Contra (NES – 1988)

Developed and published by Konami and designed by Shigeharu Umezaki, Contra was originally an arcade game designed by Koji Hiroshita before being reimagined for the NES and Home Computer. It is a Run and Gun style game with players moving to the right, navigating platforms, and shooting enemies. Towards the end of the level, bosses would appear to challenge the players. Contra was one of the earliest games to feature the Konami Code that allowed a player to start with 30 lives instead of the usual 3 (extremely helpful because of the game’s difficulty). In 1990 a modified version of the game was released for the PAL region called Probotector, changing some of the art assets around to help circumvent censorship laws in that area.