Contra: Operation Galuga "Full-Version Patch Update" Announced For Switch

I’m happy to see patches but it seems that games get released now no matter their state. It isn’t like a console is a PC where you have different configurations to try to account for. A console experience applies to everyone with a stock build. How did WF not notice these issues? Personally I hate being chastised by my boss or a client (headache and extra work) so I try real hard to make things right the first time round. WF must have better tolerance than I lol.

That being said WF is no longer a buy sight unseen dev for me.

This is one of the many reason why I no longer buy games like I use to. They had a demo and feedbacks from that demo, there's no reason why their final product suck worst than the demo. You're not going way forward Konami, you're just going way backwards. Know to fix your game before you actually release em.

I knew WayForward wouldn’t just let the game rot as is. They’re way too good of a company, and know a large chunk of their fan base lies on Switch:

That said, I’m wondering if this was a push from Konami to release it sooner than it should have, or just Unity being hell to work with. Genuinely curious as I feel most of WayForwards past work wasn’t down to the level, and I’m not sure if their other games ran on Unity or not….

A buggy game can't be excused 'cept if 'Pokemon' is in the title.

This is reassuring. However, this really should've been optimized prior to launch. No reason this game couldn't run smoothly on Switch.

@Dm9982 "I knew WayForward wouldn’t just let the game rot as is. They’re way too good of a company, and know a large chunk of their fan base lies on Switch"

Advanced Wars: Reboot Camp crying in a corner.

@Dm9982 who knows. Maybe it’s a mix of both.
Wait a minute. Isn’t unity the company that got in hot water earlier this year for applying a fee for whenever a game made using unity got installed?

@AlexanderDaniels what was wrong with reboot camp?

@AlexanderDaniels I didn’t pick up reboot, still be busy with Wargroove 1&2 and Into the Breach….. is it still having some issues this far out from launch?!

@Greatluigi Some crashes and frame drop issues in late game for both games. Never patched.

Pretty bold of them to release a demo like that. It had the opposite effect that a demo should — it turned me completely off from buying the game. Even if they manage a patch that fixes lag/performance issues, by the time it arrives I'll likely have lost interest. Wish devs would delay games instead of promising to fix them later.

@Greatluigi @Dm9982 A flux of glitches like direct units attacking indirectly and game crashes when COs use their CO Power (Seems to happen a lot for Sturm and a few against Eagle from my own experience)

Conspicuously, they slapped the patch number 1.0 on the title screen, but has never patched once.

@Greatluigi You would be correct sir! Same company.

As I said in a previous post, I’m truly surprised Unity has last this long as a development engine….. so many Unity games have sooooo many issues. Maybe they run perfect on PC, I dunno, but they def have issues on all consoles. Whenever I hear a game is Unity based I cringe anymore as i know it’ll have lag, frame issues, etc - basically everything listed under Contra…. Same story across multiple Unity titles

@AlexanderDaniels @MirrorFate2 Ah man that sucks! Wondering how much of that control is WayForward and how much is Nintendo…. I know Intelligent Systems was too busy with FE stuff to do the Reboot of AW. Wasn’t sure which studio got handed the job….. I still think Wayforward is a great dev as noted by stuff like Shantae and Mummy Demastered (which shows ya they shoulda been able to do Contra flawlessly!)

It’s gotta be an engine thing….

@AlexanderDaniels @MirrorFate2 wait what?! Dang I honestly didn’t know that from how many positive reviews I’ve seen of it. :/

Thus confirming once again where the Switch version sits in the list of priorities 🤣

@Serpenterror The only thing I will give them credit for is releasing that demo. It’s saved me some money 🤣.
If it was £15 then I may have considered it but to charge full whack for a game in that condition is outrageous

I’ll be waiting for its physical release so hopefully it’ll be the patched version and the patch will work.

Unacceptable, any developer should be sued for this because released physical unfinished games remain unfinished on the cartridge!!!!!! How long will people tolerate this? This behaviour should be illegal! Release games that are finished products!!!!!

