Thursday, September 15, 2011

Bill Rizer And Marcus Fenix: Separated At Birth

As we near what may be the conclusion of one of modern gaming's most important franchises, I seem to have had quite the epiphany. It was a revelation that a lot of gamers may deny, one that I may be slandered for, and one that so obviously hilarious that I had to share it. Pretty much everyone who owns an Xbox 360 has played the Gears of War series, and most gamers who owned a NES have played Contra, so the statement I'm about to make is about to be very obvious.

Bill Rizer and Lance Bean are basically Delta Squad and Red Falcon's army are the Locusts.

The basis of the comparison is tied to a few factors, including the imprisonment of both Rizer and Gears' main character Marcus Fenix at a point in their story arcs. Now you may be saying: "How are they the same when the gameplay is so different?", and my answer is that at it's core Gears and Contra are very similar gameplay wise. For example: if you make Gears a 2-d action game, and exchange the roadie run/cover mechanic into a jump button, it becomes pretty close to what Contra is gameplay wise. Conversely, if you give Contra a 3-d perspective and replace the jumps with a cover mechanic, it's close to the core gameplay of Gears.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love both franchises, and I made the comparison because of this, but I just wanted to illustrate how I see the past in some of modern gaming's true gems.








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