Contra: Hard Corps

Contra: Hard Corps is the most ambitious and wildest Contra ever. Four characters with completely different weapons (Ray with classics, Sheena with homing attacks, Browny the robot with double jump, Fang the werewolf with claws) offered enormous replayability. Narrative branches led to completely different levels and endings — multiple playthroughs needed to see everything. Bosses defied physics and common sense: transforming robots, biomechanical creatures, a giant alien brain. Western version killed in one hit; Japanese had three lives. Action never stopped, not even for a second.