Neo Contra was playable at the E3 Konami booth this year. The new sequel has a top down perspective with various angle changes during the game. But the new Contra still sticks to the last with fixed weapons and doesn't keep the firepower going.
The E3 demo had several levels to choose from. One level had a futuristic, mechanical theme with various soldiers shooting to kill. The entire game is composed out of polygons like Shattered Soldier. Players can choose different characters and sets of three weapons at the start of the game. The three weapons were a flame shot, spread shot, and an electric tracer gun.
The action was generally fast at 60 fps, but what didn't keep up with the pace was the actual fire power. The shot cadence is slower than it should be, and lets players fire about one shot per second. This certainly isn't how the old Contras were and there's no reason why the firepower needs to slow down here. The fan favorite Spread Shot also suffers the same fate.
The enemies and bosses are reminiscent of the series. Heaps of drones and other machines of varying sizes come at you with all they have. Bosses are pretty big, and one included a fat blob with several faces on it. The levels and all characters had good animation and detail.
Neo Contra needs to speed up the firepower in order to bring back the fun of the old days. The top down perspective is fine, it just needs the speed of a real shooter. It hits in November.
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