The game stars Bill Rizer and Lance Bean as they are sent to thwart another alien invasion from the vicious Red Falcon.
It was ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System under the shortened title of Super C in North America and as Probotector II: Return of the Evil Forces in Europe.
Instead, Super Contra features vertically-scrolling stages played from an overhead perspective, in which the player can move in eight directions.
The power-ups in Super Contra are represented by the actual guns the player's character wields instead of the Falcon-shaped letter icons from the previous game.
Throughout each stage, the player must fight their way through the enemy's line of defense (including a few mid-bosses) until they reach the final target waiting at the end.
After running out of lives, the player is allowed to continue up to five times before the game is entirely over; this depends on the DIP switch settings.
A PAL version of the NES game, titled Probotector II: Return of the Evil Forces, was released in 1992.
The player can charge this gun by holding down the B button and then releasing it, shooting an even larger projectile that passes through most fodder enemies and causes an even bigger explosion (with 8 sparks) when it hits a large target.
Like the first NES game, Probotector II (the PAL version), replaced the main characters and some of the enemies with robots.
[10] A pair of computer versions of Super C developed by Distinctive Software were released in North America for the Amiga and IBM PC compatibles by Konami in 1990.
Despite bearing the NES version's title of Super C, the computer ports are based on the original arcade game.
The arcade version was rereleased on June 12, 2019 on the Contra Anniversary Collection for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One.
[22] In Japan, Game Machine listed Super Contra on their March 1, 1988 issue as being the fourth most-successful table arcade unit of the month.
Allgame editor Aaron Kosydar described Super C as "an excellent game that a lot of hardcore gamers will never forget".