I'm seriously looking into buying this game but all the reviews I have read have stated that it is difficult in the extreme. To be honest I have never played a Contra game so I want to know how badly will this game kick my arse and is it worth my getting it?

Yes its really hard. Took me about 3 months to beat it.

It will kick your ass and make you like it. It's worth it.

There's an easy mode and some training challenges that start easy and get way harder really fast.

It's great.

And you can play 2p co-op, but you need 2 copies of the game.

Contra will jump kick you in the face, shit on you, and then have sex with your momma.

its really hard, i cant count the amount of times i got the game over screen and i am veteran contra player i can beat contra and super c in one go, but i would still get the game its more like contra 3  not like the crappy ps1 and ps2 ones