Contract Rush DX Review

Get ready to jump into a 2D run-and-gun platformer that feels influenced by great titles like Alien Hominid HD and the Mega Man series. Has developer Figburn Melon created a game that combines the best aspects of both titles, or are those shoes too big to fill?

The King has started his invasion, so now it's time for Cynthia, the mercenary, to jump into action. She begins her mission in Sod City. This young woman is ready for action, wearing a collared jacket and a red beret, while holding a gun, of course. Don't underestimate her, she is quite cute, but still very deadly! Defeat alien enemies and receive a stash of gold dice that acts as the game's currency. You may also get white orbs to upgrade your weapon, like Double Bullets. If you want to see a list of your upgrades so far, just pause the game. Everything you have picked up is listed here.

The Key Items menu only has a Chrono Device from the Before-Era that twists time to take you back from the brink of death. The number of charges it has depends on the difficulty level you selected. Cynthia finds glowing orbs around the stage that improve her stats, like Agility; this is also shown as an upgrade on the pause menu. Besides shooting, our hero also has the ability to slide, which, when combined with a jump, lets you leap across large distances, as well as a melee attack for up-close kills.

First Aid kits are placed around the stage and replenish your health. There are also flags that act as checkpoints to save your progress. Larger enemies can give you new abilities, like the Double Jump, which is incredibly useful for reaching dice and upgrade orbs that are too high for your regular single jump. I love games like Mega Man, but the most annoying thing was that you couldn't shoot straight up. That is not an issue for Cynthia as she can easily dispatch the Demon Army enemies that are standing above her.

There are destructible blocks and sections of wall you can break to find things like extra lives. Sorry, no old wall meat hidden here like in Castlevania. As you progress through the level, you meet a Shopkeep. She is another agent and says that the target isn't far ahead, you’ll just need to go through City Hall. She gives you an extra life just in case things get crazy in there. It might not be super useful if you are playing on Easy Mode, where you have 50 lives, but if you picked Normal, you only have seven lives, and that extra life can really help.

If you fall in battle, you are taken back to the last checkpoint you crossed, but any enemies you defeated before dying are still gone; they do not respawn. With experience and observation, you’ll notice that as long as you're patient, you can usually avoid a lot of the enemy attacks if you time your movements right. Muscle memory will be important, especially when you reach a boss battle. Don't fret, if you die, you’ll restart the battle once again, though your enemy will be back at full health.

The power-up orbs that you pick up can get quite crazy. I can't remember the last time I could perform a triple jump and get a sextuple-bullet multi-shot. Contract Rush DX lets you explore areas off the main path where you can find more golden dice, respawn charges (lives), or upgrade orbs to make your weapon stronger for the incoming alien threats. When you upgrade your melee weapon, instead of a blade, it becomes a chainsaw!

The look of Contract Rush DX is cartoony and vibrant, giving it a lot of personality. At first, it may seem like a game geared towards a younger audience, but I can assure you that once you get to the first boss, you'll realise how challenging it can be. Besides trying to attack the enemy, you'll need to dodge the barrage of bullets coming at you from multiple directions. Having a strong weapon won't guarantee you victory. I was very glad I chose the easier difficulty, so I had a lot of lives because I died a lot! And this is just the intro. Figuring out the best combination of shooting and melee attacks is key to your success.

Cynthia works for a man named Renzo, whose final goal is to resurrect his son, Xel. I don't really trust Renzo, he gives off evil bad guy vibes, like Dr. Wily in Mega Man, with his large eyebrows and moustache. Once you get some rest, your lives are replenished, and you head to The Cafe (which is a front for all the illegal activities going on) in the morning for a beverage before receiving your next mission. The only drink available is milk, but this isn't the usual stuff ; it makes it so there's no knockback when you take damage.

Besides purchasing drinks, you can also hire employees. These are additional characters you can play as in the stages you challenge. You’ll meet others while exploring the levels, so that you’ll eventually have five characters to choose from. Each of the personnel has a unique playstyle: some focus on melee attacks, while others are all about shooting. So, if you ever get stuck, there are other playstyles to try out that may be more effective.

There is a board with all the new Contracts listed, but there’s also a board with smaller jobs to take to earn extra money. For main jobs, there are six targets to take out: Table, Fleelzebus, Cyrus, Authority, James Jimmy, and Wayford. Like in a Mega Man game, you select the order in which to defeat these foes. To prepare for the mission, you select a character to play as and up to two drinks to take with you. The beverages give you a bit of a boost, which is good, because all your hard-earned upgrades from earlier are gone. I was so sad that I didn't have the triple jump anymore. The small tasks have you doing things like trying to take out the full stage of enemies in a certain amount of time, rewarding you with gold dice for future purchases.

The boss battles are intense and have multiple phases you need to get through before you're done with the fight. This is not a run-in-guns-a-blazing skirmish, though you’ll have a great sense of accomplishment once you're victorious. Contract Rush DX has a great sense of humour, there are so many over-the-top characters here. The game even references Bobson Dugnutt, a character from the Super Famicom game Fighting Baseball, known for its ridiculous player names.

It's touches like this that make Contract Rush DX so enjoyable to play. If run-and-gun 2D platformers are a genre you enjoy, then this game should be on your list. It is challenging yet rewarding to play, and is full of fun characters and references that will make you chuckle. Plus, it even has arcade games to play when you’re in James Jimmy's stage; they're addictive!