Contra: Rogue Corps

Contra: Rogue Corps was released by Konami in 2019 simultaneously on several platforms, including PlayStation 4, and abandoned side-scrolling entirely for the first time in the series' history in favour of a top-down view and twin-stick shooter style. A foursome of mercenaries, including a cyborg and a robot named Gaia, make their way through mazes full of alien monsters in a land called Bio Zone, in a satirical, deliberately over-the-top B-movie action style. Each character has their own weapon type and special ability, so the foursome functions more like a crew of mercenary specialists than the interchangeable soldiers of earlier entries in the series.

Unlike all previous entries, Rogue Corps shifts basic movement and aiming onto two analog sticks, adds an extensive system of crafting and upgrading weapons from materials gathered on missions, and builds individual levels as repeatable loot missions rather than linear progression through stages, as was customary for the series. The humour is deliberately grotesque, crude and at times vulgar, which is a new and unusual tone for the Contra series compared to the more serious military storytelling of earlier entries, one that the four main characters and their one-liners contrast sharply with. Missions can also be repeated in multiplayer, which, together with crafting and gradually gathering better gear, brings the game's structure closer to a modern looter-shooter with repeatable content than a classic linear Contra game.

Why play it: Interesting mainly as a curiosity for series fans wondering what Contra looks like as a twin-stick looter-shooter with crafting and dark humour, rather than a recommendation for players looking for classic run-and-gun side-scrolling action, which this entry deliberately and completely abandons.