Truly a rogue.

Contra: Rogue Corps is the template for how to not revive a beloved franchise. I grew up playing the tough-as-nails action game. It was tough, but fair. I loved overcoming its difficulty and it was designed with such care that it never felt unfair. Rogue Corps seems to forget what made those games special. It feels more like what I refer to as the “dark times” of Contra during the late PSOne, early PS2 days. What made the game great is all but absent. It seems to be confused about what it is doing, but most importantly it forgets to be fun at almost all times.

When the demo for Rogue Corps dropped I gave it a whirl. I was impressed with what was there. Sure it had a few issues, but I figured those would be ironed out before launch. What that demo left out though was how the real structure of the game works. Yes this is a twin stick shooter, one that struggles with the aiming, which is strike one. I found it hard to properly target enemies as the lock-on is all over the place. The right stick aiming never felt right. Again, I could get past this, but the problems continue to pile on.

$39.99
Platforms: XB1 (reviewed), PS4, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $19.99

My biggest gripe is the overheating. For a game that focuses on mowing down hordes of enemies the overheating system ends up just slowing down the pace far too often. I found myself constantly having to manage my gun instead of focusing on the dozens of enemies the game tossed at me. It removed a lot of the fun of the carnage. This adds a level of micro-management to the game that kills the mood the rest of it attempts to set.

There are a lot of ways to play Rogue Corps, and none of them really dazzle. The main mode is a slogfest that lasts 20 or so hours and is about 15 hours too long. There are tons of items to collect and levels to upgrade, but it all becomes a grind and everything just feels miniscule in its impact. Upgrading characters is not interesting or fun. The items I received gave minor buffs and the cost to create or equip them was astonishing. I felt like it was a tacked on mechanic that was designed just to make the game feel bigger than it was.

There are four characters to choose from and they are all bad. One soldier grunt, one female with a sword in her stomach, a sophisticated alien who is prim and proper, and finally a panda…yes a panda. While he appears to be the most interesting character from the outset, he is just as lame and monotonous as the rest of the crew. Seriously, how do you mess up a game with a panda wielding guns? It just seems impossible.

The story mode is a grind of levels that last too long and deliver little reward. The co-op alleviates some of the issues while also bringing a friend to suffer alongside you. There is also a PvP mode that pits two teams of two against each other. It is not fun in the least and feels like so much of the rest of the game; just a way to pad out an already dull experience.

Rogue Corps didn’t need to be this way. The core idea is sound and the game play can be fun. The over-the-top animations for finishers and screen-clearing bombs are excellent. Slamming enemies into the screen ala old arcade games is fun. The characters are interesting as long as I wasn’t actually playing the game. It just feels like a string of good ideas meshed into a game that wants to be more than the sum of its parts. So much of what it does fights my ability to enjoy it. I didn’t want to start another mission as the last one went on far too long for what it rewarded me with. This is the crux of Contra: Rogue Corps.

It also doesn’t help that the game looks terrible. Even for an indie game in 2019 the blurry visuals do not hold up. Textures are repeated at an alarming rate. The resolution is abysmal, and it is even enhanced with 4K and HDR (which is for some reason disabled by default, even on HDR sets) and none of it looks good. The voice work is grating and the music is just kind of there. I had to crank up my sound to hear anything, as the audio volume seems as finely tuned as the rest of the game, which is to say poorly.

Contra: Rogue Corps is a game a lot of people would consider Konami to make. After seemingly wanting to exit the business even with a string of classic IP, this game feels like it was made for the sake of releasing a new Contra in 2019. It has good ideas hampered with poor implementation. It is not fun to play and that is its biggest crime. I wanted to love Rogue Corps. I tried to love Rogue Corps. I simply cannot find any fun to be had with the latest in this beloved franchise.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.