Konami Announces Contra Anniversary Collection Lineup

On May 29, 2019

Konami has revealed the complete lineup for the upcoming Contra Anniversary Collection.

This collection includes varied Contra titles, from the original arcade game to Contra III: The Alien Wars for SNES. While a specific release date has not yet been announced, this digital collection will be available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam this summer for $20.

The full Contra Anniversary Collection lineup includes:

Contra (Arcade)
Super Contra (Arcade)
Super C (NES)
Contra III: The Alien Wars (SNES)
Contra: Hard Corps (Sega Genesis)
Contra (NES)
Contra (Famicom)
Operation C (Game Boy)
Probotector (Sega Mega Drive)
Super Probotector: Alien Rebels (SNES)

While four of these titles had already been announced for the Contra Anniversary Collection, the newly-revealed additions give longtime fans a wide-array of Contra experiences they may not have had the chance to play in the past, including regional variants.

Contra: Hard Corps was the first game in the franchise where players could choose between four characters, and was primarily a side-scrolling game as opposed to the overhead segments seen in earlier titles. It also includes branching paths that require players to make decisions in key stages, and this is the first time it’s been re-released since the Sega Genesis. Operation C was the first handheld entry in the franchise, and was the first to feature the homing gun.

Contra on NES includes new content and added features from the arcade version while Contra on Famicom also includes these features, as well as visual updates from the NES version.

Probotector (a portmanteau of protector and robot) originally launched in Europe with two robotic protagonists, RD008 and RC011, as replacements for Bill and Lance, and many human enemies also became robots. The name change was likely done to disassociate the series from the Iran-Contra conflict, which carried through subsequent European releases, including Super Probotector, the European launch of Contra III.

On top of these variants, players will also receive the Japanese versions of six Contra games:

Contra (Arcade)
Super Contra (Arcade) – known as Super Contra: Alien No Gyakushu in Japan
Super C – known as Super Contra in Japan
Contra III: The Alien Wars – known as Contra Spirits in Japan
Operation C – known as Contra in Japan
Contra: Hard Corps – known as Contra: The Hard Corps in Japan

These additional games will come as a free update for those who buy the collection. The collection also comes with a digital bonus book of extras that “provides a comprehensive look in to Contra’s history and beginnings.”

Konami announced three classic collections as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations, which also includes the recently released Castlevania Anniversary Collection and Arcade Classics.

In our Castlevania Anniversary Collection review, we called it “Great” saying “The Castlevania Anniversary Collection doesn’t do any fancy emulation tricks, but the games speak for themselves.”