Here are Contra ReBirth’s Galactic President and real life political figure Ernesto “Che” Guevara:īrownie (or BR-W9), Tsugu-Min in Japan, is an obvious reference to Contra: Hard Corps’ robot character, Browny. She will cry in a similar way if the player attacks her. In the TMNT game, a very similar female NPC on a skateboard is in one of the stage backgrounds. This is a reference to one of Konami’s classic arcade games, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It’s all in the manual.įunnily enough, Lance is visible in the helicopter at the end of the game, the furry apparel (seen around his shoulders in the image above) hanging out of the helicopter:ĭuring the scattering crowd sequence in the beginning of level 2, look carefully and you’ll see a girl crying as she’s riding away on a skateboard.
He is apparently cross-dressing to go undercover and infiltrate the enemy organization. Now, this is what Contra ReBirth’s plot makes him out to be: Just to give an idea of how campy this game is, here is one portrayal of Lance Bean (Contra: Shattered Soldier): Unsurprisingly, Stallone is the inspiration for many of Lance’s designs throughout the series. It is a parody of Sylvester Stallone’s movie, Victory. The intermission sequence following level 3 shows the right side half of this image:Īs you might already guess, it is no coincidence. The mech mini-bosses fought near the end of stage 1 are very similar to the Power Loader used by Ripley in the film Aliens. In the franchise, it is explained that only live material will travel through time, hence why the time travelers are naked upon arrival. This scenario is very similar to the time travel principle in the Terminator series. In the opening cut scene, Bill Rizer awakens in a cryogenic-like setting, completely naked. Adding to the difficulty, they blend in the scenery due to the background colors and due to heavy action in the foreground with intricate animation sequences, These enemies are a bigger threat since they fly in circles and other patterns, even following the player. These crow-like birds are based off the man-faced mutts from Contra III and 4. In the first half of stage 2, the player occasionally encounters birds that sneak-attack the player after seemingly idling in the background. These rings are similar in design and move in similar motion to the rings shot by many enemies in the Gradius series.
When playing on the Nightmare difficulty setting, most enemies emit a destructible blue ring toward the player after they’re destroyed.
The alien organization is called Neo-Salamander and their weapon is the Zelos Force. In fact, there are many Gradius references in this game. This may be a reference to the expression Pushing up daisies, in referencing someone who has died. The character Brownie (Tsugu-Min) bears a striking resemblance to Drossel Von Flugel, the gynoid duchess from the Fireball anime series.Īdditionally, notice the death animation for Brownie, as a flower appears to rise out of it. The ninja sub-boss of the third stage (Rocket Ninja Sasaki) bears a resemblance to the Lin Kuei faction of the Mortal Kombat series. This is a reference to the MSX Gradius games that involve a Gradian calender. In the cut scene before the first stage, the text states the year of 2633 with “Contra” as a prefix: The same thing happens to Konami Lady in the Famicom-exclusive title Konami Wai Wai World (Parody World):
#GRADIUS 2 BOSS WORDS SERIES#
Incidentally, the Gradius series would also receive a Rebirth title for the WiiWare service.Īs if the feel and tone of the game didn’t seem at least somewhat like a parody, Tsugu-Min (BR-W9)’s death animation includes a flower blooming out. The significance of the caption “I JUST” is unclear, but the character on that billboard is Dr. In the second stage, you may notice this billboard in the background: The PAL version is also a special case as it contains a debug menu not seen in the other 2 versions. In addition to this, a “Whoop!” chant is heard, similar to the one in the jungle stage theme of the arcade version of Super Contra, as the text scrolls. The text in the intro (“It’s now time for the legendary Contra to be reborn…”) is red and scrolls leftward, the same as the text in the intro of arcade Super Contra (“The quest for freedom continues…”). This is a rare instance of the PAL version not being released the latest instead, the North American release holds this distinction. The PAL release is a special case, not just for Contra ReBirth, but for the series as a whole. They can get away with things like this in Japan. It was indeed a form of censorship, regardless of losing symbolism to maintain visual consistency, as this is the portrait seen in the Japanese version:Īs is obvious, that is Adolf Hitler. In the North American and PAL releases, Chief Salamander’s portrait is the following: