- This article is about the bootleg Famicom game by Waixing. For the bootleg Game Boy Advance game released as "Super Contra 7 - Isoleted Force Sortie", see 007 (Game Boy Advance).
Super Contra 7 (超级战魂 [Chāojí zhàn hún] "Super Fighting Spirit") is a run'n gun based on the Contra series, developed by E.S.C. Co. Ltd (alias of Waixing) in 1996 for the NES/Famicom. It was later rereleased as Super Fight I and Xtreme Robot for various plug'n plays and multicarts.
Overview[]
Area 1 of Super Contra 7. Note that the background is from Mighty Final Fight.
This game is based off the Contra series, and has a total of 5 areas with varying themes. The player starts with 4 lives as opposed to 3 (although the stat screen displays 5 lives at the start) and 6 continues instead of 3. The standard enemies are similar to those in the originals, but they speed up when they reach the middle of the screen and never shoot. The level designs are considerably more basic than those in Contra and are mostly original, although the first half of Area 4 bears a strong resemblance to Area 4 from Super C.
The bosses are mostly aliens/robots, with the second boss being a gargoyle. Strangely, the first boss is considered to be the most difficult, due to poor hit detection on the boss itself (the player can only damage it when it's at the very top of the screen, and its hitbox is an extremely tiny space in the middle) as well as its projectiles spawning randomly and sometimes glitching, making them move unpredictably in a curved direction and thus occasionally making them impossible to avoid without luck. Touching any of the bosses hitboxes is instant death, unlike some of those in Contra.
The weapons are somewhat different in this game. The flying power-up containers take two shots to destroy (unlike one in the official games) and fire explosives at the player. The default weapon is the machine gun like in Contra III: The Alien Wars, the Spread Gun can only fire one set of shots at a time, (presumably to prevent sprite flickering) the Laser Gun works similar to the NES originals and the Flame Gun is similar to the one in Super C. Oddly enough, the Spread Gun and Laser Gun use each others' original sound effects. The R power-up (which in the official games speeds up the bullets of the current weapon) now gives the player an extra life and the Barrier lasts for about 5 seconds, making it near useless while the Falcon Bomb works the same as in Contra and Super C. The latter also appears to be the most common power-up in the game. The score appears to either be glitched or non-functional, and like the official Contra games it only appears between levels.
The games controls mostly identical to NES Contra/Super C, though with minor differences. The player cannot jump while running near edges and the gravity is lower, Moon-like. The shooting system is similar to Contra III, as your guns shoot rapidly by default; however, the Machine gun and Flame gun can shoot faster by rapidly pressing the fire button.
As is common with Waixing's earlier action games, many of the graphics are ripped from other games, mainly Contra and Mighty Final Fight, both for the NES/Famicom. Many of the sprites (including the final boss) are ripped from the former, while background for the first level is ripped from the latter. There is also an enemy ripped from Shatterhand, the only difference being its color.
After beating the last stage of the game, the player is sent to a credits screen featuring the names of the game's directors, programmers, etc, before starting back at the first stage.
Stages[]
Stage 1 - The stage takes place in a city, with the background directly lifted from Capcom's Mighty Final Fight. The stage is by far the easiest and most straight forward, as there are only 3 types of enemies, and no other obstacles. The boss is an unnamed purple alien entity that vaguely resembles a clam and a UFO. It fires two projectiles identical to the Flame gun. The projectiles spawn in random places and move in a random fashion. A similar boss can be seen in Desert Storm, another game made by Waixing.
Stage 2 - The stage takes place in a cave with platforms entirely made up of grey rocks that resemble skeletons. The player can actually land on the platforms at the bottom of the screen and can jump back up. All the enemies in this stage are aliens that heavily resemble Xenomorphs. This stage also features falling rocks, and lava which spews onto the platforms. The boss is a gargoyle stolen from Shadow of the Beast (Amiga version). It fires small alien bugs (exactly like the ones from the final boss of Super C). This is the easiest boss in the game.
Stage 3 - The stage takes place in a jungle area similar to the one seen in the first stage of the original Contra. The boss is an unnamed alien ship resembling a circus tent. It fires streams of fire from the two holes on the bottom. It fires from the same hole twice before switching to the other side.
Stage 4 - The stage takes place in a factory or base with Red Falcon symbols. The first section has a striking resemblance to Stage 4 of Super C. In the second section, the player must climb a series of platforms. Due to the enemies being not spawning until the player gets on a higher platform, this part of the stage is nearly impossible unless the player knows the enemy locations. The third and final part of the stage has the player maneuver through electric wires (with rather poor hitboxes). The boss is a recolored version of the soldier robot from Dragon's Heaven, a Japanese OVA from 1988. It fires unkillable goo.
Stage 5 - The stage takes place in a dungeon with skulls littering the platforms. The player also must also avoid the Xenomorphs from Stage 2, enemies on jetpacks, and statues that drip unkillable goo or fire. The boss is purple Gromaides from Area 3 in the original Contra. It fires the unkillable goo from the 4th boss and projectiles akin to those of the Area 7 boss from Super C. The bottom part of the boss is stolen from that Area's boss.
Hacks[]
Title Screen for Super Contra 8
This game was later hacked to make Super Contra 8 and three versions of Super Fight 1, all of which would later be released on numerous multicarts and Famiclones.
- Super Contra 8 - A simple title screen hack. For unknown reasons, this version is the much more common than the original game or Super Fight I. Most re-releases of this version remove the copyright string.
- Super Fight I - A hack meant to make the game more generic and legally distinct to prevent any of Waixing's licensees from getting in legal trouble. For example, Bill Rizer and Lance Beam are now generic bald men and the Xenomorphs are now more generic aliens. This hack was mainly meant to be used on plug'n play consoles and oddly, portable DVD players.[1]Four versions of this hack are known to exist. The "demo" NES/Famicom-hardware version, which only has two stages and no ending, the full NES/Famicom hardware version which is exclusive to the Waixing Megapad, and two VT03 versions. The VT03 versions are almost identical to each other, besides the title screen theme playing on the start of each stage.
- Xtreme Robot - A hack based on Super Fight I, but with a few minor changes.
- New Contra - A title screen hack likely not affiliated with Waixing.
Staff[]
Director[]
- Zheng Gening
- Hou Jigong
Planning[]
- Gao Yibiao
Programmer[]
- Gao Yibiao
- Bao Cailao
Art[]
- Yu Rongqing
- Bao Cailao
Music[]
- Mukai
Play Testing[]
- Lin Faliang
- Zhang Xuanying
Producer[]
- Fu Zan
Produced by Fuzhou Waixing Computer Technology Co., Ltd.
Trivia[]
- Area 1 in this game is infamous for the "Ootototel" signs. These were originally the hotel signs in Mighty Final Fight but with the tiles repeated to make up for the bigger screen size.
- There are two cheat codes the player can input right on the title screen. The player can hold A+Start or B+Start to start with 50 lives or A+B+Start to access the credits. The credits can also be accessed by watching the whole demo loop.
- On either stage 2 or stage 5, the player can become soft-locked if they die in the drop to the next platform.
- The game could of possibly been named Super Contra 7 to appear as a sequel to Super Contra 6.
- Super Contra 8's cartridge cover uses a stock image of the M17 Gas Mask.[2]
Gallery[]
_Super_Contra_8_(Chao_Ji_Zhan_Hun_Hack).png){kind=link}