Soooo... where are the aliens now??
Developed and published by Konami for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1992 exclusively in North America, this game is a spinoff of the Contra series, being the third and final game in the series on the NES, following the original Contra and Super C, although the game's plot and setting are unrelated to previous entries, as the villains in the game are human terrorists instead of an alien menace.
The game wasn't going to be a Contra game at all. Instead, it was advertised in Japan under the name Arc Hound, but never saw a release in that region, and was therefore retooled as Contra Force for American audiences.
Unlike most entries in the Contra series, rather than being set in the 27th Century, this installment concentrates on the exploits of an anti-terrorist task force in the year 1996 and is devoid of any science-fiction elements.
In 1996, C-Force —a task force composed of former military professionals— is formed to protect Neo City from terrorism. One day, the team's leader, Burns, receives a phone call from their informant, codenamed "Fox", who tells him the Head of Intelligence is being threatened by a criminal organization known as D.N.M.E. Burns arranges a meeting at the harbor with Fox to learn more about the situation, only to find out Fox's corpse when he arrives at the destination. Now it is up to C-Force to save Neo City from D.N.M.E.
The generic, bland story does not connected with main series' stories at all. This is because, remember, it was never meant to be a Contra game. In fact it is non-canon to the franchise. It was going to be called Arc Hound, but that version was cancelled. So it was released in America as a Contra game.
It is the first game in the series that you can select characters, each character had unique sprites and abilities. You can swap characters and calling computer-controlled partners via pause menu.
It's harder than the original game, but for all the wrong reasons, mainly due to framerate issues. The flickering graphics cause some bullets to disappear, which causes many cheap deaths. While it had only five levels, the environment is generic and repeated all over. Unlike other Contra titles, you cannot aim down at enemy while standing. There is massive slowdown in some areas comparable to Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis, specially with many enemies on screen. Note that the game can also slow down with only one enemy on screen. Instead of instant power-ups, the game using power meter similar to the Gradius series, which is also hard to activate. The screen doesn’t scroll when you're in invincibility state, rendering invincibility given to players when they died and respawned pointless. And let's not forget about poor collision detection, where at times the player will try to jump on a platform and will end up falling through it, costing them a life.
Is this recommended? I might say no. But if you like it, that's okay, I can live with that. Otherwise, it's not worth your time.