"I like this game, I think its quite an impressive later in the life C64 release. You've got some impressive boss fights such as the massive battleship and all the helicopters, the presentation is also good (for example the way that the airplane bosses are shown regrouping in the background), and the power-ups are quite impressive giving you weapons that fill the screen with bullets. On the bad side the controls could be a little bit better, though I do think this is a problem with the C64 more than anything else as this game really required two button controls. The game also loses the two player option from the arcade but that's to be expected given how much stuff would be on screen with two players firing at once. I do think NES Contra is better, but there are tradeoffs, the randomness of the shops lends a little more strategy than you would have in Contra."
