Contra (video game series)/Trivia

• 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.
• Milestone Celebration: Contra 4 was released during the twentieth anniversary game for the series, emphasized with its heaps of Mythology Gag and Lampshade Hanging.
• Name's the Same: Browny (a.k.a. CX-1-DA-300 Combat Robo) from Hard Corps and Brownie (a.k.a. BR-W9) from ReBirth.
  • While Brownie's design is obviously based on Browny's, her name is simply Tsugu-Min in the Japanese version.
• 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. 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.
• Port Overdosed: The original game, whether as Contra or Gryzor, is one of Konami's most widespread games, being released on several platforms in the 80s and re-released many times since then.