Contra Force

Contra Force is a run-and-gun spin-off developed and published by Konami for NES in 1992. Originally planned for Japan under the title Arc Hound, it was rebranded as a Contra game and released exclusively in North America. Instead of alien invasion, the plot focuses on counter-terrorism in Neo City, where the C-Force task force fights against terrorist group DNME. Its standout feature is four playable agents that can be swapped anytime during gameplay, each with unique weapons and stats: team leader Burns (balanced, machine gun and grenades), Smith (sniper rifle and homing missiles), Iron (heavy firepower with flamethrower and rocket launcher, low mobility), Beans (demolition expert, fastest movement and highest jump). It abandons traditional instant weapon pickups and adopts a Gradius-style power meter system. Destroy crates to collect briefcases and charge the meter, then manually select upgrades. There are five stages mixing side-scrolling and top-down 8-way shooting segments. It supports 2-player co-op, and single-player mode allows summoning an AI partner. Every character holds separate lives; the game will not end immediately when one operative runs out of lives. Pirated cartridges in China labeled it Contra 6. The game has slower pacing, dense enemy waves and high difficulty, making it a unique late-era NES Contra title.

These are the default keys. Click the gamepad icon 🎮 in the player’s bottom toolbar to rebind them. Gamepads are detected automatically. On phones you get on-screen buttons.

1P

2P

The NES was always two-player — 2P uses the numeric keypad, and NumLock does not matter. No numpad? Rebind 2P to other keys in the 🎮 panel.