Fans of the extremely difficult retro series Contra are in for a treat, as Konami has revealed the games and release window for its upcoming Contra Anniversary Collection. Like the Mega Man Collection before it, Contra Anniversary will all the classics that fans remember and some offshoot games that some might not even realize were part of the Contra brand.

Konami had previously revealed Contra Anniversary Collection back in March and confirmed that four games would be in its library. Now, the full selection of Contra games has been revealed and it covers the practically the full breadth of the series, or at least all of the games that fans will be interested in.

As expected, the Contra Anniversary Collection will include the Arcade, NES, and Famicom versions of Contra, which had slight variations based on the technical limitations (or in some case capabilities) of the hardware. Super Contra (Arcade) and Super C (NES) are packaged in the collection as follow-ups to the main Contra release, and Contra 3: The Alien Wars rounds out the main trilogy.

The SEGA Genesis release of Contra: Hard Corps starts to move the series into the modern era and Operation C from the Game Boy era rounds things out. Unfortunately, that’s where the Contra Anniversary Collection draws the cutoff line, even though more series entries have been released since then. It’s likely a smart decision, though, as the focus for Contra fans will be on those early games.

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In addition to the other platform versions, the Contra Anniversary Collection also includes Probotector and Super Probotector: Alien Rebels, which are the European versions of Contra and Contra 3. There are even Japanese versions of some of the games on the list, for those who want to see how Contra translated overseas.

  • Contra (Arcade)
  • Contra (NES)
  • Contra (Famicom)
  • Super Contra (Arcade)
  • Super C (NES)
  • Contra III: The Alien Wars (SNES)
  • Super Probotector: Alien Rebels (SNES)
  • Contra: Hard Corps (Sega Genesis)
  • Probotector (Sega Mega Drive)
  • Operation C (Game Boy)

Given the success that Konami saw with the Castlevania Collection earlier this month, anticipation is much higher for the Contra Collection than there might have been otherwise. These collections can be hit or miss but it seems Konami is committed to doing them right.

The Contra Anniversary Collection will be available for purchase later this summer for $20 on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.

Source: IGN