Contra: Operation Galuga dev on balancing challenge with accessibility
I heard there's a code for this
The Contra series is well known for its punishing difficulty, even considering that it comes from an era of typically less forgiving games. It’s mostly thanks to Contra that the ‘Konami Code’ became so infamous, as it gave players an extra 30 lives in the original NES title. For many, this challenge is part of the series’ charm, but it’s also something that had to be handled carefully in WayForward’s newest entry, Contra: Operation Galuga.
In a new interview with Kotaku, WayForward director Tomm Hulett explains how the dev team managed to strike a balance between difficulty and accessibility. For one thing, there’s now an option to play with HP, so you can take multiple hits instead of being killed after a single attack. Hulett says that this was part of a careful discussion with Konami.
“Konami absolutely wanted this to be the game that would bring new players to the Contra brand, but they also fully agreed with us that it could not be an easy game, or it would disappoint Contra fans. It had to be the most challenging, but also most accessible, Contra ever! The real challenge was trying to thread this needle.”
Did Operation Galuga manage to find the right balance to appease oldschool fans without alienating new players? You can read GoNintendo’s official review to find out! You can also read the full interview with Hulett for more insight into the game’s development process.
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