What a joke, WayForward went from one of the best developers on Nintendo platforms to "maybe someday i'll get it on a deep discount".

A lot of their output on Switch is frankly unacceptable and i'm tired of them treating my platform of choice as an afterthought. Seeing their logo caused excitement in the past but now it produces only apathy.

@RupeeClock Wayforward has a growing history of subpar Switch ports

You know, it's stories like these that make me actually feel good to be broke and forced to let games pile up on my wishlist for a while. Normally, a game would come out, I'd buy it--probably on day one if at all possible, or within a week. And then that full price would be going to a company that can't even release the product in a finished state. I'm thinking, even without money problems, in the future I should continue this way. If companies can't release a finished product, then maybe I shouldn't buy it till it's done--and better yet, at a discount for waiting past their official "release" date.

@JohnnyMind the game is an actual cart with the NA version, as published by Limited Run Games.

That being said, the Contra OG review made me reconsider buying the Switch version unfortunately 😕

I'm not sure why people continue to complain here. The dev and publisher were honest enough to release a demo. You have all the information you need to decide if/when to buy this game.

Post-release patches are just a fact of life. I'm sure the dev would've liked a few more months for polishing, but as the recent round of layoffs show, making games is a costly business.

Happy to hear this as I was disappointed with the demo. I could live with the frame rate, but the input lag was the killer for me. If they fix that I'll definitely be checking this out now.

@Magrane

the game is an actual cart with the NA version, as published by Limited Run Games.

Which is also bs. Konami is no small indie company, they don't need LRG to release their games physically.

I get it, maybe LRG bought the distribution right for an actual physical Switch version.
I just hope that's not the reason Konami decided to do a code-in-box release in Europe.

@Dm9982 "I knew WayForward wouldn’t just let the game rot as is. They’re way too good of a company"

KofKof advance wars still at 1.0 with tons of issues and still hasn'T been patched kof kof

Turn out they are only a good company when the game doesn'T have any kind of controversy behind it or if there'S a big hype around it. I'm sure Contra will be an amazing game and if the patch fixes some of the major issue the switch version I will probably buy it, but we shouldn'T forget that they can and will bury a game if the hype is gone

Player base is now quality control in these times. I guess why pay out for fixes that the player base will raise anyhow post-launch, if they raise them at all..

And also patches become another marketing beat of course

@Dm9982 Unfortunately, there is nothing they can do to fix the frame rate on the Switch version. It needs 60fps, and if you think they're going to magically bump it up to that, then I've got bad news for you.

@MARl0 That’s actually funny. Only fighting games need 60fps, every other genre is perfectly fine at 30fps. Case in point Doom 2016 on Switch. But from what I’ve gathered via comments and the article, it isn’t even hitting 30fps, which depending on how low it’s hitting can still be perfectly playable (aka Pokémon Scarlet/Violet or Witcher 3).

I’m truly guessing this is a Unity engine issue and Wayforward didn’t optimize for Switch, which can cause issues on other engines as well, but it’s especially bad for Unity games.

@Sarge126 Yeah I had no idea that Advance Wars was still not updated until this article. Though I’d be willing to bet that’s more under Nintendos banner than WF. I’m willing to bet their contract expired during the delay or shortly after launch.

When a studio like WF gets a contract to port a game, they’re obligated to provide patches/support up to a certain point, much like Sabre and NetherRealms with MK1 on Switch and how it’s stil ongoing. Once that contract is up they need to renew to continue support for the title, or the parent company takes over the support at that time. I’m willing to bet WF wanted too much to continue support, or Nintendo just didn’t see enough sales to warrant continued support, or flat out thought they could save money and handle the job themselves then just ditched it.

I say that as a looooong time Nintendo fan…. Willing to bet the issue lies within their wheelhouse.

