Are PAL gamers missing out on much? Is it worth importing?
More importantly, why isn't it over here yet?

I thought, as the original two games were on the card, it would make sense to buy Contra 4, and start the series off with them, playing the other games in the series when I get them.

IMO Contra 4 is overrated, while the other two games are a nice thing I think they're not trivial to unlock (not sure if I've unlocked any). Contra 4 is a victim of the "it was hard when I played it" mentality, the designers remember how hard they found Contra back in the day and decided to make Contra 4 feel that hard except their skills have grown. The result is a game that's only second to Hard Corps in difficulty. If you play Contra 1 or 2 now you'll see that they're MUCH easier than C4.

And if difficulty is not enough, the game is also confusing at times with the playing field spanning both screens so you can end up getting shot by an enemy from the other screen which is more area than you have to deal with in a normal Contra game. The first level also has visibility issues with enemies for me, often I only see an enemy when I've already begun jumping on their platform and can't turn back anymore. They've even made the first level extremely long and the second begins with enemies that drop from the ceiling and are too small to hit when you're standing (so you have to crouch to hit them) and enemies that simply take a ton of bullets to kill. I've never made it past the first half of the second level without resorting to easy mode (which gives you 30 lives or so and super-powerful weapons, when I played the Easy mode run the first levels felt harder than the ones that followed). Okay, maybe I've done it in Challenge mode (which seems more fun than the main game because it's limited to reasonable length) but overall I stopped playing the game fairly quickly.

IMO it's enough to get the Konami Arcade Classics which has the Contra 1 arcade version, plenty of other games and is pretty cheap nowadays.

I´d say Contra 4 is the hardest Contra ever. I can´t even finish stage 2 in normal mode. Still... it´s a good game. It has some very nice bosses, music is pretty good (but "inspired" by Contra 1 tunes) and gameplay is intense. If you can live with abnormal difficulty, import it!

Check out the review, of course!

I can't find the game in stores where I live (Canada). I might have to get it on eBay...

I wish Konami released this in Europe. I can always import it, i guess but it could have been so much easier. Same for Nanostray 2.

Yeah Contra 4 is definitely worth getting. I can't believe it hasn't been released over there. It's by far the best Contra game. Not to mention the addition of the Challenges! And all the playable characters- you can even play as the robots from Probotector.

I forgot to mention- you can unlock Contra and Super C as well!

How could you forget to mention that? I'm certainly buying it now, never mind the expense of importing. Maybe I'll get Nanostray 2 with it.

You'd be better off dealing with the Devil in hell rather than try to beat Contra 4. It's insane!

This is true hehe.

I guess I'm the only one that thinks Contra 4 is easier than the originals...? Huh.

No, I thought it seemed easier as well. On easy mode especially it was just that, pretty easy. I haven't completed normal yet, but I've gotten much further than I ever did in Contra 3, which is still probably my favourite in the series. But Contra 4 is damn close. I will agree that the difficulty curve is uneven (level 2 is harder than much of what follows), but overall I'd say the game's underrated rather than overrated.

I always thought the videos made it look easier than people complained. I will have to get this if I ever get my hands on a DSi. The VC Contras are just a bit too hard for me.

Honestly, this game on Hard mode, using only peashooter, is the hardest challenge of all the contra games IMO. The PS2 one was so built around the 3 always-present weapons that there wasn't really a good version of this challenge (Machinegun only made killing certain parts of bosses impossible within the time limit required for 100%ing a level)...NES contras are pitifully easy once you've beaten them once, even w/o powerups, and SNES Contra's main gun was rapidfire which made that challenge easier as well.

Seriously--beat the Ocean stage on Hard without any weapons and tell me this is the easiest game in the series

Such a phenomenal game!! Some dude on the gamefaqs forum claims to have beaten the entire game, peashoot only, on hard, without even dying....I did it in one credit, but prob died 12 or so total times given all the lives I got.

EDIT: Some things are easier about the game...each weapon can be double-upgraded, E.G. getting 2 Machine gun upgrades gives you a Double Machinegun that basically beats the game for you as long as you don't die...same w/ spread/doub-spread and doub-crush missle. The weapon-switching (used weapon, reserve weapon you keep when you die) from SNES contra is used. Keep in mind--the NES contra unlocks play utilizing the PocketNES (I think?) emulation system, which poorly emulates NES sound quietly, and NES screen resolution is just a hair taller than one screen on the DS allows, forcing the player to play it full-sized with R/L scrolling up and down, or playing it "adapted" which just reduces the graphics to like 90-something percent size (suprisingly not that hard to adjust to)