Japanese/UK Contra Had ROBOTS and Cutscenes?? - Region Break

[@BoundaryBreak]

Just as a bench mark. This video was at 56,000 views (video was 6 months old) before you guys came here either from my Mario 3 episode or KZbin's algorithm.

[@kaitoudark1]

Considering the metrics you have there, is it possible to see how many of the views that make up the new difference were routed from either video? Or is the number just going up naturally despite the algorithm? KZbin is in a weird place right now so I'm genuinely curious

[@666Entity666]

Well I just HAD to watch this =D

[@thenightjackal]

@@kaitoudark1 I 100% remember being able to see how many views came from Recommended or from Links. I'm pretty sure he would be able to see how many came from the SMB3 video, but maybe it would also be slightly skewed by including views from other means such as people manually sharing the video's URL themselves.

[@rapidloaf]

I am here from the Mario 3 video lol

[@Canti89]

Yup just watched Mario 3

[@InhumanBaron]

The removal of cutscenes in US Contra (something that honestly blows my mind that I never knew til now) reminds me a lot of when Ace Combat 3 on the PS1 released in the US, where the entire story was essentially removed for a very straightforward, arcade experience. In reality, the Japanese version of the game not only had cutscenes, voice acting, etc. but a branching storyline even.

[@GabePuratekuta]

It reminds me of Assault Suit Valken, which was localized in US as Cybernator. That game also had removed cutscenes as well as more levels.

[@Swampert_Tube]

I mean the Japanese one was released 1 week after the US version

[@ZeZwede]

i didn't know about this when i bought it retro. i was wondering why the 3rd was so liked for its cool story... so checked it up online if i had missed something important only to find out they completely trashed the game outside of japan x'D

[@SECONDQUEST]

@@GabePuratekuta Yesss I'm about to play that! The US version is my jam.

[@thexell4708]

Its so cool that, thanks to passionate fan Translators, you can now follow the Story in the original game even if you dont speak english.

[@plasticflower]

For example at 6:07 it says in the English version "Now exposing the enemy territory" and I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean. In Japanese it says "テキハ　イッタイ　ナニモノダ" which is more like "What the hell am I fighting against?". Also interesting to note is that the Japanese is all spelled in katakana letters, which is normally reserved for foreign words, but it's also often used in dialogue when the characters are really talking in a different language, to give it that foreign touch, a bit like when you have English text but the font makes it resemble Chinese/Japanese letters.

[@jmachi]

@モチポンズ Can you help me out to translate this kanjis from this video ? kzbin.info/www/bejne/pmikkpKfaNKLfbs I posted the exact moment were those kanjis appear, I will appreciate that if you help me with that

[@plasticflower]

@@jmachi Hey, sure that's 左上　中上 meaning left-up and middle-up. It looks like there might be another 左 (left) to the right of that but it never scrolls into view. Since it's a glitch compilation, I wonder if there's any real meaning though...

[@jmachi]

​@@plasticflower Thanks, I appreciate that, I though that will be something more meaningful, but thanks for filling that void either way, I will let know this to the content creator and credit you for it

[@plasticflower]

@Hamikon That might be. I guess a lot of famicom games use mainly hiragana and certainly memory was an issue back then, as well as the resolution making it more difficult to display certain kanji, and also the games' target audience is also kids, who might not be able to read a lot of kanji. So I guess there are several reasons

[@user-a5Bw9de]

Simon's Quest in Japanese uses Katakana with similar fonts. It must be an in-house asset.

[@TracksilVania]

Did I see a jet in the Probotector's ending? Not a helicopter...

[@Diwasho]

Yeah but a VTOL jet makes more sense, I imagine helicopters would be a fairly outdated type of aircraft in the 27th century.

[@SorcererLance]

@@Diwasho yeah, but imagine how much fuel and military funds we could save by dusting off an old antique for one last mission... Instead of, y'know, carpet bombing or nuking that lonely island... just send 1 or 2 men to personally wipe out an entire enemy alien army :P

[@afriend9428]

*Jes*

[@BListed2k24]

8:41 small correction: the version of the PAL manual you got has Italian (not Spanish, btw) as its second language because you got the ''South Europe'' version of the game - which was only sold in Italy, of course, but also a few other countries like Portugal and Spain. Other European regions replaced the Italian with their own native language and, in some cases, even the English was replaced (for instance, I believe the German manual is exclusively in German, but I'd need confirmation on that). Bottom-line is, European manuals and boxes had multiple versions of every game (not just Contra), all localised differently. Sometimes, the game itself was also fully translated, replacing the English language entirely, while other times you simply had a ''language selection screen'' with a list of flags that the player picks before the game actually starts. Hope this helps in future videos. Keep doing what you're doing!

