar to a snippet of the ''Series/MissionImpossible'' theme.

* ViewerNameConfusion: A lot of recurring bosses suffer from this in the US due to various now-obsolete {{Dub Name Change}}s and errors AllThereInTheManual. Later installments usually corrected the boss names.
** The giant turtle-like alien that is the first stage boss of ''Contra III'' is named Taka ([[TranslateTheLoanwordsToo Hawks]] in the European version; "taka" meaning "hawk" in Japanese). However, Taka is mistakenly labeled as "Beast Kimkoh" in the English manual, which is a completely different boss who appears ''much'' later on. The European manual does not make this mistake.

* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: ''Alien Wars'', alongside ''VideoGame/SuperCastlevaniaIV'', was also an early yet impressive demonstration of the SNES's capabilities.

** The localizations of the first two NES games and ''Operation C'' changed the setting from the [=27th century=] to the then-present (as well as the names of many of the characters). This became problematic when ''Contra III'' featured an obviously futuristic setting, so they had to change the main characters' name and claim that they were the descendants of the previous heroes. Contra 4 would actually make attempts to reconcile these differences in canon.

** The Hit-Rate system in UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 games. While it's pretty useful for reminding you not to make mistakes again, it does frustrate most gamers that it could prevent them from [[TrialAndErrorGameplay completing the game without any mistakes]]. Even worse is, you could get a DownerEnding if you do a slight mistake.

** The series, specifically the NES version of the first 2 games are very popular in China, due to the fact that many famiclone consoles included the game as part of the lineup. It leads to Tencent making ''Contra Returns'', a tribute to the series that features almost all of the canon characters and enemies. And they also feature ''Videogame/{{Jackal}}'', a fellow Konami game, in a crossover event.

** ''Contra: Hard Corps'', and ''Contra 4'' are considered to be even harder than the NES games, with the fourth game's manual even treating its harsh learning curve as a point of pride.
** When ''Hard Corps'' was released in Japan, they added a health bar and gave players unlimited continues.

** 20 years later, Creator/SteveBlum would voice Bill Rizer in ''VideoGame/ContraOperationGaluga''. Guess he really is the "real and original Bill Rizer" after all, is he?

* BreatherBoss:
** ''Contra: Hard Corps'' has a breather MiniBoss in the [[MultipleEndings Route B]] ending of the game. After defeating [[RankScalesWithAsskicking Colonel Bahamut]] (provided that [[RefusalOfTheCall you rejected his invitation]]), the player will face off against [[TheDragon Deadeye Joe]] who [[DragonWithAnAgenda doesn't care much about Bahamut's death]]. He cannot kill the player via CollisionDamage and only has one attack: an easily avoidable horizontal shot. After Joe is a somewhat-annoying miniboss, and then the FinalBoss.
** The Stage 7 boss in ''Contra 4''. Even in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8FjAaQZ4_s Hard Mode]], it's basically just a gigantic bug monster you have to gradually destroy bit by bit, with it having little to nothing in terms of offense to throw back at you except for soldiers in hover bikes underneath it.

** In ''Hard Corps'':
*** Brad Fang with his Psychic Blaster (fully charged) takes down bosses in two or three blasts. Considering that there are ''lots'' of bosses in ''Hard Corps'', Brad is designed to break the game. His other arsenals include a short range explosive punch which hits a lot for short range, and his upgraded first weapon is a much more rapid [[SpreadShot Spray Burst]] which decimates enemies real quick, and his other weapon is a mid-range flame thrower that moves to wherever Brad changes his aiming. Most of them will make up for how his charged Psychic Blaster can't be used against anything that doesn't come in a horizontal line against him.
*** Browny is half the size of the other characters, lowering the chance of getting hit tremendously; has a double jump; and is in possession of the Electro-Yo-Yo: a homing, long-range electric spike-ball-tipped beam that pierces through every single obstacle and defenses in the game and deals insane, continuous damage. You hardly need to aim with the thing, allowing you to concentrate on just dodging.

** The Japanese version of ''Contra: Hard Corps'' [[DifficultyByRegion had a life meter that could allow the player to take three hits before dying]]. Also, at the end of the game, Colonel Bahamut offers the two heroes a choice: either accept the "WeCanRuleTogether" offer and get a bad ending, or reject the offer and fight him. ''VideoGame/{{Cuphead}}'' would soon borrow the health meter formula from the game's Japanese version, as well as [[spoiler:the Devil's similar "WeCanRuleTogether" offer toward the end]]. Oh, and Noiman Cascade's Virtual Zone forms including the constellations Taurus, Sagittarius, and Gemini? ''Cuphead'' borrows that formula, too.

** In the original ''Contra: Hard Corps'', there is a Joke Ending, where the player character is transported to prehistoric Earth, and becomes a monarch of proto-humans, with one of the females being the player character's queen. This happens [[PurelyAestheticGender even if you play as Sheena.]] Of course, it also happens if you [[{{Robosexual}} play as Browny]].

** ''Contra: Hard Corps'' is already quite difficult, but the US version removes the LifeMeter system, reducing the player to a OneHitPointWonder, effectively [[DifficultyByRegion punishing players for owning the "wrong" region-version of the game]].

* ThatOneBoss: The Spider Mutant from ''Hard Corps'' moves erratically fast, making webs to travel around the air randomly, all while firing orbs that either home in or multiple orbs at once. Its small size and speed also make even Brad's [[GameBreaker Psychic Blaster]] less than effective.

* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: ''Hard Corps'' pushed the Genesis to its absolute limits. From its impressively rich synth music to the very large bosses, to the convincing explosion effects, it rivals ''VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles'' in sheer pushing of the boundaries of the Genesis' hardware. ''Alien Wars'', alongside ''VideoGame/SuperCastlevaniaIV'', was also an early yet impressive demonstration of the SNES's capabilities.