Vampire Survivors, the breakout hit game on so many platforms now, has a full DLC based on Contra. It's still very much on the minds of everyone who loves this stuff.
"Flamethrower" (the wavy path ball gun) is perfect for a couple parts of the game where you can lay down. You fire and ever shot hits, and you are never in the path of enemy bullets or mobs.
MUSHA has this with the orb circle shield/weapon thing (I never learned the name). I used to think this was bad game design but even if it was an accident it's interesting trying to bend your way around a game to keep from picking up stuff you dont want.
You know how you keep missing the exploding bridge jump on the first level? You gotta stop shooting the machine gun while you jump. Makes you go a little further.
Spread is brokenly good, but I like playing with Laser too. It feels good to land the entire beam on a boss. Especially in the arcade version, laser kills bosses fast.
I love this, this has to be the best version of this meme I've ever seen.
I personally won't start over if I lose spread, but lose all my powerups in something like Gradius or Lifeforce and it probably isn't worth it to keep going. It is the Konami way.
That's actually part of why I didn't enjoy Gradius and Life Force. At that point it's not a fun challenge, it's just bullshit. In Contra you can do pretty good with the starting weapon, even if it's not ideal.
Spread gun is even better if you manage to offset the spread. It can only have x bullets active at once, so if you stack the bullets it will turn into the highest DPS machine gun in the game
I'm amazed that I get the meme, despite not really ever having played Contra. I never had it or knew anyone with it, and it was always stacked in the arcade.
I had to settle for all the random knock-offs that didn't even have the Konami code :(