[@SorcererLance]

Interesting, they didn't have manuals that were multi-language? Then again to be fair, that would've made the manuals far thicker than normal to accommodate EVERY language Europe has...

[@PikaLink91]

As a European myself I always appreciated that most games gave us the option between five languages to pick, which is why I find it funny that a PS1 game like Clock Tower got released on no less than three versions here. One with only German, one with only French, and one with English, Spanish, and Italian. Like couldn't they fit all five languages on one disk? As a Scandinavian, more precicely Dane, this was both a blessing and a curse though. On one hand, I learned English really damn quickly. On the other, I had no idea what my games said until I learned that bloody language. Imagine 7 year old me playing Pokémon Red and having to guess my way through all the menus and attacks.

[@marhawkman303]

@@PikaLink91 Heheheh, I used to get ROM versions of Japanese games that didn't have English releases. Yeah, that's... interesting to try to play.

[@goatbone]

Is it definitely in Spanish? The manual he shows is UKV coded which would suggest it is in English and Italian (which are the two countries along with Australia that were the PAL A regions).

[@marhawkman303]

@@goatbone hmmm now that you mention it.... the back of the box has "raccomandato dagli 8" That text does look like Italian to me. I didn't see much of the non-English text but now that I'm looking for it, yeah.....

[@HybridAngelZero]

One thing that makes me happy is that the recent Contra Anniversary Collection on modern consoles and PC has several different regional versions of all the games. Though, if I recall correctly, I think only Contra Hard Corps has the EU Probotector version. But people all over the world can finally experience the animated backgrounds and cutscenes of the Japanese version

[@AwesomeHairo]

Wait until you found out emulators exist.

[@BingoClamshell]

Wow, those moving background sprites are pretty cool

[@Larry]

The US box art is taken from Ocean's UK home computer ports of Gryzor (which is the single player version of Contra in arcades)

[@BoundaryBreak]

Indeed! I had Google image searched for something to represent it

[@Larry]

@@BoundaryBreak Well I meant where the art originated from, but the artist Bob Wakelin, a huge chunk of his artwork was lifted from other media, Target: Renegade, Psycho Soldier Etc. Were all lifted from movie posters. I covered a couple of them in a very early KZbin video in fact :D

[@BoundaryBreak]

@@Larry Im going to take a look for that one! Always love me a good Fact Hunt or GTYCW

[@fnjesusfreak]

@@BoundaryBreak Heh, I haven't seen GYCW come up in a long time. XD

[@AvidCat5000]

Wait... Contra had a plot?! I only had the cartridge, no book. The ending always confused me. Great episode!

[@Freakinger81]

I think that Konami overreacted with the censoring in this one. Yes, we had very strict rules for Violence in Games back then, but it was mostly about who you SHOOT, not who you ARE. We had many games like this with Human Heroes. As long as the Enemys were Robots, Aliens, Monster or whatever, you were good to go... if they didnt bleed of course.

[@doburu4835]

Now it's the opposite

[@novameowww]

Maybe it was a color palette thing. You can't have a robot people colored, and you can't have a people robot colored.

[@Torieldreemur918]

It's all to do with German video game censorship laws of the era

[@nick6var]

The enemies became robots, too.

[@tetsi0815]

@@Torieldreemur918 Those laws still exists ;-) and the "Liste der jugendgefährdenden Medien" (short "Index") is not exclusive to video games. The "Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Schriften" looks at every type of media from movies to books to online. As a video game publisher you really want to be sure that your game does not end up on that list. While being on that list does not mean it's illegal to sell / advertise the game per se, your options of actually doing so are severely limited as you have to make sure that you only sell / advertise to people over 18. The rules are still mostly the same but the people who decide wether or not a game ends up on the "Index" are different now. Organisations like PEGI and USK did not exist at the time so that games that would be USK18/PEGI18 nowadays would land on the index back then and you could essentially not sell them to wide audiences and especially children - the primary audience of video games at the time.

