Beaten: Operation C (Game Boy)

 Oops I did it again.

Playing Operation C, the Game Boy entry into the Contra series on my shiny new Analogue Pocket, I was just hoping to see how far I could get. 

I’ve never beaten a Contra game before, but have fond memories of trying, especially those Contra 3: The Alien Wars co-op sessions I had in 1992 or 1993 with my friend Dave Frye.

The difference, as one can tell from recent articles I’ve written, is that the Analogue Pocket can create a save state anywhere when playing an old Game Boy, Game Boy Color, or Game Boy Advance cartridge. If the cartridge has its own save battery option, that still works too.

These games are still difficult, don’t get me wrong. The save state option merely eliminates the repetition of having to play through everything over and over again when attempting to get through a difficult part.

A game like Operation C has no built in cartridge save of the player’s progress, so when first all the players’ lives are gone, and then a limited number of continues are used up, it’s back to the beginning of the game, not just back to the beginning of the level or the boss fight.

Operation C is a great, five stage sampler of Contra, containing every bit of that game’s run-and-gun shooting action. The player starts with a rapid-firing machine gun that has unlimited ammunition, starts running and jumping to the right as waves of various enemies attack.

There’s no time limit, fortunately, but few places where one can stand still without endless respawning enemies running up from behind. Occasionally a power up will fly by with a big letter on it indicating what it does. “S” for upgrading the gun to a spread of bullets rather than a straight line, “F” for fire, and a few others.

“H” is for homing bullets that home in on enemies, curving their trajectory, and other than the save state was my key to victory in this game. I had the spreading fire first, then picked up the homing bullets, and then took care to not pick up another power up at any point after that.

In addition to scrolling and jumping right and sometimes up, some stages are viewed top-down and scroll up. This certainly adds to the variety, as does several mini-boss type of encounters scattered here and there. The boss fights are likewise challenging, but patterns exist in their attacks for players to discern.

I had a perfect playthrough going on at the final boss fight, meaning I went into it with five extra lives. I failed to beat it with my first life and his homing bullets. Since the game at least puts the player back in the midst of the fight for their second and subsequent lives, I was able to burn through those extra lives to victory.

I can now cross “beat a Contra game” off of my videogame bucket list.