I dunno. I own Neo Contra and its pretty lame. Mind you that was a few years ago now. they would need to make vast improvements on it though. i prefer to just remember the good old Contra days myself. im quite content with my old Contra Games. I feel the exact same way about FF. I think FFIX was the most times i've ever played a RPG. it just totally pulled me in and i couldnt get enough of the characters. after that i got X, X-2 and XI and now i just give up. they do look amazing but they dont have the charm that any of the early ones had. I think that the Merge between Squaresoft and Enix was a terrible thing. I find their games a lot more watered down and safe now. they just use formulas that they know will sell and all they rely on is graphics (which arnt enough no matter how good it looks). I havnt played one game by Square-Enix that i have enjoyed and that hurts because i was really looking forward to future FF titles and Kingdom Hearts. They are going to have to do something toally unique and new to get my money back instead of relying on the same old tricks they have been using for the last couple years.
