EDITORIAL: Konami's 'Contra Run and Gun' Gives Us an Idea …

Contra, the iconic 1987 video game, is getting rebooted. Konami has been teasing about an upcoming launch of the beloved video game series and recently trademarked the name “Contra Run and Gun.”

CVG caught wind of the news, saying “‘Run and gun’ is also the nickname given to the game genre made popular by Contra, though it’s as yet unclear as to whether this game will have similar gameplay to previous Contra games [many expect the game to be for mobile devices].

“The Contra series is 26 years old, and if ‘Contra Run And Gun’ is indeed a new title it will be the fourteenth Contra game.”

Of course, when I saw “Contra Run and Gun” my heart skipped a beat — because for a split second, I thought Konami was gearing up to start a Contra-themed multi-gun event. I work with guns, that’s how my brain operates.

800px-Schachboxen1But while Konami’s working on a video game, I thought, why shouldn’t this be a multi-gun event? Think chess boxing, but with guns, and video games. (By the way, if you’ve never heard of the sport, chess boxing is fantastic.)

Video games have adopted shooting whole cloth. A gun game that incorporates video games is almost overdue.

Imagine a USPSA-based multi-gun event where, between run-and-gun stages, competitors go head-to-head in a digital arena — be it classic arcade games, modern first-person shooters, fighting games or party titles like “Guitar Hero” — with the winner of the match someone who’s not just a top shooter, but also a leet gamer.

Here’s how you can do it. The first stage of each match is all shooting. Then the shooters face off with video games. For small matches you can do one-on-one video games, for bigger events you can play four-player or eight-player games, with the top half of the scorers moving on to the winners’ bracket and the bottom half into the losers’ bracket.

It’s a double-elimination tournament with a twist. At the end, you’ll have two champions: the top shooter with the lowest overall time in the final match, and the top gamer with the most wins. And if they’re the same person, well, they’re some kind of super champion, aren’t they.

Of course, that doesn’t have to be the tournament system. It could be something else that does a better job of interleaving shooting and video game skills, for instance, your shooting score is weighted by your record of video game wins; if you’re a game theorist, step up, I want to hear suggestions.

What I really like about this is the ease of which you can put together a themed event. Contra Run and Gun? There’s “Contra,” “Super Contra,” “Contra 3,” “Contra 4,” “Neo Contra,” “Contra Rebirth,” “Contra: Legacy of War” … Konami’s been around a long time.

You could put together an all “Medal of Honor” or “Call of Duty” event, those are obvious. Now a “Goldeneye” match, that’s classy.

An all-retro video-game multi-gun match needs to happen. No games or guns made post 1980, iron sights only. You want a real ironman match? Two words: “Ninja Gaiden.”

And with each game theme comes an appropriate shooting theme. If you’re doing Mario, you know some koopas are going down.

I don’t expect Activision, Nintendo or EA to get in on this, and frankly, some people will freak out. I can already see the Gawker headline: NRA Group Indoctrinates Child Shooters With Video Game Event.

But mark my words I will see such an event happen. I’ll need help, some projectors, some outdoor screens, some Xboxes and a pickup full of Red Bulls on ice.

And if you’ve got any ideas, let’s hear them.

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