Contra Advance: The Alien Wars EX

Contra Advance: The Alien Wars EX (Japan title: Contra: Hard Spirits) is a side-scrolling run-and-gun shooter for Game Boy Advance, developed by TOSE and published by Konami in 2002. It is adapted from the SNES classic Contra III: The Alien Wars. Set in year 2636, alien Red Falcon forces launch a full-scale invasion of Earth. Players control commandos Jimbo and Sully, fighting through ruined cities and enemy bases to destroy alien creatures and massive mechanical bosses and save Neo City. This port removes the original overhead stages from SNES version and replaces them with two side-scrolling levels from Contra: Hard Corps on Mega Drive. Classic weapons including spread gun, homing missiles and laser are retained, while dual weapon carry system and smart bombs are removed. It supports 2-player co-op via GBA link cable. Two difficulty modes are available: Novice mode ends at stage 4 without true ending, and progress is saved by password system. It features pixel graphics and remixed soundtrack, delivering fast-paced hardcore shooting gameplay. A Chinese fan translation patch exists, and it is a well-known retro shooter on GBA.

These are the default keys. Click the gamepad icon 🎮 in the player toolbar, then “Remap keys” to open the emulator’s own control settings (keyboard and gamepad, saved automatically). Gamepads are detected automatically. On phones you get on-screen buttons.