Konamis solid future


Konami’s ‘solid’ future
By Dakota Grabowski

E3 was clearly the Hideo Kojima show. 

Kick starting E3 2009 off with
a bang, Konami and Hideo Kojima took center stage at Microsoft Press Conference
to reveal that the Metal Gear Solid series would be landing on the Xbox
360 in the form of Metal Gear Solid: Rising. This was only the start of a
beautiful and telling show for the Konami Corporation. 

At the Konami Press Conference,
they let the cat out of the bag in relation to Kojima-san’s upcoming projects
and what his studio, Kojima Productions, is up to. Kojima-san didn’t reveal one
Metal Gear Solid title, but he instead revealed a total of three
including: Metal Gear Arcade (coin-ops),
Metal Gear Solid Peace
Walker
(PlayStation Portable), and provided more information on
Metal Gear Solid:
Rising
(Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC). 

Kojima-san didn’t stop there as
he went further to reveal that Kojima Productions and Spanish developer,
MercurySteam Entertainment, are hard at work on the next-generation iteration of
Castlevania: Lords
of Shadow
.  

The press conference wasn’t all
Kojima related as Konami announced the upcoming video game on the popular Saw
franchise and the next installments in the Karaoke Revolution and
Dance Dance Revolution
series. So let’s take a deeper look at how Konami
flat-out put forth a stellar show at E3 2009. 

Among many journalists and the
gaming press, Metal Gear Solid: Rising turned out to be one of the
biggest surprises to be announced at E3. While Microsoft has received a Metal
Gear Solid
title in the past – Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance
MGS: Rising
means much more to Microsoft at this current stage due to all
the flak they received for not featuring Metal Gear Solid 4 on their
console. Even though many detractors are stating that this will be a lesser
title due to that it’s being handled by “young bloods” at Kojima Productions and
not Kojima-san himself, the fact still remains that this is the next installment
for the franchise on the next-generation consoles. MGS: Rising is set to
release on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC, so Microsoft didn’t exactly score
an exclusive, but now they can at least join the parade and cheer about
Kojima-san’s greatness. 

Perhaps the most anticipated
title for fans that is coming from Kojima Productions is Kojima-san’s Metal
Gear Solid: Peace Walker
– a sequel to Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.
Taking place 10 years after MGS3, Naked Snake returns with a bunch of
clones that are under the full direction of Kojima-san himself. Described as the
missing link in the Metal Gear saga, MGS: Peace Walker is
exclusive for the PlayStation Portable and should hit stores in 2010. 



Metal Gear Solid: Peace Maker for the PSP

Not stopping there, if fanatics
of the series want to play Metal Gear outside of their homes, they can
now experience the thrills of the favorite video game franchise in the arcades.
Metal Gear Arcade is a reworked version of Metal Gear that will
allow for gamers to use special goggles to experience the game in 3D. Launching
in Japan by the end of the year, we can only anticipate the day when it’ll
arrive on U.S. soil – a land that has forsaken the arcades in favor of their own
living rooms. 

The most surprising
announcement for software at E3 2009 could potentially be Castlevania: Lords
of Shadow
. Developed by MercurySteam Entertainment and Kojima Productions,
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is a title that is receiving the proper
next-generation treatment with gorgeous visuals, exquisite action, and topnotch
voice-acting. With a voice-cast such as Patrick Stewart (narrating), Robert
Carlyle (lead character Gabriel), Jason Isaacs, and Natasha McElhone, Lords
of Shadow
should resurrect a franchise that hasn’t faired that well in 3D.
Launching 2010, fans of the series shouldn’t worry about MercurySteam’s last
title Clive Barker’s Jericho too much as the involvement of Kojima
Productions should aid in the development process. 

As if the titles from Kojima
Productions weren’t enough, Konami assured horror fans that they will be able to
experience the spine tingling sensation of Jigsaw’s traps in Saw: The
Videogame
. Tobin Bell took the stage and promised that the upcoming game,
which was playable on the show floor, would be creepy as ever due to his work
with the team behind the game. With an abundance of mini-games to play through
to solve the mysteries in every haunting room, Saw will land on the Xbox
360, PlayStation 3 and PC this October. 

Lastly, Konami didn’t want
naysayers of their party games to have anything to feed on so they went ahead
and announced new versions to their Karaoke Revolution and Dance Dance
Revolution
series. Karaoke Revolution is said to be a reboot of the
series, but one can only wonder how it will do against Sony’s SingStar
and Microsoft’s Lips brands. 

Dance Dance Revolution
on the other hand doesn’t have many direct competitors and is bound to win fans
back to the franchise with a new dance pad that is bound to have dancers
breaking a sweat. The dance pad features eight directions and the game is set to
launch with 150 downloadable songs and 50 licensed tracks on the disc. This
should bring a smile to all those gamers out there who want to show off their
grooving skills at DDR. The last bit of information about DDR is
that the Wii version will utilize the Wii balance board, so there’s another
piece of software putting Nintendo’s clever accessory to good use. 

On top of all this goodness
coming out of Konami Corp., there’s a wide variety of other games coming out to
service fans such as:
Silent Hill:
Shattered Memories
,

Pro Evolution Soccer 2010
and much more. With a plethora of franchises
in their backlog, they could seemingly revive several key franchises as they did
with Castlevania, which leads me to a question many Konami fans need an
answer to: where’s our next-gen Contra? If the next installment of
Castlevania
turns out to be a real barnburner, then I’m sure Contra’s
update won’t be too far behind.

 


For All E3
2009 News and Announcements