Contra series

Release: 1987

In the year 2631, a small meteorite has fallen into the Galuga archipelago, located 20km northeast off the coast of New Zealand. Two years later, a terrorist group known as Red Falcon has seized the island in preparation for an alien invasion. The earth's marines sent two members of their elite Contra unit, Bill Rizer and Lance Bean, to neutralize the terrorists.

Release: 1988

Although the arcade was also ported to ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and DOS, the console port on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was by far the most popular. In Europe, it the NES title was Probotector.

Release: 1988

The alien Red Falcon is back, and planning on taking over the planet Earth. Now it's up to Scorpion and Mad Dog to battle through five levels and save the planet.

Release: 1990

In Europe, the NES title was Probotector II: Return of the Evil Forces. There also was a DOS and Amiga version released, but once again, only the NES port was worthwhile.

Release: 1991

Release: 1992

The hideous Red Falcon, thought to have been destroyed long ago by the Earth's greatest commandos, Mad Dog and Scorpian, has risen again, this time pissed off and thirsty for revenge. His armies are marching through the cities, across the lands, and with the intention of exterminating the human race like a bad case of fleas. Two new commandos, Jimbo and Sully, have come forth now to kick Red Falcon's ass and save what remains of the world from his hideous plans!

Release: 1992

This third and final NES Contra title was released shortly after Contra III came out on the Super NES system. In this game, Contra Force is a special forces team including Commando Burn, Smith, Beans and Iron, who try to protect Neo City from a terrorist group.

Release: 1994

Release: 1994

In this first Sega Genesis release of Contra, you are part of the Hard Corps team. Some madman military commander has stolen an alien cell left over from the Alien Wars (see Contra III) and plans to clone and resurrect the Red Falcon, the most dangerous alien that ever existed.

Release: 1996

The first 32-bit Contra game, released 10 years after the original arcade version. Unlike the other Contra games, the gameplay is quite different - this one is an top overview shooter with 3D graphics that plays more like Commando or Mercs. And it really had 3D graphics - some units had red and blue shades, that with 3D glasses, gave it a 3D effect. It was developed by Appaloosa, under contract from Konami.

Release: 1997

Reception of this new Contra was very poor on both the PlayStation as well as Sega Saturn, with most reviews criticizing the new gameplay, and saying the graphics were drab compared to the 4-year old SNES title.

Release: 1998

From a Gamespot review that gave it a 3.6 out of 10:

After the last Contra game, which in case you've blocked it from your memory was a terrible failure, you'd think that Konami would have the sense to put together a decent follow-up in an attempt to right its past wrongs. But this is not the case. Appaloosa Interactive has managed to develop a game that, in some ways, is even worse than Legacy of War.

Release: 2002

Konami booted Appaloosa from any further releases, and took direct control once more of its development team, finally releasing a worthy Contra successor to SNES's Contra III. Gameplay returned back to its roots of side-scrolling shooter with lots of 3D graphical elements thrown in.

Release: 2002

Not only is this a faithful remake of the SNES hit Contra III, it also incorporates several new levels from the Genesis title, Contra: Hard Corps.

Release: 2004

This time around, it was Konami themselves who dropped the ball on the Contra series. After going back to 2D roots in the well-received Contra: Scattered Soldier, they changed up the gameplay in Neo Contra to a top-down perspective that made aiming and shooting un-enjoyable. And they also changed the one thing that Contra fans loved - the difficulty. Most Contra titles have a reputation as being extremely difficult to master, but Neo Contra goes completly in the opposite direction.

Release: 2006

An Xbox Live Arcade emulation of the original arcade.

Release: 2007

A Wii Virtual Console emulation of the hit SNES game.

Release: 2007

An Xbox Live Arcade emulation of the original arcade.

Release: 2007

A Wii Virtual Console emulation of the hit NES game.

Release: 2007

Konami returns to the golden era of Contra with 16-bit graphics and full goodness of side scrolling 2D shooter action with the true successor to Contra III, only on Nintendo DS.

Release: 2009

Konami's latest Contra offering is in the form of a WiiWare title, bringing 2D scrolling action to a brand new Contra adventure.