Contra Force
Play Contra Force free in your browser — no download or account required, just instant Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) action.
Play Contra Force free in your browser — no download or account required, just instant Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) action.
Set in the fictional Neo City in 1992, this is a run-and-gun with no aliens, no jungle and no connection to Bill Rizer's war — the Contra name was attached late, after the Japanese release as Arc Hound was cancelled. You command C-Force, a four-man special forces unit going after the terrorist group D.N.M.E.: Burns the leader, Smith the sharpshooter, Iron with heavy weapons, and Beans the demolitions man.
Five stages alternate between side-scrolling platforming (one, three and five) and overhead sections (two and four), ending at the enemy headquarters. Each character keeps his own stock of lives, and you swap between them from the pause menu at any time. Weapon power works like Gradius: briefcase pick-ups hidden inside destructible scenery move a cursor along a meter, and you press SELECT to cash it in on the option you want. You can also summon one of the other three as a CPU-controlled partner for a short burst of covering fire.
Worth playing as a curiosity more than as a Contra game: the four-character roster with individually powered weapons and a summonable partner is more ambitious in structure than Contra or Super C, but the game pushes more sprite work than the NES handles comfortably, and slowdown and flicker set in whenever the screen fills up. It never shipped in Japan, so it stayed a North American oddity.
You can play with keyboard, gamepad, or touch (on mobile). The default keyboard layout is below; remap any key inside the emulator settings.
Only in name. It started as Arc Hound, an unrelated Konami action game whose Japanese release was cancelled, and the Contra branding was added for the 1992 North American version. There are no aliens, no Bill and Lance, and no link to the main storyline.
The game moves more sprite work than the NES handles comfortably, so the frame rate sags and sprites flicker once the screen fills with enemies and bullets. It behaves the same way on an original cartridge — the slowdown is part of the game, not a fault in the version you are playing.
Burns is the balanced starting choice as the team leader. Iron is the heavy weapons man, Smith is the sharpshooter and Beans handles demolitions, and they differ in running speed and jump height as well as armament. Since each keeps his own lives and the game ends when any one of them runs out, most players rotate through all four across a run.
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Yes. The emulator supports save states — you can save the exact moment you're at and resume later from any device by signing into a free OldGames account.
Yes. The emulator includes touch controls optimised for phones and tablets. iPhone, iPad, Android — all supported.
Yes. Connect any USB or Bluetooth controller (Xbox, PlayStation, 8BitDo, Switch Pro, etc.) and it will be detected automatically.
