Not only have I beaten both games without using the 30 lives code, I've beaten both games without EVER using the 30 lives code. And I think each one took me three or four days of one or two sessions (i.e. up until I got a Game Over, or was having a bad game and quit early). I guess Crawl came up with the best hypothesis when he said people used the 30-lives code and played like asses, then tried to apply that same "tactic" to a normal 3-lives game. But I guess this is besides the point.
It seemed to me there was more an emphasis on combat than level design. There's nothing like areas 6 or 7 in the first game, with flamethrowers and spike walls. Instead, you mostly run across a linear path, shooting everything in your way (and looking at Crawl's Super C review, it seems he agrees with me). There's an earthquake at the end of level 3 which, but that's really it. And then there's the mouths that form in the ground around the middle of area 6, which I would call the hardest part of the game, and maybe even the only really hard part period.
I also thought the game was easier than Contra. I beat most everything on my first or second try (a "try" being a Game Over). I heard about the 5th boss was easily the hardest one in the game, and after I beat that boss I started fearing for the next three. And indeed, they were wimps, and the final boss is pathetic especially if you can get to it with the Spread Shot (of course, just about anything in this game is laughable if you can get to it with the spread shot)
The game is more colorful than I remember the first Contra being, which I remember being really gray.
I said this at FO's forums, but I'll say it again here: I'd pay money to see the face on somebody who thought these two games were unbeatable without the 30-lives code playing Hard Corps.


