Operation Comic Book Gettin', Game Huntin' & Playin' Day: CATOSTROPHIC FAILUE

Well, I sort of planned to have a day out on the town with a few of my friends, and one of my colleagues from school. Unfortunately everyone seems to be either working or out of town this weekend due to the Pemberton thing. Naturally this put a fairly large dent in my plans for the day. Instead of complaining about it (which I did anyway, just a little bit) I decided to suck it up and head out on my own. Incidentally my sister wanted to check out the wares downtown so my Mother and her dropped me off at the Vancouver Flea Market while they went to Robson Street.

As I checked the (probably 70% stolen) goods at the flea market, I strolled over to the most prominent game selling section of the indoor market (I have no idea what the name is, but the proprietor guy is friends with Brian, who runs GameDeals out in New West). I asked about the item I traveled all that way to purchase (a SNES Multitap shaped like Bomberman's head), and it turns out that he had sold it in the six months I last saw it. Damn.

But the trip was not a complete waste. The OTHER item I had wanted to purchase those six months prior humorously ended up still being there, so I decided to pick it up. What was it? A Japanese (because its label was better taken care of than the North American one) copy of Operation C for the Game Boy (in Japanese it's just Contra, or in a more entertaining way: BATTLE SPIRIT CLOTH). Needless to say, it is pretty awesome.

There are a few beefs I have with the game compared to other entries in the series. The biggest one that sticks out like a sore thumb is that the character (due to Contra 4's retconning is now either Mad Dog or Scorpion) moves much, much slower than the original games, throwing off a LOT of my jumps (especially in the first level!). The second, while not necessarily a bad thing is that the Spread Gun, being Contra's COLLECT ME TO WIN weapon is so common that it is ridiculous. The upgradeable weapons really give this particular Contra a unique mechanic that most of the other games (except Contra 4) don't have. Also, the final boss is kind of a jerk.

So that about covers my day. Now back to working on other things...