History YMMV / Contra

** You think that's bad, wait until you see the final stage of ''Contra 4''. [[spoiler: Starting off with hundreds, possibly thousands of human corpses in the background, you inevitably end up inside Black Viper. Whose innards are composed of ''human flesh and still-moving people''.]]

*** In ''Contra III: The Alien Wars'', the most powerful weapons in the game include the Laser Gun, which, [[AwesomeButPractical while it fires at a slow rate, pierces through enemies and kills bosses faster]], as well as the Fire Gun, which does high damage to enemies and kills bosses in seconds if you aim at their weak spots.

* ExcusePlot: In later games, deliberately used.

* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: ''Contra 4'' for the NintendoDS, along with ''Contra Rebirth'' for the WiiWare and ''VideoGame/HardCorpsUprising'' for XboxLiveArcade and PlayStationNetwork, which not only [[WinBackTheCrowd won back the crowd]], but whipped the series back into what it should be.

* NightmareFuel: Most of the ''Contra'' games. There are [[WombLevel Womb Levels]], cities being blown up, and very creepy looking aliens. Probably the most terrifying bosses in the series include [[http://www.klustr.net/contra/articles/recurring_bosses_2.php Emperor Demon Gyaba]], the BigBad for most of the ''Contra'' games, Slave Beast Taka, the [[TurtlePower turtle-like]] boss in its ''Shattered Soldier'' appearance where it has a [[{{Squick}} huge, disgusting human face]] on its back, and [[http://www.klustr.net/contra/articles/recurring_bosses_3.php Shadow Beast Kimkou]], the final boss of ''Super C'' and one of the mini-bosses in the final stage of ''Contra III: The Alien Wars'' that has a '''human face''' for its mouth.

* NightmareFuel: Most of the ''Contra'' games. There are [[WombLevel Womb Levels]], cities being blown up, and very creepy looking aliens.

* NightmareFuel: Most of the ''Contra'' games. There are WombLevels, cities being blown up, and very creepy looking aliens.

* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: After ''Contra III: The Alien Wars'' for the SuperNintendo and ''Contra: Hard Corps'' for the SegaGenesis, the Contra fandom was left with two DarthWiki/SoBadItsHorrible games for the PlayStation and SegaSaturn as well as two SoOkayItsAverage games for the PlayStation2. Then came ''Contra 4'' for the NintendoDS, along with ''Contra Rebirth'' for the WiiWare and ''VideoGame/HardCorpsUprising'' for XboxLiveArcade and PlayStationNetwork, which not only [[WinBackTheCrowd won back the crowd]], but whipped the series back into what it should be.

* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: After ''Contra III: The Alien Wars'' and ''Contra: Hard Corps'', the Contra fandom was left with two SoBadItsHorrible games for the PlayStation and SegaSaturn two SoOkayItsAverage games for the PlayStation2. Then came ''Contra 4'' for the NintendoDS, along with ''Contra Rebirth'' for the WiiWare and ''VideoGame/HardCorpsUprising'' for XboxLiveArcade and PlayStaionNetwork, which not only [[WinBackTheCrowd won back the crowd]], but whipped the series back into what it should be.

*** ''Neo Contra'' has Weapon Sets D and F as well as Jaguar's katana. Set D has a LightningGun that can OneHitKill many enemies, the secondary is a hard hitting bazooka that does massive damage against bosses and stationary objects, and the lock-on weapon is the Heaven's Laser, which is absurdly strong, never misses, and reloads stupidly fast, making things that need a lock-on utter push-overs. Set F has the GV Laser (named after ''VideoGame/{{Gradius}} V'') which fires a constant laser beam with a ridiculously long range. Jaguar's katana another powerful weapon, it can take out bosses in a few swings if you get up close to them.

* CrowningMomentOfFunny: Your reward for [[OneHundredPercentCompletion getting a rank of S]] in ''Shattered Soldier'' and ''Neo'' are [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrJ7zWGI9MI this]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RCmbIwizjY&feature=related this]]. Double as CrowningMomentOfAwesome.

* CompleteMonster: The BigBad of ''Neo Contra'', Master Contra, is quite possibly the most evil character in the series. First, it is heavily implied that he was the original Bill Rizer who did a FaceHeelTurn sometime after the events of ''Shattered Soldier'' [[spoiler:and possibly made Lucia join him in his FaceHeelTurn as well]], and his goal is that he plans on destroying the entire world [[spoiler:because he's actually a living weapon made out of the original Bill Rizer's consciousness]]. He eventually crosses the MoralEventHorizon by giving Bill Rizer a HannibalLecture and a brief HeroicBSOD followed by [[spoiler:forcing Mystery G to do a HeroicSacrifice as he's about to kill Bill and Jaguar after immobilizing them.]] Doesn't help the fact that he's got [[SteveBlum the voice of]] [[RurouniKenshin Makoto Shishio]]...

