Perhaps to distract Japanese gamers from Contra 4's western origins, Konami has replaced the game's cover with art more fitting to the country's sensibilities. Manga-fied and emasculated, our two heroes are mere shadows of the beefy commandos seen on the North American box, the manliest art we've come across since Haggar piledrived a shark.Lance Bean, the former badass on the right, was once pictured hefting up a rocket launcher, sneering at enemy troops while taking aim at their crotches. Now he is shown staying his rifle, a contemplative -- some would even say mournful -- expression on his face.
We've heard rumors of other wussifying changes to the actual game, but we've yet to confirm them:
- Virt's synth-metal soundtrack has been switched out with Air Supply's "All Out of Love" on infinite repeat
- Tapping in the Konami code halves your manhood and causes nearly all of your facial hair to instantly fall off, leaving behind a pencil moustache
- The final boss battle has been replaced with a cutscene in which you shake hands with the alien villain and agree to disagree
[Via Inside Games]
_thumbnail.jpg "Mega Man Star Force 2")
_thumbnail.jpg "Rune Factory 2")
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-27-2007 @ 11:19AM
Evangelist Pinto said...
The boxart still looks good though
Reply
12-27-2007 @ 12:14PM
Dash said...
Question: Why does Bill's bellybutton shines in the american box art? Does it have like a laser belly? Is this the reason they go to war shirtless? And isn't Japan ready to kills aliens with laser from their stomachs?
Reply
12-27-2007 @ 12:41PM
TurboFool said...
The real question is: piledrived, or piledrove? I would assume that simply because it's a modified version of the word "drive" doesn't necessarily undo the fact that "drove" is the past-tense of it. Kind of like people think the pluralization of "mouse" suddenly changes when referring to a computer mouse instead of a rodent. But on the other hand since it isn't a word that exists in the dictionary, we are free to make it just about anything we wish. So which sounds less ridiculous: "piledrived" or "piledrove?" I'm on the fence...
Reply
12-27-2007 @ 7:30PM
Brello said...
Using my super scientific testingmajig, (okay, it's googlefight) "piledrived" is in the majority by a longshot. Also, "piledrove" just doesn't have that ring to it.
Results: http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=piledrived&word2=piledrove
12-28-2007 @ 2:51AM
chispito said...
Have we even established that a verb form of piledriver exists? Gentlemen, let's not put the carriage before the horse.
12-29-2007 @ 3:57PM
onetrueping said...
I think it would be "piledriven."
12-28-2007 @ 6:48PM
Jezreel said...
Examples of American box art being clearly better than its Japanese counterpart are so few and far between that I can't help but crow about it when it happens. But at least the Japanese Contra: Dual Spirits cover is simply plain compared to our awesome cover; this is certainly no case of ICO mangling.
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12-30-2007 @ 8:11PM
PhilipT said...
The word "stoic" comes to mind. One doesn't have to be shooting the rocket launcher to be manly, holding it in that pose is enough. You know he could still flip out at any time and blow you to smithereens.
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12-31-2007 @ 12:10AM
Jezreel said...
I can see that point of view, but the difference here to me is that the guys on the American cover look like big football players while the guys on the Japanese cover look like stylish pop stars.
3-12-2008 @ 12:30PM
hotrider12 said...
the question is when will any new contra come to ps2 or ps3 so we all can play???
Reply
3-21-2008 @ 9:28PM
makosawada said...
no its a nintendo game