The standard shots are: a rapid-fire automatic machine gun (Heavy Machine Gun), a flamethrower (Flame Whip) and a grenade launcher (Diver Mines). Each weapon has a standard automatic shot and an alternate charge shot for a total of six types of shots. Instead, the player is equipped with one of three permanent weapons that can be switched at any point.

The major departure in Shattered Soldier is the omission of power-up items. In addition to being able to keep the character's mobility still while aiming and shooting, the player can also keep their character's aim still while moving as well (a feature that was introduced in C: The Contra Adventure and retroactively ported over to the Game Boy Advance version of Alien Wars). The controls and abilities are similar to the ones featured in Contra III. The game is played entirely in 2D from a side-view perspective, but with fully polygonal graphics, although some segments in which the player rides a snowboard or a motorcycle are viewed from a front or rear-view perspective. Shattered Soldier returns to the classic game system employed by the series prior to Contra: Legacy of War. The 'hit rate' increases as the player demolishes scenery and enemies

Contra shattered soldier ps2