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Contra Force is a run and gun style video game, released by Konami in 1992 in North America. Unfortunately, the game released for Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was only available in North America. The game was a spin-off of the Contra series, and was the third game released for NES. The game focused more on certain modern task forces, instead of different sci-fi elements, as in the previous games. The new forces have to fight human terrorists, with modern weapons and settings featured in this sequel.

The game was also planned to be released in Japan, under the title of Arc Hound, but it was cancelled in the end. Konami decided to make North America the only release location for the spin-off, leaving the huge European market off as well.

The story happens in the fictional metropolis of Neo City in the same year of the release, 1992. Contra Force is a group of special forces led by Burns, whose task is to defeat the crime syndicate known as DNME. The whole action starts when Burns receives a phone call from Fox, who informs him that the Head of Intelligence is in danger. He arranges a meeting with his informant to learn more about the case, but when he goes to the meeting, he finds out Fox has been murdered by the crime syndicate. Burns and his squad have now to find out on their own about the terrorist group.

The player can control up to four different characters, but he will have to choose one of them in the beginning of the game. Besides Burns, the leader, the players can choose Iron, a weapon expert, Smith, a sharpshooter and Beans, a demolition expert. Each character comes with his own weapons, skills, speed and jumping attributes.

There are five stages in the game, with three of them played from the side-view perspective, and two of them from the overhead perspective. Fighting enemies and moving from a level to another are the objectives of this game. There is a boss awaiting at the end of each level, who has to be defeated in order to progress to the next level.

The player can jump, crouch, and walk left or right in the side-view stages, and move in eight different directions in the overhead perspective. He can't jump or crouch in the overhead perspective levels.