Contra: Hard Corps

Set five years after Contra III: The Alien Wars, Contra: Hard Corps follows a special task force formed to combat lingering alien threats and rogue military factions. The elite "Hard Corps" unit—consisting of commandos Ray Poward and Sheena Etranzi, the cyborg Brad Fang, and the combat robot Browny—is deployed to defend a city under attack by terrorists. The chaos is revealed to be orchestrated by Colonel Bahamut, a former government scientist who has stolen a powerful alien cell capable of creating devastating bio-organic weapons.

Contra: Hard Corps is a run and gun game with most of the game walking on foot and certain stage riding a Motoroid, a hoverbike that can transform into an ostrich-like robot. Unlike previous Contra games, which feature overhead segments in addition to the regular side-view stages, all the stages in Hard Corps retain the standard side-view perspective for most of the game. Another difference is the player can now choose between one of four unique player characters. A new feature to the game is that the story is advanced through story cutscenes.