ups have since been considered to be spin-offs from the main series. Bill would not return until 2002's Contra: Shattered Soldier; where he became a convicted war criminal sent to fight against his former partner, Lance, who has become a terrorist leader. In the game's sequel, Neo Contra, a cryogenically frozen Bill is ultimately revealed to be a clone of the original Bill Rizer. Contra 4 was intended to be a direct sequel to Contra III, ignoring the events of previous installments. However, "Mad Dog" and "Scorpion", originally the nicknames given to Bill and Lance in the NES versions of Contra and Super C, were made into separate characters. The game's main antagonist, "Black Viper", is also treated as a new character, despite originally appearing in the North American version of Operation C (which also refers to protagonist Lance as "Scorpion"). On the official timeline seen in the "History of Contra" e-book included with the Contra Anniversary Collection, the game is chronology set after the Japanese versions of Operation C and Contra III, but before the events of Hard Corps. Contra: Rogue Corps would return to the post-Contra III setting. The game features the return of Kaiser from the latter game, who joins a group of bounty hunters in a place called the "Damned City". Continuity differences While the original Japanese version of the early Contra games (specifically Contra, Super Contra and Operation C) were set in the 27th century (in the years 2633, 2634, and 2635 in that order), the American versions of these games omitted this detail and the instruction manuals for these versions implied that the series was set during the present day. Contra III: The Alien Wars retains its futuristic setting of 2636 for its American release, but the identities of the two player characters, Bill Rizer and Lance Bean (the heroes from the previous installments), were changed to their descendants "Jimbo" and "Sully" in order to retain the continuity of the previous localizations. The enemy characters of the earlier games were also named differently in the American versions. In particular, "Red Falcon", originally the name of the terrorist army that was fought by the main characters in the first game (the Red Falcon Organization), became the name of the actual alien entity leader; thus, "Red Falcon" became the name of the final boss fought at the end of Contra, where the player fights both his