WildVulture

Great work Abby. And I pointed this out on Twitter, but I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that Abby had to deal with:

1st landed UFO
1st Terror Attack
Base Assault

If she gets the Fishing Village (I agree with @robaota, that mission is a god damn nightmare) there is no justice in the world.

It's not a movie, but there's a Russian stage play based on Contra Hard Corps. It looks as inscrutable as you'd hope. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3vRGch6-4Q

@alvarofaraujo: Nope! It just makes this scene less cool and takes you off of my favorite path. There's actually 4 endings, based on the choice at the end of stage 1 and another choice that they almost made it to.

I'll agree with @nals points. Contra Hard Corps is one of my favorite games, and each character has some specific utility.

Ray- Versatile, crowd control

Sheena- Crazy high single target damage (Her A Shot is probably my favorite gun in the whole game)

Fang- Risk/Reward damage output. If you're super ballsy, he can rock a lot of bosses, but it's tricky to pull off.

Brownie- Mobility

I love Fang but don't advocate playing as him, generally. But if you beat it with him, you do get a sweet shot of him riding a motorcycle with his shades on.

@vinny, there's actually a decent story in here. Depending on route, at least. And the prequel for the PS3/Xbox has you playing as the guy who becomes the villain of Hard Corps. It's a surprisingly cool move for a Contra game to play with continuity like that.

EDIT: Oh my god, in the junkyard stage, the background voice is saying "OVER" "DRIVE" and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world when I was 10.

HAIL ZODIAC