Contra 4 impressions at Nintendo World Report.

"The real Contra is back. That should be obvious to many people given the name (the first true sequel to the series since Contra III came out 15 years ago) and the choice of platform, the very 2D-friendly Nintendo DS. Konami was showing off a quick demo of the title in its Barker Hangar booth, and even after a few minutes with it, it's apparent that fans of classic side-scrolling action games will rejoice when this puppy hits the shelves.

The demo began in the typical jungle setting that may look familiar to fans from the original game. I was able to jump from platform to platform or dive down into the water below to aid in avoiding the streams of enemies and gunfire headed my way. The action takes places on both screens of the DS, as if it were one tall display, and some parts of the level design take advantage of this. When reaching a tall cliff face, I had to use the new grappling arm (Y Button) to yank myself from the bottom screen to the top, hand-over-hand across a metal grate, then drop back down to the bottom screen so I could get back to taking out everything in sight. It was during this sequence that I noticed the amount of detail and wonderful animation in my larger-than-average character sprite. Things move as fast as in previous Contra games, but I don't ever remember seeing them move so smoothly."

Full Source: Nintendo World Report