As fan-made spiritual successors to dormant franchises continue to spring up, it's been harder and harder to keep track of the notable ones. Thanks to one Shmup Junkie, Super Cyborg blipped onto my radar, prompting some playthroughs from me between the larger titles I'm chewing on. I had previously thought Blazing Chrome had given me all the Contra nostalgia I could ever ask for, but Super Cyborg is of a markedly different breed; whereas Blazing Chrome idolizes Contra Hard Corps, Super Cyborg (unsurprisingly) adores the older Super C. But something went wrong with its creation—Super Cyborg was submerged in a vat of acid, sloughing off the game's merciful exterior to expose its raw meat and bones. What survived the acid bath is one of the most difficult run'n'guns I've played to date, demanding a level of consistency, precision, and memorization more befitting of Ghosts 'n Goblins than Contra.
It bears repeating: Super Cyborg is as tough as diamond nails. Its "easy" difficulty is a gross misnomer; nothing about the game is easy, besides maybe its first stage. You'll likely hit a wall in the runner-infested cliffside of Stage 3, and then another in the claustrophobic guts of Stage 5, but nothing can prepare you for the final stage: a terrifying gauntlet of constant enemies, attacks from the rear, and a long elevator ride to an even longer final boss you'll have to learn inside and out. It's no joke—over half of your playtime will be spent inside this infested hellnest, where losing a single power-up induces a full stage reset. Seriously, just try to fight the final boss without the Spread gun and see if you can stay alive for 10 seconds.
The good news (if you choose to take it as such) is that easy teaches you everything you need to know to tackle normal. The bump up in difficulty only makes two adjustments: more popcorn foes and a ~33% increase in enemy health. While it makes the hard levels a bit harder (Stage 7's elevator is an even bigger pain in the ass), you don't really need to change any of your tactics or learn new boss attacks—just make sure to shoot behind yourself every now and then. Hard mode is an entirely different ballpark however, adding so many new projectiles and enemies into the mix that I nope'd out of it by Stage 3. I found the difficulties to be smartly balanced in the end, but I would've liked to see more differentiation in the stock of lives provided, as no matter which difficulty level you choose you only have 4 lives to see your mission through. A 7/5/3 life split for easy/normal/hard would've been preferable—or at the very least, midstage checkpoints for more than the last two levels.
If you've survived the crucible that was the NES era, you'll likely feel right at home here. Enemy spawns have to be memorized and safe spots located located safe spots through trial and error, but as long as you're down with that, Super Cyborg offers one hell of an experience. Everything here is spot on, from the controls to the fleshpunk visuals, from the stage design to the pulsing music pushing you forward. That's because Super Cyborg cribs its design straight from Super C: power-ups are largely the same, enemies fill similar roles, and most of the bullet sprites are borrowed from Konami's series of old—including the fuzzy red onion rings of Dethgerbis! There's plenty here to give Super Cyborg its own distinct flavor—like the grotesque, gaping human faces on its mangled enemies—but it's clear the game wouldn't exist in a world without Super C.
The last thing I wish the game had is some sort of stage select or boss rush, but frankly I'm happy it controls well and ditched having limited continues. I'm not sure I would've been able to handle getting booted back to the start every dozen deaths or so, especially since I popped the "100 deaths" achievement while clawing my way through the first half of Stage 7. I also don't like the game's unwavering reliance on conserving power-ups to survive (bosses are easier to beat on one life with a power-up than four without), but that's minor complaint in retrospect. Taken as a whole, Super Cyborg is an amazing package, especially for the price it goes on sale at—it's basically a must-play for classic Contra fans.
Like Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Super Cyborg doesn't feel nearly as insurmountable on replay... but that's because the stage layouts and power-up spawns have been burned into your brain, the timing of boss attacks etched into your phalangeal joints. As far as Contra clones go, I think Blazing Chrome continues to hold that jeweled crown, but Super Cyborg follows closely behind, touching its shadow. This love letter to Super C joins the ranks of AM2R and Mega Man Unlimited as a phenomenal fan-made sequel, not only grasping what made Contra so fun but replicating its style flawlessly. Super Cyborg a rad game—provided you can stomach the repeated beating of replaying a stage again and again and again until you finally master it.
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