Let's Play Contra - 03
1,540 views · Published 6 April 2010 · 8:22 · Indexed 20 September 2026
Channel: Fuse4Gaming · 2010 · Gaming
Contra, known as Gryzor in Europe and Oceania, is a 1987 run and gun action game developed and published by Konami originally released as a coin-operated arcade game on February 20, 1987. A home version was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988 (which was localized as Probotector in the PAL region), along with ports for various computer formats, including the MSX2. Several Contra sequels were produced following the original game. In Contra, the player controls one of two armed military commandos named Bill and Lance (modelled after action movie stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone[citation needed], who were very popular at the time) who are sent on a mission to neutralize a terrorist organization called Red Falcon that is secretly planning an alien invasion on Earth. The name Contras is short for the Spanish contrarrevolucion, meaning "counter-revolution." The Contras were various groups of counter-revolutionaries fighting against the progressive Sandinista government of Nicaragua who had overthrown US-backed dictator, Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1979. President Reagan faced democratic opposition to his support for the Contras from Congress who voted in 1985 to cut off funding. Reagan and the CIA then switched to illegal covert means of support which produced the scandal known as the Iran-Contra affair. Details of the game's setting varies between supplementary materials: the Japanese version establishes the game to be set in the fictional Oceania archipielago of Galuga in the futuristic year of 2633, whereas the manual for the American NES version sets the game during the present in an unnamed South American island.