@Dm9982 A side scrolling action game like Contra absolutely demands 60fps. To say otherwise is just pure gaslighting. And to say that fighting games are the only genre that need 60fps is to do the same. Even the NES Contra games ran at 60fps because they knew that. Yes, any game and any genre (including fighting games) can "technically" be played at 30fps. Obviously. But it is so detrimental to the gameplay and experience that it is all but required for certain genres like fighting games, side scrolling action games and platformers, first-person shooters, competitive sports games, racing games, etc.

@MARl0 I’m not gaslighting anything. I’m not trying to make you question your beliefs or reality. I’ve been playing games since 1985, and while the NES was indeed outputting at 60fps, there was a fair bit of the game and other games that “just couldn’t keep up”. See disappearing enemies in Contra or Mega Man for examples.

To say everyone and every game needs 60fps is absurd to say the least. Yeah there’s a fair bit of players that enjoy 60fps modes, and there’s an equal bit that enjoy quality modes.

If you’re getting hit by an enemy because either they or the bullet suddenly disappeared and then hit you, that isn’t a 60 vs 30 issue, that’s a frame loss issue, far far FAR worse of an issue than frame rate. Frame drops and losses occur when a game isn’t stabilized to run at whatever cap the developer sets or doesn’t set.

Input lag is another absolute game killer, if the game doesn’t recognize your reaction fast enough to obey the command, you end up dead. Another major issue that has nothing to do with 60fps or 30fps.

And I should have rephrased my statement about fighting games….. 60fps only is truly necessary on games vs other players so everyone is on equal footing, like fighting games or like in the case when Fortnite was cross console for Switch and switch owners were stuck @ 30fps getting killed by 60+fps players.

For the last 20ish years a vast majority of games have not been 60fps on consoles. The only players that got use to 60fps and above were pc players.

60fps is nice, but a good game it does not make.

It doesn’t matter if your game is running at 240fps, if you’re dropping frames and have input lag, you’re gonna have a bad time.

This is why people love the Asus Ally, it’s got VRR so you don’t notice those frame dips. Hopefully Nintendo adopted it for the successor.

@miwa They did that with River City Girls 2 as well, yeah.

I wonder if the Konami code works on this?

Please someone release a quality video game console WITHOUT INTERNET in it so we can stop these incomplete games. I can dream, can't I? Or I can just go play my original Nintendo....

Well I'm glad they listened I just don't understand why they couldn't have made sure it was in the game before release. I guess I'll still pick this up on a hard sale. Hopefully it's as optimized on Switch as it can be.

@Ganon821 Lol, I say a similar thing…,”the internet has blessed and cursed our gaming at the same time… now we can player with players across the world…: and at the same time companies say it’s ok we can patch that later….. “

I miss the days when games shipped complete of content and without a host of major bugs…. Updates should improve and add to a great and finished game, not complete an unfinished game….

Interesting trivia tidbit for ya….. on PC it use to be common practice for devs to release an unfinished game, alongside a day one patch as way to deter early piracy and prevent leaks, more or less being unable to play the game unless you got it officially and patched….. I feel like console devs have taken that example and turned it into their own thing with saying “eh we can just fix all that later…”

Way too many games get released anymore in states they absolutely should not be in…,. Apparently Contra has fallen prey too…. Cyberpunk was another major example. Never figured CDPR or any major dev (besides Bethesda) would release super buggy games. I was sadly wrong.,.,

@Dm9982 although i haven't really experienced the bugs mentioned (maybe that testifies to me playing the game less than i though i would), really was dissapointed that they weren't able to use the extra year at all to make some extra's free of the deadline..

@Itachi2099 actually i think they went from cheapish to almost good to back b-tier again.... with them taking on classic franchises that are just to sophisticated for them..

@romanista Yeah, sadly that’s probably up in the air….. if WF treats this like their personal titles, then we’ll end up with a stable fun game and probably some extras….. if they treat it like a job/contract/port; then that doesn’t seem to have a good track record……

The comment I left after the demo was their frame rstes were broken. Guess that didn't matter.

@Ganon821 analogue pocket?

FPGA is still emulation and still can be altered by the internet....The internet cannot naturally penetrate my NES!