Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 7 hours ago
The storyline differs depending on version, although the Japanese version is considered canon for the Game Boy Advance sequel.
Japanese Plot
The world was nearing its end. An evil organization created the ultimate weapon, Golden Silver, the God of Ruin, to destroy countless cities on Earth from the moon. The Gunstars, who were Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow, were seeing the Earth turn into a living hell before them and fueled by righteous anger, confronted the powerful Golden Silver. After a lengthy and arduous battle, they defeated the evil God of Ruin. To make sure it is never resurrected, they sealed its body on the moon and took the four gems that powered it, and sealed them away in separate areas on Earth. The exhausted Gunstars, having been pushed to their limits, prayed for a new civilization to arrive, and they began their long cryogenic sleep. All that is, except for one.
Time passed and a new civilization was built on Earth. A legend was spread across the land: "Revive the God that sleeps on the moon, and he will guide the most righteous people to Utopia".
General Grey, the commander of the dictatorship calling themselves the "Empire", believed in this legend and attempted to carry it out. So, he sent people to the moon in a battleship called the "Ark", in order to mine for the gems that would call forth the God. It was then that the leader of the underground mining excursion, Dr. Brown, uncovered some capsules, in which the Gunstars were having their stasis.
Once they awakened, they learned of the Empire's plan to revive Golden Silver. Their companion, Green, whom they had remembered being with them up until the very end, had lost his previous memories and was now assisting the Empire in the revival of the God of Ruin.
"We won't let such a tragedy happen again! We'll get back the gems and put a stop to the revival of Golden Silver!"
Once Dr. Brown heard the Gunstars' words, he decided to betray the Empire and promised to help the Gunstars in their battle.
Western Plot
The Gunstar Dynasty has been the protector of the planet Gunstar 9 (G-9) for generations. In his youth, Professor White Gunstar defeated Golden Silver, a destructive android that traveled millions of miles to suck G-9 dry of all its resources. Professor White was able to extract the four famous Mystical Gems, the robot's power source, and imprisoned it on one of G-9's moons.
Years later, a new menace rises. Colonel Red, a vicious dictator, found out that the Gunstars knew the location of the Mystical Gems. One day, Colonel Red kidnapped the Gunstar twins' older brother, Green, and used a mind control device to make Green obey his orders.
With Green's help, Colonel Red amassed all four Mystical Gems, has turned Gunstar 9's peaceful worker droids into deadly menaces, and is now preparing to leave for Gunstar 9's moon to reactivate Golden Silver.
World Overview
Gunstar Heroes - A Gunstar is a classification for some characters that shoot with different power-ups.
Gunstar Dynasty - The Gunstar Dynasty is the team of Gunstars that protect G-9. It was only mentioned in the western version of the plot of Gunstar Heroes.
G-9 - G-9 (AKA Gunstar 9) was the planet that was mentioned many times in the Western plot of Gunstar Heroes.
Character Overview
Japanese Plot
Along with the other Gunstars, Red helped defeat Golden Silver. After sealing him on the Moon and taking the Gems.
Much later, the leader of the underground mining excursion, Dr. Brown, uncovered some capsules, in which the Gunstars (including Red) were having their stasis.
He reawakened with his siblings and found that Green had joined the organization to revive Golden Silver. So he went on with Blue and Yellow to stop the madness and save Green.
Western Plot
A powerful robot named Golden Silver tried to take all the resources of planet G-9 and was defeated by White Gunstar. Red and Blue went out to save their brother and also defeat Golden Silver.
The storyline differs depending on version, although the Japanese version is considered canon for the Game Boy Advance sequel.
Japanese Plot
The world was nearing its end. An evil organization created the ultimate weapon, Golden Silver, the God of Ruin, to destroy countless cities on Earth from the moon. The Gunstars, who were Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow, were seeing the Earth turn into a living hell before them and fueled by righteous anger, confronted the powerful Golden Silver. After a lengthy and arduous battle, they defeated the evil God of Ruin. To make sure it is never resurrected, they sealed its body on the moon and took the four gems that powered it, and sealed them away in separate areas on Earth. The exhausted Gunstars, having been pushed to their limits, prayed for a new civilization to arrive, and they began their long cryogenic sleep. All that is, except for one.
Time passed and a new civilization was built on Earth. A legend was spread across the land: "Revive the God that sleeps on the moon, and he will guide the most righteous people to Utopia".
General Grey, the commander of the dictatorship calling themselves the "Empire", believed in this legend and attempted to carry it out. So, he sent people to the moon in a battleship called the "Ark", in order to mine for the gems that would call forth the God. It was then that the leader of the underground mining excursion, Dr. Brown, uncovered some capsules, in which the Gunstars were having their stasis.
Once they awakened, they learned of the Empire's plan to revive Golden Silver. Their companion, Green, whom they had remembered being with them up until the very end, had lost his previous memories and was now assisting the Empire in the revival of the God of Ruin.
"We won't let such a tragedy happen again! We'll get back the gems and put a stop to the revival of Golden Silver!"
Once Dr. Brown heard the Gunstars' words, he decided to betray the Empire and promised to help the Gunstars in their battle.
Western Plot
The Gunstar Dynasty has been the protector of the planet Gunstar 9 (G-9) for generations. In his youth, Professor White Gunstar defeated Golden Silver, a destructive android that traveled millions of miles to suck G-9 dry of all its resources. Professor White was able to extract the four famous Mystical Gems, the robot's power source, and imprisoned it on one of G-9's moons.
Years later, a new menace rises. Colonel Red, a vicious dictator, found out that the Gunstars knew the location of the Mystical Gems. One day, Colonel Red kidnapped the Gunstar twins' older brother, Green, and used a mind control device to make Green obey his orders.