[@gonzalotorres5282]

I guess the Probotectors are a clever form of censorship. A friend of mine made me love those robots. Also, I like how Probotectors were retconned (and being playable) in Contra 4/Dual Spirits for NDS as "units designed for exploring extreme hostile enviroments" as a nod to the German censorship. I really wanted to the NES versions to be included in Contra Anniversay Collection (Super Probotector and the Mega Drive Probotector made the cut).

[@Yourwaifuisntreal]

Not gonna lie, I find the idea of playing as robots in probotector pretty cool.

[@KairuHakubi]

that's why we tolerated a lot of that censorship. robots are cooler than humans and lasers are cooler than bullets. but all that green blood shit is just stupid.

[@pheffrey9446]

@@KairuHakubi thats funny i think the exact opposite. Real bloody flesh is more cool then a fake metal robot. But to each is own yeah?

[@KairuHakubi]

@@pheffrey9446 hmm if i'm a dinosaur or some kind of ninja throwing rusty hooks at people, yeah I want them to be made of meat. but if I'm firing missiles and shooting lightning from my hands, I wanna be up against a robot. otherwise it's just a waste.

[@pheffrey9446]

@@KairuHakubi no matter the weapon used people are always gonna have a more impact on your emotions then a lifeless robot. But to each his own. Robots are fake and boring. Humans are real snd fleshy lol

[@Skippy19812]

Super Probotector on the Snes had the best of both worlds, which is badass robots fighting fleshy meat sacks. Playing as a badass killbot defender of humanity is in my opinion way more appealing than playing generic 80's, oiled up muscle men.

[@frankly3498]

I'm sorry this got hidden by the algorithm. You can tell you put a lot of work in this and that is a shame for it to be hidden away. Will watch all of them now. Keep up the cool work man. Try not to let this kick ya!

[@Salku_Chaotix]

This is a great boundary break episodes, your editing and presentation has immensely improved over the years. I love it.

[@mattcrowell5875]

Great video! You should do a Region Break on Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse if you haven’t already. There’s many pretty big significant differences you wouldn’t notice at first but trust me there are.

[@Sientir]

It's fascinating to me how laws in different regions can result in such extreme changes during the localization process.

[@Smaxx]

I remember getting Probotector 2 (without knowing the first game or the originals) back then, because I've been a big Transformers fan. I was somewhat disappointed about the lack of transforming capability, but I guess it was still the best Transformers game that wasn't one. 😉

[@bababajake9898]

This series is amazing. I've always wondered this kinda stuff and seeing visualy, rather than reading some silly wiki page, is amazing. Not to mention learning new things about games I loved as a kid is such a crazy feeling. I really hope this can keep going further, keep it up man, and thank you!

[@livefreeprintguns]

Contra's theme music goes so damn hard. I grew up in the 80's and still catch myself nodding to the music whenever I hear it.

[@Justin-TPG]

Being English, I had Gryzor on the ZX Spectrum. The cover used the same artwork as Contra. Anyway, I believe the big reason for the name change on the European home computer versions was because of a desire to distance the game from the recent controversies of the Iran-Contra affair and the linked US-fuelled actions in Nicaragua.

[@davidt3563]

Man, Contra was my jam back in the day. Every day before 1st grade my friend Chris and I would get up early, head to our babysitters house and her husband would have Contra loaded up with the 30 life's code already input. We would play that until we had to leave for school. Then when we got to school we'd run around pretending to play Contra on recess. I'm a dad now and I even got to play Contra with my son, so many old memories and so many new ones. Thank you for the consistent awesome content, it means a lot to a bunch of us!

[@childofcascadia]

"Probotector" sounds like something designed to protect against alien butt probes. It just sounds goofy as hell.

[@raviamodernepic]

Didn't know about that chip restriction. Awesome work comparing the versions! Love how meticulous you are in your videos. Keep up the good work!

[@DodgeThisBam]

Australia got the European version. One thing that surprised me when I finally played Contra was that the death sound was the same! It always sounded so robotic that I;d assumed it was made for the Probotectors specifically!

