During this year’s E3 Expo, Konami shared the good news that they plan to resurrect the Contra franchise this Fall with Contra: Rogue Corps. But after eight long years in limbo, the publisher has decided to once again ditch the franchise’s traditional side-scrolling action for an overhead viewpoint and a wildly over-the-top art style. Sometimes, this has worked out well for Contra (2004’s Neo Contra instantly springs to mind), but other times… not so much.
There’s still a few months to go before we get a chance to test out Rogue Corps’s final form, but JoyMasher wants to fill the gap with a game that should please everyone looking for another dose of Contra-fueled nostalgia. The Brazilian developer recently delivered Blazing Chrome on all your favorite digital storefronts, and it’s a side-scrolling shooter that faithfully recreates the grungy post-apocalyptic vibe found in a lot of early 90s shooters (with most of its inspiration coming directly from Contra III: The Alien Wars).
While Blazing Chrome might not be an official new entry in the Contra canon, as an homage it gets almost everything right.
Platforms: PC, PS4, Switch (Version Played), Xbox One
Publisher: The Arcade Crew
Developer: JoyMasher
Genre: 16-Bit-Styled Side-Scrolling Shooter
Release Date: July 11, 2019
ESRB Rating: Teen
In Blazing Chrome, a robotic uprising has pushed humanity to the brink of extinction and resistance soldiers Mavra and Doyle are called in to make a final stand against the evil AI. And while there aren’t any aliens on hand, the developer’s love and affection for Contra III is fairly evident after playing through the opening minutes of the game. The first level alone features multiple direct references to Konami’s classic threequel (a post-apocalyptic cityscape, burned out cars, power lines to climb on, and mosquito-like robots that can carry you away), as well as other sci-fi favorites like The Terminator and Battlestar Galactica.
JoyMasher also wasn’t shy about borrowing Contra III’s extreme difficulty for Blazing Chrome. Even on Easy, The game’s malevolent automatons will provide plenty of challenge, and a series of inventive minibosses ensure that players are always scrapping to survive. Luckily, the game offers up an equally plentiful amount of powerups and extra lives to help you learn the ropes. But for those who stick around, the game also includes even harder difficulty levels and a nice variety of CRT filters to properly bring back the fuzz around the edges of the screen.
Blazing Chrome’s powerups include a trio of unique guns (a grenade launcher, a flamethrower-like whip gun, and a laser that can be charged up), as well as three helper Bots that augment your abilities. The extra guns feel appropriately destructive (raining grenades down on renegade robots will never not be fun), and I love that each weapon requires a different strategy to use effectively. Like Contra III, players can carry multiple guns and switch between them at will, but it’s the Bots that I found most helpful. Deciding whether I needed the extra protection of the Defense Bot or the added punch of the Attack Bot happened often.
And then there’s the Speed Bot, which confers a double jump on your character in the form of Contra’s signature somersault jump. When you stop and think about how much Blazing Chrome borrows from Contra III, it’s a little surprising that the somersault jump is the one thing JoyMasher decided to lock away behind a powerup. That also means the game’s standard jump is actually more of a Mario-like hop, which is something you don’t often see in side-scrolling action games. It’s an odd choice, and it helps make the controls in Blazing Chrome feel a bit stiff compared to something more modern like Cuphead, or even previous entries in the Contra franchise.
As a devoted fan of the Contra franchise, JoyMasher’s slavish devotion to that aesthetic is what drew me to Blazing Chrome in the first place, so it was surprising that the developer doesn’t allow players to customize the game’s controller inputs. The default setting just felt unnatural to me, and I don’t think I’ll ever get used to switching weapons with the face buttons and having to press Down + Jump to perform a dodge roll (that should drop you down to a lower platform).
Thankfully, Blazing Chrome’s graphical style more than makes up for these momentary hiccups. I don’t know how they did it, but JoyMasher absolutely nailed the look that Konami used for the Contra franchise in the early 90s. While Contra III is the obvious inspiration here, the great boss design clearly evokes Contra: Hard Corps and one memorable vehicle section even harkens back to Battletoads.
I don’t know what kind of voodoo JoyMasher employed to create a game that looks like it time-traveled forward into the present day, but it made me feel like a kid again… though you don’t need to be a “90s Kid” to love Blazing Chrome. Anyone in the mood for an excellent side-scrolling shooter will find it here, and I hope JoyMasher is able to keep remixing retro-styled franchises (the team is also responsible for Oniken and Odallus) for a long time.
With its parade of references and callbacks, Blazing Chrome is an excellent homage to a franchise I love dearly. It doesn’t quite reach Contra’s highest highs, but the shooter will provide plenty of pop for your gaming playlist this Summer on the PC, PS4, Switch, or Xbox One.
Review Disclosure: A review copy of Blazing Chrome was provided by The Arcade Crew for the purposes of this review.
