About Contra
Contra is a shooting game where players control one of two marine commandos, Bill Rizer or Lance Bean. Their mission is to fight through a terrorist group called Red Falcon on the Galuga archipelago, where the group is preparing for an alien invasion after a meteorite impact in 2631.
The core activity involves navigating through stages while shooting enemies and dodging their attacks. Players begin with a standard rifle but can collect upgrades to switch to other weapons, such as a spread shot. The objective is simply to reach the end of each area.
The number of levels varies by the platform the game was released on. The DOS version features nine stages, while other computer ports like the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC have seven, and the Commodore 64 version contains six. These are all adaptations of the original arcade release, which has ten levels. Some versions, like the Amstrad CPC port, use a flip-screen method instead of continuous scrolling.