When there's a hideous alien race, mad terrorist army, or just some general madman scumball to be eliminated, there's only one team to do the job: the Hard Corps.

Now some madman military commander has stolen an alien cell; a remainder of the Alien Wars. He plans on using the cell to resurrect and clone Red Falcon, the most dangerous alien ever to exist! If he wins, the world as we know it is history!

The Hard Corps must stop his plans from being set into motion and destroy that alien cell before the Earth is destroyed!

The vaunted Contra series finally makes its way to the Sega Genesis with Contra: Hard Corps. Picking up five years after the first game ended, the world is under attack by an army of biogenetic experiments gone bad, and it's your duty to put things right and wipe out the mutant armada. Playing as one of four gun-toting warriors, you'll be confronted with 10 grueling levels of scum-blasting action as you try to save the planet. Take advantage of the high-powered weapons at your disposal, like the homing gun, crush gun, needle laser, and mine setter, to deal out the damage. As the game progresses, you'll face many boss characters and choices, which will affect the game's ending, should you get that far.

Contra: Hard Corps looks damn good considering its age. There is no noticeable breakup or slowdown, and huge well-drawn bosses animate fluidly. There's lots of huge explosions, and even some neat special effects like in the boss fight against the giant robot who chases you down a highway. Enemy design is excellent and sometimes wacky, ranging from a giant cyclops robot to a bunch of tiles that form a tank and a helicopter.

Contra: Hard Corps has some awesome, fast music. My favorite is “Format X”, played while fighting the mad scientist bosses. There's hardly a bad tune in the bunch, it's all good. The sound effects are good too, with lots of explosions and even a few voices. Very good sound effects and great music, one of the best action game soundtracks on the Genesis.

Contra: Hard Corps lets you play as one of four different members of the Hard Corps team. Raised in the city slums, Ray Poward is an expert combatant. Sheena Etranzi is a jungle girl especially skilled in guerilla tactics. Brad Fang is part wolf-man, part cyborg, with a Gatling gun grafted onto his left arm. Browny is a robotic intelligence tool who packs a laser.Each character has a standard machine gun, bombs and four possible weapons pick-ups, including Spread, which fires in five directions at once, Shower Crash, which rains down exploding shells, and Gemini Scatter, which returns like a boomerang. The available weapons depend on which character you are controlling.The enemies are varied. Many of the levels have different gimmicks such as hover-bikes or helicopters. The bosses are huge, intimidating, and fun to play against. The graphics themselves are simply stunning. The use of parallax scrolling in some of the levels help convey a realistic view of cityscapes and motion. Everything seems to be beautifully drawn and animated.Contra: Hard Corps lets you team up with a friend through more than 10 levels, some of which are hidden. The game has a certain degree of nonlinear play in that there are a number of different pathways to take, storylines to follow, and game endings to achieve. You'll run, jump, slide, climb (on walls and ceilings) and shoot your way through cities, jungles, alien space and other exotic locations. You'll even battle aliens while riding a motorcycle and while perched atop a flying spacecraft.

You'll want to play it more, though, and you will get better gradually. Most bosses are easy once you know their patterns, but some will keep you on your toes every time you fight them. One interesting thing of note is that this game consists almost entirely of boss fights, their frequency is almost as high as that of Alien Soldier (another excellent Genesis action game). The regular enemies, when they're around, come at you very fast and from all angles. Of course, they all blow up real good.

Hard Corps plays fast and furiously and is just as beautiful as any other Genesis game ever created. The game is simply amazing. It just goes to show what talented artists and programmers can do when they put forth the effort.

Why cant I download this game!!!!!!!!!!!!