Contra III: The Alien Wars

About Contra III: The Alien Wars

Contra III: The Alien Wars dropped on the Super Nintendo in February 1992 as the third main entry in Konami's legendary run-and-gun series. Set two years after the first game, Bill Rizer and Lance Bean return to fight an alien invasion threatening Earth in the year 2636. This title pushed the SNES hardware harder than its predecessors with brighter sprites and more chaotic on-screen action. Players can find this arcade classic ported to modern systems like the Wii U, Wii, and New Nintendo 3DS. It remains a definitive shooter experience that demands quick reflexes and precise timing from start to finish.

Gameplay

You move your character through scrolling levels while shooting waves of enemies in every direction. The controls feel tight, letting you jump, crouch, or crawl under obstacles without losing momentum. You collect power-ups to swap your standard weak machine gun for heavy weapons like flamethrowers, lasers, and wide-area shotguns. Boss fights dominate the end of each stage and require specific strategies since they have multiple attack patterns that change with every encounter. Mini-bosses appear frequently to break up the flow before the main threat arrives. The game supports single-player runs or local co-op where two people share the screen to handle the chaos together.

What Players Think

Critics and players rank this title highly compared to other entries in the franchise. Metacritic gave it a solid 70 out of 100, while IGDB shows an average score of 80.5 based on 122 user ratings. The community describes the vibe as intense and demanding, with many users citing high completion rates only after dozens of failed attempts against the bosses. Average playtime sits around four hours for a first run, but speedrunners push that down significantly. Review snippets often highlight the boss designs as terrifying yet memorable. People praise the weapon variety and how the difficulty ramps up without feeling unfair, creating a mood of adrenaline-fueled frustration mixed with satisfaction.

PlayPile's Take

Contra III is worth your time if you want a challenging shooter that respects your skill. The price varies depending on which retro console version you pick up, but the value comes from its tight mechanics and memorable boss battles. You can track your progress through achievements or just aim for a perfect run without dying. This game does not hold your hand and expects you to learn enemy patterns through repeated failure. It stands as a peak example of 16-bit action that still holds up against modern titles. Grab it now if you like games where every second counts.

Storyline

Set in the futuristic year 2636, two years after the events of Super Contra (Previous version released for the NES). The protagonists Bill Rizer and Lance Bean are called once again, against an alien invasion. Taking advantage of Super NES technology, in this game the graphics are improved compared to previous games. It is considered by many the best game of the Contra series. This game offers a lot of weapons, at first you have a precise but very weak machine gun, some of the weapons are: missiles, flamethrowers, laser, shot that reaches a wide area, extremely strong missile, among others, each with Their advantage and disadvantage. The game bosses are a strong point of Contra III, they are very scary, big and well made, each with a different skill and different ways to be defeated, which leaves the game very unpredictable, you never know how to defeat that boss , And dying in them is almost certain. In most phases there is also a mini-bosses, this is very easy to defeat. The gameplay is excellent, the joystick commands respond perfectly, the characters shoot in any direction, lay on the floor, jump, scale the wall, do almost everything. The graphics are great and original and the Aliens are different from what we are used to seeing and have a horrifying look.