Bill “Mad Dog” Rizer Shoots Up A Storm! The purpose of this essay is to educate people on Contra and convince them why Bill Rizer is a solid contender for being a DLC character in Smash Ultimate. I will be going over the series’ history, its impact on the gaming industry, what Bill Rizer can bring to Smash, and the series' place in speculation. History of Contra’s Releases Back in 1987, Konami released an arcade game called Contra. Contra is a run-and-gun game where you control Bill Rizer (Player 2 takes control of Lance Bean) as you take down an evil organization that is bent on destroying humanity while discovering the true identity of the aliens controlling them. The game was a big hit and it got ported to numerous computers and game consoles, including the NES and Famicom. It sold very well, leading to Super Contra (Also known as Super C) in the arcades and on NES as well. At this point, Contra became a franchise. It got Operation C on the Gameboy, Contra 3: The Alien Wars on the SNES, and it continued to get games on the 5th generation of consoles, as well as the 6th gen, 7th gen, and modern consoles. After Hard Corps: Uprising in 2011, the series took a break until 2019 when Konami released Rogue Corps, as well as the Contra Anniversary Collection which contains a bunch of the retro titles in the series. An interesting facet of Contra’s history is the localization of the games into foreign countries. In the PAL region, the original Contra was renamed Probotector and changed the character designs to robots. This was done to bypass Germany’s censorship laws which prevented the sales of violent video games to minors. Up until Contra: Legacy of War in 1996, every game in the series got similar treatment in the PAL region. Afterwards, the PAL versions of the games got rid of the robotic redesigns and they were localized with few changes. Meanwhile, the North American versions of the games remained mostly the same but had notable differences. For example, Super C has a code that is different from the Konami Code. When this code is entered in the Japanese version, it gives out 30 lives, but in the NA version it only gives out 10 lives. Other differences exist, but I’ll let you all explore that on your own. Contra’s Impact The original Contra was influential for its time. While Ikari Warriors entered the scene first and introduced the concept of shoot em ups with men shooting through waves of enemies and getting power ups, Contra introduced that concept to side scrolling which made it stand out at the time. It also allowed players to aim and shoot in 8 directions, a rarity for the time. You also can’t forget about the Konami code when talking about Contra. While Gradius was the first game to include it, Contra was the game that made it popular. At the time of its release, Contra gained a lot of praise. AllGame editor Skylar Miller praised Contra, stating that the game “became the standard by which future shooters would be judged.” Later in 2004, the NES version of Contra was inducted into GameSpot’s list of the greatest games of all time. Nintendo Power ranked it the seventh best NES game, calling it one of the best multiplayer NES games. Electronic Gaming Monthly listed the NES version as the 45th best console video game of all time, saying it “set the standard for all two-player simultaneous action games to follow.” Several of the sequels, most notably Super C and Contra 3, have gotten similar praise. Nintendo themselves has acknowledged the series’ popularity, with them including Super C and Contra 3 on the NES and SNES Classic Consoles respectively. There are no Contra games on the Switch online service, but that can be explained by the Contra Anniversary Collection which is available on Switch. Overall, Contra has gained a legacy. It is an iconic series with strong Nintendo connections and has remained one of Konami’s signature franchises. It also has remained relevant throughout the years despite the admittedly shaky transition to 3D gaming. While Rogue Corps flopped, there is still hope for future installments and the Anniversary Collection has reminded people why this series is so special and why it maintains its recognizability. What Can Bill Rizer Bring To Smash? Now that you are familiar with Contra as a whole, what new and exciting mechanics and features can Contra bring to the table? Well first, as Contra is a run and gun shooter, Bill Rizer would primarily be using his gun. A big feature of Contra is being able to shoot in 8 directions which can act as Bill’s tilts, and they can implement diagonal aiming which would give his moveset that sense of freedom that the Contra games give you. But what would separate Bill from other projectile heavy characters like Mega Man are power ups. In Contra, capsules will occasionally appear in the sky and Bill can shoot them down to obtain a power up. Power ups will also drop from certain enemies like turrets. These power ups are what makes Contra Contra. They consist of: ● Spread Gun - The classic gun that fires three to five bullets that spread out. ● Machine Gun - Fully automatic gun that fires bullets faster and allows the player to hold down the button to shoot rather than tap. ● Laser - Long beam with high damage ● Flamethrower - Can fire either a steady stream of flame or fireballs. ● Homing Gun - Fires a rocket that homes in on opponents. ● Crush Gun - Fires blue missiles with short range that explodes with huge damage. The explosion stays around for a couple seconds, dealing additional damage to anyone in it. ● Wave Gun - Shoots a wide energy wave that penetrates multiple enemies. ● Plasma Thrower - Basically a shotgun ● Electro Gun - Shoots electricity ● Blade Gun - Shoots literal active chainsaws. ● Gas Gun - Shoots gas that poisons enemies. ● And much, MUCH more. Plus there are some melee weapons like knives and katanas. Bill Rizer’s main mechanic would be this: As he is dealing damage, capsules will pop out of the opponents and Bill Rizer can pick them up to gain a random power up. When playing on his stage, capsules will appear in the air and Bill can shoot them down to grab them. Speaking of stages, there are some good choices they can pick. They can go with the iconic jungle level from the first game: Or the first game’s final level: Or the first level of Contra 3: Any of these would represent Contra well and they can have stage cameos and enemies attacking the Smash characters. If they wanted to go the extra mile, they could have the stage be a scrolling stage to encompass the entire level and make it feel even more like Contra. Next, the music. Here is a list of some of the notable songs from the series: ● Contra: Stage 1 ● Contra: Stage 2 ● Contra: Stage 8 ● Super C: Stage 1 ● Super C: Stage 2 ● Super C: Stage 5 ● Super C: Stage 8 ● Contra 3: Stage 1 ● Contra 3: Boss Battle ● Contra Hard Corps: Stage 1 ● Neo Contra: Main Theme I could go on, but you get the gist. Basically, Contra has awesome music. Overall, Bill Rizer would bring some pretty amazing content with him. A balls to the wall moveset, a cool stage, and some bangin’ music. And on top of all that, Bill would represent a brand new franchise and a genre that is arguably not represented yet. We do have Samus but I’d argue she is more of a representative of Metroidvanias rather than a straight up shooter rep. Contra's Place In Speculation And A Defense Of The Series Despite Contra’s legacy, it does not get a lot of attention in speculation. To my knowledge, this is due to multiple factors working against the series at once. One factor is that most people are fixated on fellow NES icon Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden. When it comes to retro characters, Hayabusa is the one being heavily discussed due to multiple reasons like credible leaks and his company, Koei Tecmo, being very close to Nintendo. And it seems like that only one NES character gets a lot of attention at the time. Putting aside that, let’s discuss how Contra falls in the grand scheme of things. As a Konami series, it is definitely one of the frontrunners for the company. Bomberman’s chances are looking grim with him just getting a Mii costume. Silent Hill is another classic series, though it is very grim and thus it would be difficult to implement a fighter. Bill Rizer’s main threats are Frogger and Alucard, particularly the latter as he was considered for the base game and is a very popular and requested character. But on the other hand, Castlevania already has a lot of content that spreads throughout the series and while there is still plenty of new content they could add, it just raises doubts on them wanting to give Castlevania more content. So, if I had to bet money on there being another Konami character, it would be Contra. But the big question is, would Konami get another character? I do think so and this is a good segway into my counter argument section. These are the other factors that I mentioned earlier that hold back Bill from being seen as likely. Here we go.