Elevating Danger

Super Cyborg is great Contra-tribute indie game I can recommend to any fan of classic run'n'guns. Despite mostly being inspired by NES Contra games it also has some of 16-bit era marks, like "position hold" feature, charge shots, overall more well-balanced effectivness of weapon arsenal, and quite challenging multi-form boss fights, where last one is way more Alien Wars than Super C, believe me. Solid soundtrack made by Darkman007 also adds a lot to 8-bit feel.

Only things could be considered as minuses are some of graphics choices which somethimes gave it more old PC than console look, and some of the monster designs could have more distinc idea to them, so they could not look like mishmash of eyes, claws and tencacles (though I can say same thing about number of CHC/Alien Wars bosses), but these are more of a nitpicks, so if Contra X destroyed your faith in a good unofficial Contra clones you should definitely give Super Cyborg a try.