[@HeathenDance]

It was fate ahah.

[@Angrycatgames-xj8wb]

I am very angry about the fact AUSTRALIA = PAL

[@DodgeThisBam]

@@Angrycatgames-xj8wb Why's that mate?

[@DodgeThisBam]

@@Angrycatgames-xj8wb I should have been more specific. Why are you mad Australia got the PAL version

[@unvaxxeddoomerlife6788]

@@DodgeThisBam PAL versions of games usually aren't as oood as NTSC versions.

[@clippit2002]

oh wow, I've played the Gryzor version for years and was unaware of that secret ending code, that's an awesome touch!

[@SorcererLance]

Also regarding the "Contra" name, what's also amusing is in Spanish, it's literally the word for "Against" or "Versus"... so it oddly works in context that you're fighting against aliens Though I'm sure this is likely common knowledge, but by the time a sequel for the NES was made, titled Super Contra... it had to be renamed to Super C in the US, considering at the time, then-President Ronald Reagan's Iran-Contra controversy was heating up and Konami likely wanted to steer clear of that. Of course the dust was long settled by the time Contra 3 was released on the SNES.

[@lucassantossj]

Portuguese speaker. First time I heard about a game called "Contra" I asked "Against what?".

[@kgrfirdjy]

As a Spanish translator, I could totally see that as a bit of unnecessary censorship in the united states due to the Iran-Contra issue going on during the 1980's.

[@HeathenDance]

@@lucassantossj Didn't you find weird that a videogame would have a Portuguese title? Lol.

[@lucassantossj]

@@HeathenDance At the time, yes. As I never saw the game before I asked if it was really the name, also the fact that "contra" is a conjunction in Portuguese, so it's also strange to see it alone.

[@sombrashibe]

Loved this episode! I love learning about regional differences in media. Especially from older games and cartoons. Great episode! Hope to see more 💕

[@tchitchouan]

always fun to compare japanese and american versions

[@super.muff83]

In Germany we had the "problem" that it was forbidden to show violence against humans or human-like creatures in videogames. All humans in Turok 1 were replaced with robots in the German version. In Germany we have an authority called BPjM (Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien) which looks over all games and movies to find out if there could be content in it that is inappropriate for children. They decide if this game/movie may released in Germany or not. Some games were confiscated because the BPjM decided that those games are too brutal or it is not right to show a child that a human could be killed by your character. Some publisher changed the content of their games so that they have the possibility to release it in Germany. Today there are other rules and circumstances. That makes it easier for games to be released without being confiscated...

[@tetsi0815]

Just for the sake of nit picking: There is a difference between the lists A (indiziert) and B (beschlagnahmt / confiscated). If your game was on list A (indiziert but not confiscated - most media on the index is on this list) you could (and can) legally sell it but have to make sure that it's not advertised / sold etc to people under 18. This rule makes it impossible to legally sell to children / teenagers. Back then the main audience to video games. The role of the BPjS/BPjM in how video games were altered for the European / German market would probably be a really interesting topic for a video like that. I remember the German version of the point and click adventure "Indiana Jones and the last crusade" had all the swastikas removed - in the laziest way imaginable. Command & Conquer tiberium conflict hat green "blood" IIRC. This list goes on and on. A lot of publishers probably changed way more than they had to just to make sure to not end up on the index or maybe to say "fuck you"... who knows 🙂

[@super.muff83]

@@tetsi0815 Wir können das gerne auch auf deutsch ausdiskutieren. 😉 BPjS heißen die schon seit Jahren nicht mehr und den Unterschied zwischen indiziert und beschlagnahmt, sowie den ganzen gesetzlichen Krimskrams wollte ich für's Erste nicht unnötig raushauen. 😅 Die Gesetzeslage ist da ziemlich komplex...

[@tetsi0815]

@@super.muff83 *G* Deswegen "nit picking" - aber der formale Unterschied zwischen Beschlagnahme (das die BPjS/BPjM nicht per se allein machen konnte) und Indizierung ist IMHO durchaus wichtig. Die Bundeszentrale für Kinder- und Jugendmedienschutz für hieß bis April 2021 BPjM - BPjS bis 2003. Deshalb schrieb ich "BPjS/BPjM" ;-)

[@grinbrothers]

I've never played any version of the game but I do find myself preferring the robot themes of Probotector over Contra. It's surprising the amount of differences between the US and Japanese versions; fantastic job covering them all!

