Hard Corps Review

  Hey everyone, been a while since my last slightly over dramatic Valentines blog. Im here today, not to bring new shirt designs unfortunately. Instead i have a full review of the new Xbox Live Arcade and PSN game Hard Corps Uprising. As apposed to what i was going to do with a half review... that was sarcasm, in case you didn't realize or were to busy speed reading so you could update your Facebook status. Anywaaaaay...
  Hard Corps Uprising is a side scrolling arcade shooter from the genius' behind Guilty Gear and Blaz Blue. The game was published by Konami, and is a blatant homage to the classic Contra. Lets begin where Contra left off. Hard Corps puts you as part of a mercenary/resistance special forces team fighting against the oppressing conglomerate/government called the CommonWealth who is attempting world domination. Go figure. Ok, now that the incredibly cliche story is out of the way, lets talk gameplay.
  The game plays like your regular side scrolling shooter. BUT TEN TIMES BETTER!!! You can actually aim w/out moving as apposed to old scrolling shooters and, get this, STRAFE! I know, try to surppress your excitement. In all seriousness, this game is extremely well done. The graphics are top notch. mixing 2d sprite animation with 3d animation making for an amazingly glorious game.
  One of the coolest features in this game are the game modes. There are two different game modes. The classic Arcade mode, where you fight your way to the top of the leader board with high scores. And the completely addictive Rising mode, where you play through the game's story, earning points to level up your characters abilities and weapons.
  Yes there is character development, and its actually pretty good for a DLC game. You can upgrade your characters weapons, abilities and buy things like life gauges and extra lives. There are total of 4 playable characters. However, 2 of these you will have to dish out some dough for (at least for 360 not sure about PS3). The characters you can play as are:
Bahamut. The badass who clearly has an emorific personal grudge he wants to settle.
Krystal. The equally badass girl with the obvious traumatic past experience that some how motivates her.
Harely. A crazy old biker dude with a outrageously tight outfit and big ass cigar.
and Sayuri. The mysterious samurai badass with the "im only here for money" story.
  The game is a really well done modern dedication to a classic. The coop is additively fun as well. Although, sometimes it can get confusing as to who is who on screen. Especially when weapn upgrades are applied and the screen is clustered with spread shots.
  Over all, the game is one of the best DLC games i've played so far. A solid 10/10. Hopefully they'll add some more content in the near future.