Command & Conquer Generals: Contra is a Game Mod of Command & Conquer: Generals: Zero Hour. Much like Command & Conquer: Generals Shockwave, this mod aims to improve the depth and variety of Generals by taking its Generals mechanic and essentially turning it Up to Eleven. Whereas in Zero Hour, each general is a specialist who primarily follows the faction template with a handful of unique weapons and upgrades, Contra functionally turns every single general into its own faction, with wildly-different unit types, tech trees, and special abilities. It also adds several new features, including three new generals and "super units" - Vehicles unique to each faction that are extremely powerful and difficult to destroy.
Despite lacking a real campaign, (the ones from Generals and Zero Hour aren't compatible), the Generals Challenge mode is intact and fully compatible with the mod's new features. And in addition to revamped versions of the challenges from the already-existing generals of Zero Hour, there are also several challenges from new generals created exclusively for this mod.
The game provides examples of:
- A Commander Is You: Much like in Shockwave, this mod turns each general into its own faction, complete with unique units, tech trees, and special abilities.
- Adaptational Wimp:
- Missile Defenders, Tank Hunters, and RPG Troopers no longer have the ability to shoot at aircraft, something that's explicitly stated in their descriptions in the mod, as to not confuse the player, and instead, their role of anti-air infantry are given to Red Arrows and Stinger Troopers, with the USA lacking an anti-air infantry unit completely.
- General Kwai's Emperor Overlord Tanks no longer have anything capable of dealing with aircraft, but make up for it by being able to be upgraded with bunkers, radars, long range sniper cannons, and flamethrowers, all while still having their pre-installed propaganda towers.
- Attack Drone: Algrin Ironhand, the USA's Cybernetics General, makes extensive use of these in place of vehicles and aircraft.
- Bilingual Bonus: An option is added to give China and the GLA native-language voice lines for all their units.
- Cool Old Guy: Most of the generals count as this, due to them being in their 40s to 60s, but the most exceptionally awesome of them is General Ironside. You know he means business when his literal first words to the player character are him refusing to give an elegant speech and immediately declaring he's going to kick your ass."I ain't gonna give no speeches, so let's just get this on!"
- Cyborg: Algrin Ironhand, the USA's Cybernetics General as well as his infantry units, obviously, are all these.
- Divergent Character Evolution: Arguably the mod's biggest selling point. Not only are each of the main factions made much more distinct in terms of gameplay and aesthetics, but this also extends to the playable generals, some being more radically different than others.
- Final-Exam Boss: The GLA, China, and USA Boss Generals are these for their primary factions, possessing all the abilities of each faction's playable generals at once.
- Fragile Speedster: The Spider units belonging to General Ironhand's are this, as they're much faster and mobile than the Angel units, but are fragile to balance them out.
- Glass Cannon:
- Malcolm Granger's super unit, the Wyvern, is incredibly powerful, yet is the most fragile out of all the super units. It makes up for this by being both stealthed and blindingly fast.
- As a faction as a whole, Shi Tao, China's Nuke General counts as this. His Nuclear Storm is 'THE' most damaging super weapon in the game, and many of his units are also Glass Cannons as well, but he doesn't have any defensive structures at all, forcing him to rely on landmines, Attack Outposts, and guarding key locations with units to defend his base.
- Humongous Mecha: Algrin Ironhand's Angel-class units are all these.
- Master of All: Most of the super units count as this with a few exceptions, and even then, it's simply because they're unable to target aircraft on their own.
- Dr. Thrax's super unit, the Karakurt is effective against all types of units, including infantry, ground vehicles, and even aircraft!
- General Kwai's Guan Yu, as their twin gatling cannons are capable of dealing with all targets not to mention they're able to be equipped with propaganda towers, essentially making them the vanilla version of the Emperor Overlord Tank on steroids.
- General Fai's Suan Ni, due to it being able to be loaded with up to 12 infantry and also having a pre-installed propaganda tower.
- However, the real crown jewels of the Master of All trope is the Leonidias, exclusive to General Ironside, who even lampshades it in one of it's quotes upon being selected.
"Infantry, vehicles, aircrafts: I can take everything!" - Mighty Glacier: Certain super units like the Suan Ni, Guan Yu, and the Omega Cannon are quite slow, but they make up for it by having an absurd amount of health and devastating firepower.
- Our Angels Are Different: The units of Ironhand's Angel production line, which are all humanoid robots that vaguely resemble the creatures in question. While they do have "wings", however, they cannot fly.
- Semper Fi: General Alexander's infantry units are based off the US Marine Corps.
- Spider Tank: Ironhand's Spider-Class units. The exclusive Super Unit of General Ironside, Leonidas is one of these as well.
- Shout-Out: The lines of each General's super unit contain a variety of pop-culture references.
- Tactical Superweapon Unit: Super Units, the most powerful of all units in Contra, are all either incredibly fast or tough, and can run over any other unit, even heroes. On the flip side, they're limited to one per player, have long build times, and are the most expensive units in the game, costing anything from 5000 to 9000 credits, meaning that they need to pull their weight and losing one can be disastrous.
