Trivia / Contra

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• Ascended Fanfic: More like Ascended fan song, but the Stage 1 theme for Contra 4 is actually an arrangement of a song composer Jake 'virt' Kaufman came up for his FX 2.0 album. Basically he got to use his concept of a Contra song in an actual Contra game.
• Bad Export for You: The Famicom version of Contra made use of a custom-made mapper chip (the VRC II) that allowed for the addition of cut-scenes and a map display between stages, as well as animated backgrounds (such as moving palm trees in Stage 1 or falling snowflakes in Stage 5). The NES version, which was released on a standard UNROM mapper (since Nintendo produced all the NES cartridges released in America), lacked all these graphical effects.
• Defunct Online Video Games: The Asian English version of Contra Returns went defunct in September 2023.
• Development Hell: Contra Rogue Corps was actually teased all the way back to 2011. Unfortunately, in 4 years, Konami underwent radical changes in management that not only destroyed the goodwill of the fanbase but also severely decreased their own manpower in console video game development in favor of mobile games and pachinko. And then it quieted down (most likely to find a new indie dev to take over from the original team that was, ahem, 'released'), taking another 4 years to eventually release the game... and it ended up as a bomb.
• Distanced from Current Events: The home ports of Super Contra were renamed "Super C" in America to avoid association with the Iran-Contra affair.
• Late Export for You: Contra Returns was exclusive in China and SEA until July 26, 2021, around three years after its China and SEA launch.
• Milestone Celebration: Contra 4 was released during the twentieth anniversary game for the series, emphasized with its heaps of Mythology Gag and Lampshade Hanging.
• No Dub for You: All versions of Neo Contra had exclusively English voice tracks.
• No Export for You:
  • Contra Force was only released in North America, even though its Famicom counterpart (Arc Hound) was canceled.
  • The Appaloosa-made titles, Contra: Legacy of War and C: The Contra Adventure, were never released in Japan either, with the former being cancelled for unknown reasons. Also, Contra Adventure never came out in Europe, even though Legacy of War did. Contra 4 never made it to Europe, either, despite including an unlockable character inspired by the Probotector versons of the previous games that were released in Europe.
  • The MSX2 version of Contra was only released in Japan and did not have an official release in Europe, even though Nemesis (aka Gradius), Vampire Killer (the MSX2 equivalent of the first Castlevania) and Metal Gear were all released there. However, many ROM sites incorrectly list the game under the title of Gryzor (the European name of the first arcade game). This could be caused by the controversial Bowdlerisation of NES titles there.
• No Port For You: ReBirth is a WiiWare-exclusive, which is a very big problem because Wii Shop Channel games can no longer be purchased as of March 2018 or downloaded effective January 2019.
• Port Overdosed: The original game, whether as Contra or Gryzor^note or Probotector, is one of Konami's most widespread games, being released on several platforms in the 80s and re-released many times since then.
• Prop Recycling: The first True Final Boss Mr. Heli-Robo's model from Shattered Soldier was reused as a helicopter platform for Bill and Jaguar to run on in Neo Contra.
• Recursive Adaptation: The original Contra was ported to Famicom/NES, and remade into Contra: Evolution for arcades, then later to mobile phones.
• Referenced by...:
  • The opening theme "Life Goes On" from Chouseishin Gransazer ends with similar tunes to the original Contra's intro theme. Not surprising since it's made with Konami's involvement.
  • The composition "Labyrinth Fortress" has been sampled by Filipino band Parokya ni Edgar in their song "Bagsakan".
• Urban Legend of Zelda: Due to the popularity of Contra on Chinese Famiclones and in the absence of official Konami material, a popular among Chinese gamers is the existence of a hidden "underwater 8th level", which replaces the actual 8th stage, the Alien Lair. The supposed method to access the alleged level is convoluted, and requires shooting certain enemies or locations with specific weapons.

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