I couldn't beat Contra 4, even on "easy". I'm just not 'lite enough. I was having fun with the game, until I made it to level 5 and couldn't get any further. Playing the first 4 levels over and over in order to sometimes make it to level 5, only to run out of continues, AGAIN, got tiresome. I wasn't having fun any more. I used a cheat system to unlock all the challenges and the extras and now the game has a lot more value for me. In particular some of the challenges are really fun, and it's cool to play the old Contras. At some point I absolutely plan to turn on unlimited lives and then walk through the game on Normal level so I can see the ending, because otherwise I will never get to see it. So ... get over it.