Genre: Platformer
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Year: 1990
Basic Idea: Beat that pesky Red Falcon again in this sequel to Contra.
Review: This game is universally lauded, and indeed, there is nothing really wrong with it. It’s a worthy sequel to the incredibly famous Contra, but I don’t think I’ve ever played this and didn’t think I’d rather be playing the original. Nearly everything is identical, but the graphics and play control feel slightly less crisp to me. Also, it’s much more difficult, making 2-player mode less fun as there’s a good chance you won’t make it through, even with the (now) 10 man life code.
Still, you can’t ignore this game if you at all like the Contra empire. However, you can safely avoid Contra Force, the third game for the NES (released after Contra III for the SNES). That one was a brutal effort by Konami to cash in and it fails on most levels.
Death By Troggles 
Yeah, this one was hard. I liked it, but couldn’t get into it as much as the original.
The series has now become Hard Corps, and it too is pretty damned difficult. I’m just now realizing, though, that I haven’t tried to see if the code works.
Ah, Hard Corps. Loved that game so much. Never beat it. Got to the final boss like once.