[@tchitchouan]

yes nintendo used less chips on international version of cartridge to keep manufacturing costs low and profits high, can't fault them for that.

[@thomasmathew13]

Fun fact: the Famicom version used less chips than the NES version. Famicom had prg, chr, and the mapper chip. NES had prg, chr, cic, then used two other chips for replacing their mapper chip (LS161N and LS32). Also a lot of Famicom contra games were epoxy coated, making them cheaper. In fact, I've never seen a non expoy covered contra cart like he showed before.

[@Sgt_Viper000]

Amazing video! I can't wait for the next video! I think the robot aesthetic is cool (though to be fair I love machines)! And arguably they look better than the humans.

[@maxbyer]

Had no idea there was such a HUGE animation discrepancy throughout the game from the Japanese to US versions, damn. Honestly I'd love to see someone plug the Probotector character sprites into the original Japanese release.

[@misaelnavarrete8031]

This series deserves more love. Good work like always

[@MegamanM]

The name Gryzor was only used for the home computer releases in Europe, like the C64, ZX Spectrum and the Amstrad CPC. The NES version was released as Probotector. The box you showed was PAL-A. PAL-A games were compatible with consoles in the UK, Italian and Australia. PAL-B was used in the rest of Europe.

[@jannyegaxherd9376]

love my probotectors, but sadly we lost them with newer entries of the series. greetings and much love from germany.

[@HeathenDance]

Protector Robot is a pretty epic title, indeed.

[@rodrigodavet7512]

Man, the amount of work you put on these, finding every little thing that is different between all the versions and trying to explain why the changes happened, is great stuff. Shame on youtube for trying to hide the video from us.

[@raspxaseron6464]

I love these episodes as much as the main series. I've said it before, you are an gem on KZbin. Keep it man.

[@Randomninja47]

Man I love this series. Even playing all of these versions in The contra collection, I learned a lot of new things!

[@PikaLink91]

7:26 Actually you're right on the mark, the katakana "コントラ" literally says Ko-n-to-ra. You get 10 billion points for that one... and bonus points for actually pronouncing it in Japanese. I come right from the latest DidYouKnowGaming episode where they call Gegege no Kitaro "Geegeegee no KiTAro".

[@GabePuratekuta]

Yeah, DYKG narrators rarely get pronunciation of Japanese words correctly.

[@fireaza]

Was about to say the same thing! Also a bit of weirdness regarding this, in that scene, it's written as ”コントラ” using English-style quotation marks. Japanese normally uses 「」 as quotation marks, in fact, you can see them on the same screen when they write the characters names「ビル」「ランス」.

[@PikaLink91]

@@fireaza Hey you're right! I mean I did notice the names were in「」and not " " which is how I knew what words to look out for, but it didn't occur to me why they used English quotation marks for the title. Then again Japanese has a habit of borrowing from English here and there.

[@Freyja_fenris]

It's a pity we never got the cutscenes or some of the animated backgrounds. But I do think we got the better end with the sprite work overall. Excellent job Shesez, loved this one!

[@theclassygoose6384]

Honestly some of the backgrounds hurt my eyes, kind of glad we don’t have the animated background

[@idwolfshow1727]

1:47 I love howit looks like there's a fish swimming up the waterfall in the Japanese version. This is cool

[@DeoMachina]

Here's a Boundary Break recommendation: Control! You'd really get a kick out of it, lot of weird tricks used in the game's levels

[@thomasmathew13]

I'm so upset that I never saw this 6 months ago. I love these regional difference videos and contra is one of my favorites! I was only made aware of this video because you mentioned it in your latest video. Stupid KZbin...

