I changed my rating because I was a bit hasty to judge before... honestly this game is pretty good. Once you get used to the fact that the control schemes and gameplay mechanics are a bit different from previous installments of the Contra franchise, you end up appreciating the game for what it does right...and that's delivering tons of alien blasting fun in a way that feels like there was some effort put into making a good action game. The overall action throughout each stage is fast and furious and very challenging, and each boss battle makes you want to toss your controller at the TV screen out of anger, but not in a bad way because each boss battle is unique and entertaining...I found myself wanting to go back to replay previous stages to get a better rank and beat my high score simply because I was having fun while playing this game, and yes this game will test your patience over and over...you will die...over and over, but it never ceases to be fun. Not to mention the game tries to tell a bit of a story thanks to some superbly cheesy cutscenes with some of the most campy and laughable voice acting I've ever experienced from a video game, but somehow that only adds to the charm... it's like a Trainwreck that you can't take your eyes off of.....LUUUUCIIIIAAAAAAA!!!!!! if ya know....ya know! But anyways, Neo Contra is a really good action game all in all. Also...a bit of a gamer tip...if you're trying to get an A ranking on all stages, make use of the RETRY function from the pause menu, because from what I gather, your ranking automatically declines once you die during a stage, but if you retry the stage it resets your score to what it was before you died.... something to consider... this is the perfect type of game for speed runners, but you must accept the fact that you will die...a lot, which is why the classic nintendo code is present here...at the title screen enter ⏏️⏏️🔽🔽 L1 R1 L2 R2 L3 R3 ....and you will get 20 lives...and you will probably need every one of them...