i haven't played contra so i don't know how it stacks up to the original but cool game, graphics would probably look a lot better if it was upscaling them with integers because rn there is some interpolation messing with it
controls are good, shooting is good, the bust-mode shot type is kinda hard to use, the other ones are cool. sometimes you can get caught in a die -> respawn -> die loop but it looks like that is accounted for a bit because i never got into a position that i lost all my lives at once
also you cant jump while shooting and holding down? unfortunate