Contra 4 and I have a love/hate relationship. On one hand, it's one of the most old-school, twitch action games I've played in a long time. My thumb is actually raw from playing the game, which takes me back to playing my NES when I was like six. This, in case anyone was wondering, is the awesome thing about the game.
On the other hand, however, the game is a bastard that loves to cheat you out of your powered up weapons during the most integral parts of the game, leaving you to die 5-6 times simply because you now have jack shit in terms of firepower.

I put the game down roughly around the beginning of December (I think), after beating Easy (wow it's easy) and getting about 15 of the missions done (wow they're not easy). I had yet to conquer normal, but I felt like it was inevitable given I had already made it to the last level.

I picked it back up a few days ago (in an effort to do a spring cleaning-type deal where I actually finish all the games I've bought) and tonight I one-credited it on normal, and only lost about six lives the entire time. This is what I miss from most of today's games; this sense of accomplishment you get from beating them. Sure, the game's ending was cheesy, but who expects a Contra's ending to be good. In fact, the only reason I watched the credits is because I was half afraid they were going to throw another boss battle at me.

So that's it in a nutshell. Fuck you Contra, I win.

Now, one of these days, I'll have to put myself through the run-n-gun hell that must be hard mode. Fuck.