Konami's Lean Years (Part 2)

"Next up is our classic series."

The screen went black.

A familiar eight-bit electronic sound effect rang out. The classic silhouette appeared: two muscle-bound men with heavy firearms, standing back to back.

Contra. Contra.

The loudest cheers of the day at Konami's press conference erupted through the venue.

For the North American reporters below the stage, that name carried the clink of coins in arcades and countless afternoons on living-room sofas.

The silhouette faded, and live gameplay footage cut in.

The cheers stopped dead.

What appeared on the screen was a top-down 3D view.

The polygon-built environments were empty and crude, with extremely low-resolution textures.

The two protagonists moved through the stage, firing their weapons, their motions stiff, sliding forward across the ground. Bullets struck enemies with feeble feedback, completely losing the punch-to-the-flesh shooting thrill of the 2D era.

Contra: Legacy of War.

"This is the series' first fully 3D entry," the person in charge continued reading from the script. "It is being developed by Hungary's Appaloosa Interactive studio."

Several veteran editors below the stage exchanged looks.

Appaloosa Interactive, formerly Novotrade.

It was a small Eastern European studio that mainly handled outsourcing and low-cost ports.

For the first 3D debut of its most powerful action-shooter IP in the 32-bit era, Konami had handed the project to an outsourcing company all the way over in Hungary.

"Something's gone wrong inside Konami," the editor from Computer Gaming World said, stopping his pen. "They outsourced Contra."

"These visuals don't even reach a passing grade," the colleague beside him said, staring at the sharp-edged explosion effects on the screen. "Look at the Mario 64 Nintendo showed just now, then look at this. This is practically a college student's graduation project."

The demo video was extremely short, ending in a hurry in less than two