[@XamposGR]

I remember playing Contra when i was a kid, back in the '90s and around 2000, those were the good days. Anyhow, i remember also that if a second player was playing and run out of lives, he/she could "steal" lives from the first player. Maybe i wrongly remember, but i think that players could do something like that. :) And on the subject of weapons...my favorite was the gun that spread its bullets all over the screen (i believe it was called shotgun, correct please if i am wrong). With that gun i could clear entire stages/maps without effort. :) But the worst gun in Contra, in my own opinion, is the laser. The thing with the laser is that if you kept spamming the fire button on your controller the laser (not the gun, the visual effect i mean) never was leaving the gun, which was making this gun like a lightsaber (you know the own from Star Wars) and making this gun a close combat weapon. You can leave your opinions below. :)

[@zadiequest341]

Personally, loved this episode! Thank you

[@buuguhluu]

Have you looked into the game superliminal? It would be so cool to see how that game worked! Love your content! Keep bringing the quality with whatever you do.

[@QuickTimeVelocity]

I second this. Hell of an epic experience that deserves WAAAY more recognition than I've seen it get!!

[@MAZZ0Murder]

Before watching some of your videos I assumed there were tiny differences every now and then and the rest was translation... but it's interesting how different they can be!

[@gradearawk]

Even though I was terrible at it, I loved contra as a kid!!

[@sanybalkanaciairsoft3253]

Terrible, i can write you a book about it, but still had fun with the game.

[@wchan39]

Is it just me or does the robot designs for Probotector looks pretty cool?

[@monkeywithocd]

I wondered why no developers seemed to utilize the extra space in the NES carts to add extra chips to do cool tricks to allow more complex games. Guess it was due to Nintendo being Nintendo.

[@alexpage4355]

In fairness to Nintendo, they were trying to fend off a repeat of the crash that had nearly wiped out the entire video games industry in the west. By insisting that Nintendo needed to make all of the carts, personally, they could ensure no upstart 3rd parties would be flooding the market with shovelware. That also, unfortunately, meant that 3rd parties (even ones with a proven track record like the Konami of the day) could only use Nintendo's hardware, because that's what the factories were set up for, not their own, proprietary chipsets. Was it a bit heavyhanded? Probably... but not entirely unreasonable given the tenuous state of the market at the time. It's the same reason they limited publishers to a certain number of games every year. Unfortunately, hardware is a little trickier to loophole your way around, so there were no Ultra-style shell companies to help Konami backdoor their own chips into US carts. (Edited to include a very important "no" that failed to get typed!)

[@monkeywithocd]

@@alexpage4355 True, forgot about that angle. Honestly, taking the crash into consideration their early heavy-handedness with third parties in general seems a lot more justifiable (if still painting them in a bad light).

[@shortazn97]

I already watched it when it came out, but I'm here again after the Mario 3 episode to help you get some hits hopefully! Keep up the great work Shesez!

[@EternalFlameofHeaven]

Gonna go out on a limb here and say the falcon censorship in Germany may have had at least a little to do with the falcon/nazi emblem.

[@sewaprolo]

My thoughts exactly. The red falcon symbol is indeed quite reminiscing of the second world war and all of its horrors, so I definitely believe Germany said: "Nope, no humans, no red falcons or anything akin to war. Make it robots and call it a day."

[@sombrashibe]

Major FLASH warning ⚠️ after 16:38 for photosensitive folks! Old games do it on the regular, but this cheat code is extra flashy. (I'm photosensitive from migraines, so looking out for folks)

[@SleepyRPGsuperCharged]

Heard you on ArloCast and had to come check you out brother! Turns out I’ve even seen some of your videos before so it’s really such a small world. Subscribed.

[@BoundaryBreak]

wow thank you so much!

[@AmbitionIsaMust115]

I don't normally get the urge for people delivering snacks to me but you really made that boxsu look good

[@notsure1969]

Getting snacks delivered to you is awesome. I mean. Is there any other way?

[@AmbitionIsaMust115]

@@notsure1969 i live like a block away from a convenience store so... 🤣

[@gullefjunis]

I had Probotector as a kid, and im from Sweden. I never knew about Contra till i grew up. Mind blown to learn Probotector was german

[@qqq1701]

Great video! I played a lot of Contra when I was a kid. It was one of my favorite games. I knew the exact pixels to stand on to not get hit and all that but I always struggles with those spike arms dropping down from the ceiling. It did always seem like the game was kind of stripped down even though it was very good.

[@brycestrife5605]

I LOVE this channels content. So great and unique.

