Back in '08, I put a self-imposed moratorium on the Contra series, to be lifted when, and only when, I got my hands on the original game somehow. For years, I banked on the Wii Virtual Console, only to have it go inexplicably unreleased there to this day. A week before Christmas, however, I received the NES cartridge from a good friend as a gift (He insisted I open it while he watched). I was still working on the Final Fantasy Legend series at the time, so I left it until Christmas before actually touching it (I finished FFLIII the night before). Once the day's festivities were over and after some rigorous effort on my part to get both console and cartridge working properly, I finally played the classic run-and-gun for the first time ever. I made it to Stage 4 before my brother insisted I start DuckTales Remastered. He even challenged me to complete Extreme mode, which I correctly deduced was unlockable only by completing Hard mode. The outcome of a coin toss determined my next move after I unlocked said mode. After succeeding in the challenge and seeing The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug, I got back into Contra. I got further than before, but still didn't finish it that night. Last night, however, I succeeded in destroying the giant beating heart that I guess was Red Falcon's chosen form for that game, even making sure to take out the eggs surrounding it to render it helpless. It wasn't a flawless speedrun by any means, not by a long shot, but I got the job done. Now I'm finally getting back into the sequels, including Contra 4, which I got for Christmas '07(!) and Contra ReBirth, to be downloaded the day after the former's proper completion.

For the record, though, I still maintain that Mega Man X should've beaten it.