My Top 100: #24 – Operation C

 

This is the greatest Contra game ever made, and you’ve probably never played it before…  but that’s okay.  I forgive you!

Although it was released almost a year after Super C, I considered it a port of the NES title.  Why not?  They did that sort of thing from time to time, and even the name was quite similar.  From the screenshots I had seen in EGM, the game even had Super C‘s fancy-looking top-down perspective levels.

When I eventually picked the game up at Toys R Us in Bangor, I realized that it was much more than just a port.  The levels do share a few similarities, and the music is often the same as its NES counterpart, just “Game Boy-ified”.  Other than that, though, Operation C was an entirely new game; new bosses, new areas, completely new plot – although, really, it was still Contra, so the story wasn’t drastically different or anything.

Best of all, all the weapon power-ups were back with a vengeance!  I hadn’t played much of Super C yet, but when I had, I didn’t notice if this was the case or not…  but, in Operation C, when you pick up a Spread weapon once, it shoots three streams of fireballs; pick up a second Spread weapon, and it fires six streams.  I’m still not sure if that’s how it worked in Super C, but I definitely liked how it added an extra layer of difficulty on the Game Boy version.

Finally, this was the first game for the Homing weapon add-on.  It didn’t matter which way you were aiming, or if you were frantically jumping away from enemies and projectiles.  If you held B for an entire level and avoided getting hit (which still wasn’t easy to do), your Homing weapon would just do all the work for you!  Granted, it wasn’t quite as powerful as the others, but hot damn, it was fun to use!

 

 

When I buy a new console, there’s always a period of time shortly after getting it that I wonder;  “Did I make a right decision in buying it?  Are there going to be enough games for me to justify buying this expensive piece of equipment?  I kinda like it now, but will I really like it later?”

That’s a bit how I felt after getting the Game Boy.  I hadn’t asked for it, but I got it for Christmas in 1990.  I was quite surprised and over-joyed to find it under our tree that year (a moment we thankfully caught on home video), but I wasn’t sure what games coming out for it would be up my alley.  Sure, I had Super Mario Land and Tetris to hold me over, but for how long?  I started to worry that this great toy they surprised me with would go unused and neglected, like so many other toys I had gotten over the years.

When I found out about Operation C, all was forgotten.  This Game Boy and I would be getting along just fine.

It’s funny, I still get that strange feeling in the pit of my stomach when I buy a new console.  When I bought an Xbox 360 at launch, there weren’t that many games that did anything for me.  With the PlayStation 3, I hadn’t even owned it for a week before I got the dreaded “Yellow Light of Death”.  Thankfully, the retailer was very good about it, and I got both a replacement PS3 and a new copy of the game that was stuck in it.  Still, both new consoles had me wondering;  “Did I buy this too soon?  Did I just waste a ton of money that could have been better spent on groceries?”  Thankfully, I was eventually able to feel satisfaction these big buys.

I just bought a WiiU, and since the titles are slow as molasses in coming out, I’m really looking forward to a time where I can say; “Phew, I’m glad I bought this thing.”