* CompleteMonster: The BigBad of ''Neo Contra'', Master Contra, is quite possible the most evil character in the series. First, it is heavily implied that he was the original Bill Rizer who did a FaceHeelTurn sometime after the events of ''Shattered Soldier'' [[spoiler:and possibly made Lucia join him in his FaceHeelTurn as well]], and his goal is that he plans on destroying the entire world [[spoiler:because he's actually a living weapon made out of the original Bill Rizer's consciousness]]. He eventually crosses the MoralEventHorizon by giving Bill Rizer a HannibalLecture and a brief HeroicBSOD followed by [[spoiler:forcing Mystery G to do a HeroicSacrifice as he's about to kill Bill and Jaguar after immobilizing them.]] Doesn't help the fact that he's got [[SteveBlum the voice of]] [[RurouniKenshin Makoto Shishio]]...

* CompleteMonster: The BigBad of ''Neo Contra'', Master Contra, is quite possible the most evil character in the series. First, it is heavily implied that he was the original Bill Rizer who did a FaceHeelTurn sometime after the events of ''Shattered Soldier'' [[spoiler:and possibly made Lucia join him in his FaceHeelTurn as well]], and his goal is that he plans on destroying the entire world [[spoiler:because he's actually a living weapon made out of the original Bill Rizer's consciousness]]. He eventually crosses the MoralEventHorizon by giving Bill Rizer a HannibalLecture followed by [[spoiler:forcing Mystery G to do a HeroicSacrifice as he's about to kill Bill and Jaguar after immobilizing them.]] Doesn't help the fact that he's got [[SteveBlum the voice of]] [[RurouniKenshin Makoto Shishio]]...

* GameBreaker: The [[SpreaShot Spread Gun]] in the NES games, especially if combined with the Rapid Bullets power-up.

* GameBreaker: The Spread Gun in the NES games, especially if combined with the Rapid Bullets power-up.

* AdaptationDisplacement: Both ''Contra'' and ''Super Contra'' were originally released in the arcades, but the NES ports of these games are more popular than the arcade version.
* BreatherBoss: The Stage 7 boss in ''Contra 4''.
** ''Contra: Hard Corps'' has a breather MiniBoss in the Route B ending of the game. After defeating [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking Colonel]] [[ThatOneBoss Bahamut]], the player will face off against [[TheDragon Deadeye Joe]] who [[DragonTheirFeet doesn't care much about Bahamut's death]]. He cannot kill the player via CollisionDamage and only has one attack: an easily avoidable horizontal shot. After Joe is a somewhat-annoying miniboss, and then the FinalBoss.
* CrowningMomentOfFunny: Your reward for [[OneHundredPercentCompletion getting a rank of S]] in ''Shattered Soldier'' and ''Neo'' are [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrJ7zWGI9MI this]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RCmbIwizjY&feature=related this]]. Double as CrowningMomentOfAwesome.
* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: Offered as a reward for trying ''Contra 4'' on Hard Mode.

* DorkAge: The Appaloosa-developed games released during the late 1990's.
* ExcusePlot: In later games, deliberately used.
* GameBreaker: The Spread Gun in the NES games, especially if combined with the Rapid Bullets power-up.
** Brad Fang in ''Hard Corps'' with his Psychic Blaster (fully charged). Takes down bosses in two or three blasts. And considering that there are ''lots'' of bosses in Hard Corps... Hell, Brad is like designed to break Hard Corps, his other arsenals include a short range explosive punch which hits a lot for short range, and his upgraded first weapon is a much more rapid [[SpreadShot Spray Burst]] which decimates enemies real quick, and his other weapon is a mid-range flame thrower that moves to wherever Brad changes his aiming...

* [=~It's Easy, So It Sucks~=]: The opinion of many on ''Neo Contra''.
* [=~It's Short, So It Sucks~=]: Many peoples' opinions on the original arcade games, ''Neo'', and ''Rebirth''.

* PortingDisaster: ''Contra: The Alien Wars'' for the Game Boy and ''Contra Advance'' for the GBA.

* UncannyValley: One of the final bosses of ''Contra: Hard Corps'' is an alien whose first form has a face resembling a human woman that distorts hideously when hit.
* {{Woolseyism}}: The localizations of the first two NES games and ''Operation C'' changed the setting from the [=27th century=] to the then-present (as well as the names of many of the characters). This became problematic when ''Contra III'' featured an obviously futuristic setting, so they had to change the main characters' name and claim that they were the descendants of the previous heroes.

** Much of Hard Corps's music, such as [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Iu2ZqRyF-k ''The Last Springsteen'']

* Woolseyism: The localizations of the first two NES games and ''Operation C'' changed the setting from the [=27th century=] to the then-present (as well as the names of many of the characters). This became problematic when ''Contra III'' featured an obviously futuristic setting, so they had to change the main characters' name and claim that they were the descendants of the previous heroes.