Some genres age gracefully. The run-and-gun did not need to — it was perfect from the start. One soldier, one gun, an entire army’s worth of problems, and not a single wasted second. Contra and Metal Slug sit at the top of the mountain, but the hall of fame runs deep. Let’s enshrine the best of the best.
The immortals
Contra (Arcade/NES, 1987/1988)
The template. Eight stages of escalating insanity, the spread gun as a religious experience, and co-op that ended friendships in the best way. The NES port is the definitive home version — tighter than the arcade in all the right ways. The Konami Code exists because this game needed it.
Metal Slug (Neo Geo, 1996)
The most beautiful pixel art ever committed to a shooter, married to comedy, chaos, and the SV-001 tank. Metal Slug understands that spectacle is gameplay — every explosion is a punchline and every POW rescue feels like a tiny victory parade. The sequels are great; the original is perfect.
Contra III: The Alien Wars (SNES, 1992)
Mode 7 overhead stages, a hang-on-to-the-missile sequence, and a difficulty curve shaped like a cliff. The best Contra on the best console for Contra, and a showcase for what the SNES could do when pushed.
The honored
- Gunstar Heroes (Genesis, 1993): Treasure’s masterpiece — weapon combining, screen-filling bosses, and a sense of joyful excess no one has matched.
- Metal Slug 3 (Neo Geo, 2000): Longer, weirder, and gloriously overstuffed. The zombie level alone earns its place.
- Shock Troopers (Neo Geo, 1997): The thinking person’s run-and-gun — route choices, multiple characters, and top-down action with real depth.
- Alien Soldier (Genesis, 1995): Treasure again, meaner this time. Twenty-five bosses and almost nothing else. A dare in cartridge form.
- Contra: Hard Corps (Genesis, 1994): Branching paths, four wildly different characters, and a final boss rush that separates the committed from the curious.
The co-op factor
We can’t talk run-and-gun without talking co-op, because this genre practically invented the couch multiplayer war story. Contra with a friend is a different game — a negotiation. Who gets the spread gun? Who takes the high road on stage three? Who just jumped into their partner’s line of fire again? Metal Slug’s shared-screen chaos is even better, two players competing for POW rescues while trying not to get flattened by the same tank. These games understood that shared suffering is the fastest bonding agent known to science.
The genre also deserves credit for its economy of storytelling. No cutscenes, no lore dumps — Contra tells you everything with “alien invaders, go right, shoot everything.” Metal Slug communicates more personality in its idle animations than most games manage in hours of dialogue. When your game is this mechanically tight, story is garnish, and garnish is all it needs to be.
Why the genre endures
Run-and-guns respect the arcade contract: your skill is the only progression system. No leveling, no loot, no builds — just pattern recognition, nerve, and the occasional perfectly timed jump. In an era of hundred-hour games, there’s something almost radical about a genre that says: here’s thirty minutes, be excellent.
Your skill is the only progression system. No leveling, no loot, no builds — just pattern recognition, nerve, and the occasional perfectly timed jump.
Verdict: 9.0/10. The run-and-gun is the purest action genre ever made, and its hall of fame has no weak entries — only degrees of greatness. If you’ve never cleared a Contra without the code, you haven’t lived. Fix that this weekend.