Contra: Hard Corps

Contra: Hard Corps, released as Contra: The Hard Corps in Japan and Probotector in Europe and Australia, is a 1994 run and gun game developed and published by Konami for the Sega Genesis, making it the first game in the Contra series released for a Sega platform.

Set five years after the events of Contra III: The Alien Wars, a terrorist group led by the renegade Colonel Bahamut has stolen an alien cell recovered from the war and now intends to use it to produce weapons. A new task force, known as the titular "Hard Corps", are sent to deal with the situation. The game features a branching storyline with multiple possible endings.

Hard Corps spawned its own series of follow-ups; including the Appaloosa-developed sequels, Contra: Legacy of War & C: The Contra Adventure; and the Arc System Works-developed prequel, Hard Corps: Uprising. Hard Corps has since been considered to be a spin-off from the mainline Contra entries.

In June 2019, it was re-released as part of Contra: Anniversary Collection for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One and was also included in the Genesis Mini dedicated console that same year. The game was also re-released on the Nintendo Classics service on October 25, 2021.