ULTIMATE GUIDE: CONTRA THE ALIEN WARS

We all know that it’s possible to extract amazing performance from a dated gaming platform – with clever programming and perhaps a little hardware help, minor miracles are possible. But sometimes you just have to accept that more power is the answer, as a new hardware platform can bring wholly new possibilities to a game or genre, whether that’s with new graphical techniques or through sheer computational power. When Contra III: The Alien Wars hit the SNES in 1992, there was no doubt that this was one of those instances, as the game featured impressive setpieces and high-intensity action that just wouldn’t have been possible on older machines.

Contra was converted to a variety of platforms