Konami has finally revealed the remaining games to be included with the upcoming Contra Anniversary Collection and it is honestly a little baffling. From the original announcement we knew that Conta and Super Contra from their original arcade release, Super C from NES and Contra III: The Alien Wars from SNES would all be included. Joining them is a number of ways to play the first Contra including the NES release, which did include bonus content, and the Famicom release, same content as the NES version but enhanced graphics.

The Sega Genesis classic Contra: Hard Corps is also making it into the collection which is awesome since the game has never been re-released since its original launch in 1994. The European re-skin of Hard Corps, known as Probotector, is also making its way into the collection for whatever reason missing ending, censorship and all. Super Probotector, the European re-skin of Contra III, is also making it into the collection. The last game making its way into the collection is Operation C, the first portable release for the Contra franchise on Gameboy. The full list is as follows.

Contra (Arcade)
Contra (NES)
Contra (Famicom)
Super Contra (Arcade)
Super C (NES)
Contra III: The Alien Wars (SNES)
Super Probotector: Alien Rebels (SNES)
Contra: Hard Corps (Sega Genesis)
Probotector (Sega Mega Drive)
Operation C (Game Boy)

Japanese variants of Contra and Super Contra for arcade, Super C, Contra III, Hard Corps, and Operation C will also be release in a free update post launch.

It is hard not to be a bit disappointed by the game list in the Contra Anniversary Collection. Rather than span more titles and cover a wider range of the franchise history, like the Castlevania Anniversary Collection, this collection just seems to have you play the same game repeatedly. While region variations are cool to see I personally would have rather seen the likes of something like Contra 4 or even the hated Contra Force be added instead. Or, the regional variants could have been patched in later like the Japanese versions. Regardless, each of the included games are a classic in their own ways and for a $20 collection Hard Corps is worth the price of admission alone. It’s just hard to not think about what could have been.

How do you all feel about the Contra Anniversary Collection game list? Leave your thoughts below!