[@herschell64]

Here in the UK we grew up with Probotector, we never found out it was Contra until later, well I certainly didn't

[@haratiohornblower2613]

Same as Australia brother

[@ShakuraKazuki]

I think the reason why the extra cheat menus in the Japanese version are English is because they are debug menus and the program code was written in English? Most program languages are based on the English language, keywords etc.

[@johankreek3031]

Very interesting episode! I would be careful with adding flash red/white screens to your video without a warning though, but maybe I am just Mr. Safe. Keep it up!

[@knowlessman]

Any chance of a Boundary Break of Prey (2017)? Apart from the Mimics and zero-G stuff, it has this whole "Looking Glass" dealy with windows that look like portals until you break them, and I wonder if there's anything really interesting going on there. Granted, odds are it's just basically the same thing as in Half-Life 2, and nothing really that surprising. Oh, except the intro bit, I would like to know if the intro bit with the helicopter happens in its own environment, or if there actually are the Looking Glass panes outside the helicopter and you could see them if you were able to leave it.

[@nerometalmkii2876]

While it is kind of cool to play as robots, "Probotector" is a silly word, In Contra 4 for the DS you can play as both human characters and the (somewhat snobbish) robots, all the unlockables and attention to details is one of the best parts of Contra 4, highly recommended! It's been said before, but "Contra" means "Against" in Spanish, which also suits the game so well, you would think maybe it's not coincidental, in fact "Against" would have been a cool title for this game, very very fitting

[@dannybeane2069]

16:40 That looks like some creepy pasta kinda thing there. Imagine accidently doing that as a kid and no one believing you cause the game was so hard and you didn't know how you did it.

[@X2x3x4]

I love what you do and I always look forward to seeing the next episode. Thank you for taking the time to entertain many people who only know you from a far.

[@8BitAlchemy]

That intro music that's not used in the American version of Contra is so similar to an 8-bit version of The Walking Dead theme song that I legitimately thought it was until you introduced the song later in the episode

[@TomWDW1]

I was never really into Contra, but this video was still really interesting and entertaining. Good job :-)

[@jsaysyay]

your videos are always so nice to watch, even when i've only ever heard of the game once, i still watch cause *pleasant vibes*

[@jameswalt1]

The only sponsor I've ever seen that was actually interesting 🗾

[@DaWhiteTyger]

Saw your comment for DisplacedGamer(s?) and wanted to take a peek at your video. Nice!

[@mclaine7342]

As a german kid, i loved Probotector. We had a friend, his father had a Game Shop. I remember talking to him about Probotector and he said, i know this game, but instead of robots i play it with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. Me: OMG! How cool is that! ^^

[@Oturan20]

It turns out that both images were traces of Schwarzenegger, so it's really Arnie and Arnie cosplaying Rambo.

[@NerddoYT]

EARLY MOMENTS WITH THE BOYS

[@Just_A_Ant]

Hey

[@eltigreandthewalrus]

Contra was one of the first games I played growing up, every weekend I would rent 1 of 3 games from my video store as a kid. Super Mario 3, Code named Viper, and Contra. This brings back so many memories. I think I actually have a rom cart with Gryzor on it for my NES. Love those old cut scenes.

[@BooTeresa1006]

I’m sure a large portion of us have only seen the first level.

[@BenjiSun]

that cookie at 4:37 looks like a nama-sabure(from French sablé cookies). it's like a soft thin cookie with some kind of filling. they're really really good.

[@UltraNurture]

Really love this series! Almost as much as Boundary Break!

[@Srcsqwrn]

That was a great episode! Still love these so much! I think I might look into a Bokksu

[@danherondraws]

huh, I knew plenty of these, but seeing it all compiled like this is great :3

[@Swampert_Tube]

The US version of contra came out first on the NES according to the contra wiki, the Japanese version came out 1 week after the US version. The US one released February 2, 1988, Japanese release was February 9, 1988, and Europe release was December 28, 1990. So at 1:41 I don't think they redid the trees in the US version, but redid them for the Japanese release.

[@cardboardleaf7971]

I have an idea for a Boundary Break! A dive into Miitopia's stages and how they're rendered.

[@Nascar_fanatic555]

Video idea: miitopia boundary break!

[@DawnLynnCat]

Not much unseen.

