Learning how to share extra lives is one of the most important parts of growing up. It's really giving the most valuable and important thing you have to a friend (or stranger) in need, because you can't make it alone.

It's true that Contra strengthens bonds with friends and family, my dad and I used to kick that game's ass all over the place, although i never found it to be as tough as people always say it is once i played through it a few times.  I finished the game by myself when i was 7 (yes i used the Konami code, but after that i was able to finish it the next time w/out the code).

Contra III on the other hand owned my ass for awhile especially on Hard difficulty... it took me and my cousins a ton of tries to finally finish it on Hard, that and Turtles in Time was another tough Konami SNES classic too.

But nothing tops Contra 4 on DS... that game will make you cry, over and over, while mocking you with it's merciless level of difficulty.

I redownloaded contra for snes on VC wii ....I still haven't beat it >.

I've beaten Contra, Contra III, and Turtles in Time, about a million times each.

Nothing has prepared me for the hell that is Contra 4. That game makes me cry like a little crybaby bitch.

(No offense to legitimate little crybaby bitches.)

Haha how far did you get?  I got up to the final boss ONCE on Normal with one life left, no continues, and got annihilated... I'm seriously considering using the 99 lives exploit thats how much this game pisses me off!

I can't figure out how to beat the skeleton robot boss who's breathing fire and has his hands holding the walls open. I seriously shot him for 20 minutes straight and gave up and turned it off. Got there co-op with a friend and the same thing happened again.

Gotta Freaking Love blowing the heart on the final boss while taking out the bug producers above and below it. And as fun as ruling that game with the K Code was, nothing beats taking that thing down to the mat with just the old school standard 3 Lives.