With Green's help, Colonel Red amassed all four Mystical Gems, has turned Gunstar 9's peaceful worker droids into deadly menaces, and is now preparing to leave for Gunstar 9's moon to reactivate Golden Silver.
World Overview
Gunstar Heroes - A Gunstar is a classification for some characters that shoot with different power-ups.
Gunstar Dynasty - The Gunstar Dynasty is the team of Gunstars that protect G-9. It was only mentioned in the western version of the plot of Gunstar Heroes.
G-9 - G-9 (AKA Gunstar 9) was the planet that was mentioned many times in the Western plot of Gunstar Heroes.
Character Overview
Japanese Plot
Along with the other Gunstars, Red helped defeat Golden Silver. After sealing him on the Moon and taking the Gems.
Much later, the leader of the underground mining excursion, Dr. Brown, uncovered some capsules, in which the Gunstars (including Red) were having their stasis.
He reawakened with his siblings and found that Green had joined the organization to revive Golden Silver. So he went on with Blue and Yellow to stop the madness and save Green.
Western Plot
A powerful robot named Golden Silver tried to take all the resources of planet G-9 and was defeated by White Gunstar. Red and Blue went out to save their brother and also defeat Golden Silver.





![Contra - Heart of Galuga - v1.1 - Red Trooper - Veteran - NES Playthrough
The author of the hack:
DimelNEX
Artist, lvl-designer:
DimelNEX
They helped with the hack:
leon-udomlya
PacnyTHuk
Doomday
Testers:
Hobbot
ENT_PAVEL
CONTRA - HEART OF GALUGA
SHORT DESCRIPTION
The hack was made on the basis of the Japanese version, translated into Russian by Chief-Net. The hack includes many changes and additions, such as:
- expansion of levels;
- choice of difficulty Contra and Veteran;
- more animated backgrounds on levels;
- redrawing of fonts, sprites, changing some palettes and adding new details on levels;
- changed characteristics of objects and weapons;
- new types of prizes and objects;
- some innovations on levels;
- ranks, time and number of deaths received after passing;
- additional new skin for game characters and other secret modes (see in the Secrets section);
- changed mapper of the game from VRC2 / VRC4 to VRC6.
The extended ROM includes a diverse approach to game design and a longer gameplay, which makes this hack unique in its own way
Contra - Heart of Galuga [v1.1] (05.08.2025)
Gameplay, graphics and levels
- changed the placement of objects in most places;
- made some edits, changes and improvements to the level design in certain places;
- the speed of the explosion animation has been significantly increased, approximately like in Super C;
- adjusted the speed of destruction of the bridge on the 1st level. With a fast explosion animation, the bridge exploded in seconds and it was not possible to get over it;
- sprites of explosive bombs now flicker (thanks to PacnyTHuk!);
- you can shoot behind the screen (thanks to PacnyTHuk!);
- the waterfall moves, like in the original (someones eyes are hurt by the fast animation);
- redrawing of snowballs on the 5th level;
- on the 5th level, the ceiling walls in large caves are now highlighted;
- redrawing platforms on level 6 and animated strip on large platforms;
- some types of platforms on level 6 have been fixed so that you can now stand on them at the left edge;
- warning prompts have been added before the lights on level 6;
- sprite edit for the prize medal;
- the Java dragon on level 8 has a different palette.
Weapons and prizes
- the rifle shoots 2 times faster, but the damage is reduced;
- F, F+R, S became a little faster;
- prize B when taken gives a bright flickering of neutral colors to the character for better visibility of the effect;
- prize B has a gradual increase in the flickering speed depending on the expiration of the effect (thanks to PacnyTHuk!);
- the number of bullets on the screen for the rifle and F has been reduced from 8 to 5;
- when taking the same weapon, they give 2500 points (thanks to PacnyTHuk!);
- when taking R, if you already have a pumped up weapon in your hands, they give 5000 points (thanks to PacnyTHuk!).
Enemies and bosses
- rebalanced the energy of objects, enemies and some bosses on both difficulties;
- in some places, autospawn of enemies is activated / disabled;
- a small fix of the original with the spawn of soldiers, when the spawn of three soldiers at once is randomized. Now they do not all come out from one edge of the screen in a crowd, but one by one from different edges (thanks to PacnyTHuk!);
- increased the interval between cannon shots on levels 1 and 3 on the Contra difficulty;
- the 2nd boss attacks with large bubbles a little less often;
- increased the interval between shots of explosive bombs for enemies in the water, on the Veteran difficulty;
- changed the balance of the timer for tanks on level 5;
- plates fly out of the 5th boss at different speeds when they fly in different directions of the screen, so that on the Veteran difficulty they touch each other exactly under the boss;
- on the 7th level, the mechanical hands that start working when the player gets closer, work earlier;
- fixed the sprite coordinate in one of the animations of the Bundle enemy (thanks to Sharpnull for finding the bug!);
- the Java dragon on the 8th level on the Veteran difficulty opens its mouth at the same speed as on normal difficulty;
- cocoons release facehuggers with a slightly longer time interval.
Other
- on the Veteran difficulty, they give more points. On the Contra difficulty, the points for some objects remained unchanged;
- the sound of damage to stones on the 3rd level was returned;
- the Konami cheat code for 30 lives was returned and an input sound was added. To do this, enter on the title screen: ↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A (thanks to PacnyTHuk!);
- a new cheat code was made and an input sound was added for the hardcore mode, where from the start of the game there is 1 life and no continues. To do this, enter on the title screen: A B → ← → ← ↓ ↓ ↑ ↑ (thanks to PacnyTHuk!). Contra - Heart of Galuga - v1.1 - Red Trooper - Veteran - NES Playthrough](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/UPGJ-86nhUw/mqdefault.jpg)