[@crestfallenwarrior5719]

That would be cool

[@aubreyh1930]

Tomodachi Life might be better. It has a TON of version differences. Though most are kinda minor

[@Nascar_fanatic555]

I think it would be cool because miitopia is super popular!

[@nicolerziha8195]

YES! I never thought of that but now I NEED it!

[@patrickchipman8652]

Been watching this man for years... Get him to 1 mil already!!!

[@UnknownD]

14:10 As a German, I apologize for the, in my opinion, unnecessary censorship and "probotector" XD But to be fair: "Probotector" got its own unique charme. This is a great video. As an NES fan, I thought I already knew a lot about NES games, but you're showing me I don't really know anything ^^"

[@ElricSowrd]

Hey. It's been a longtime, Shesz. I'm aware that the Famicom Version has background Animations while Germany has Probotector. For some reason the NES Probotector and Probotector 2 aren't included in the Contra Collection. 12:30- When I tried using a translator on the Kanji, it detected that it was Chinese. 14:57- Gordea kinda looks like the Juggernaut... B**ch. LOL

[@dominiks.9512]

When you are trying to translate Kanjis, make sure that you set the language to Japanese. The Kanjis are from China that's the point. Both countries use Kanjis. China uses them as an alphabet and Japan uses them for most of there words. I hope I could help you and sorry for my bad english lol

[@ElricSowrd]

@@dominiks.9512 It's fine.

[@mangek009]

12:06 Isn't this music, or a variation of it, in The Goonies II? Swear I recognise it from somewhere. 🤔 My brother has a nes/snes soundtrack playlist on now and then for (board-) game nights, it may have popped up there.

[@Proto_Eevee]

It's a crime that more people haven't watched this. Imma comment so more people see it in their recommended

[@Slagomancer]

I vaguely knew about the UK Contra being Probotector, but the Cutscene thing blew my dang mind.

[@deathcold_longplaysua4846]

As a Contra fan since NES, this video for me was so fun to watch that i'm gonna watch it again. That is how much i love Contra.

[@samus88]

I haven't played the US version of Contra in years. Japanese is the way to go! So lively with all the animated sprites. I do ocasionally play Probotector just for the kick of using robots instead of supersoldiers.

[@Stratilex]

Bill and Lance for Smash

[@KobianoRoll]

Boundary Break but in real life. Go to Disney Land and film the areas that you’re not intended to walk into, try not to get caught

[@HeathenDance]

I always thought the blond dude looked like Billy Idol, in the title screen image. Had no idea that his name is actually BILL. Now I'm pretty damn' sure it's a tribute to the Rock singer.

[@michaelthem3]

I didn't know about the message when you beat Gryzor. Amazing detail!

[@hoagieimpact9189]

I first played Gryzor on C64, then Probotector 2 on Game Boy and Super Probotector on SNES. That was decades before I knew this is all part of one series called Contra.

[@Vyzard]

Liked how you broke the vid into sections, but it would be better if you could use youtube's chapters as well

[@user-xo4qy1jm7m]

It was interesting playing through Contra on XBLA. A friend and I played through it tons of times to see who could get the one-credit clear achievement first. There's a lot of differences between that one and the NES one I was used to, but what I think was most interesting is that on Nintendo there's still a lot more going on in the levels than in the arcade. The boss at the top of the waterfall is more animated and interesting on NES, for example.

[@birdfish86]

Very good video always love anything about Contra! Idk if you will but it be cool if you looked into the regional differences between Bionic Commando NES and it's Famicom ver. or maybe you already know lol. Bionic Commando on GameBoy was my 1st video game I ever played! I was 5 my dad gave it to me and was shocked later in life to find out about its Japanese roots!

[@Fezzy976]

Contra 3: Alien Wars on the SNES was known as Super Probotector: Alien Rebels here in the UK. It was my first "Contra" game, and I loved it. I never played any of the other games. I never even knew it was meant to be a 3rd game in the series I always thought it was its own game. Not until I was much older did I find out about the differences when I watched AVGN and used emulators.

[@mypkamax]

[10:47] Maybe the "Red Falcon" are the main military organisation _of_ the Galaxy of Apocalypse and the "Probotector" did not know who the enemies were until they infiltrated the enemy headquarters and then defeated Java and Gomeramos King.