Konami Announces New Contra, Silent Hill, More

Thanks to 1UP for its coverage of Konami's Gamers' Day, during which U.S. press are being shown new Konami titles, including the newly announced Neo Contra for PlayStation 2, a 3D update of the classic Contra action/shooter series - 1UP/EGM includes a brief interview with the creators. GameSpot is also covering the Gamers' Day, and notes that Konami has officially announced Silent Hill 4: The Room for PS2 and Xbox on their website, and "the game will see players assuming the role of Henry Townsend, who has become trapped in his cursed apartment." 1UP also has new details on Nanobreaker, an sci-fi PS2 action title "that doesn't fall that far from the Castlevania: Lament of Innocence tree" in terms of gameplay, and is, indeed, developed by the Castlevania team, who are also interviewed about the game. Update: 01/10 00:01 GMT by S : The full coverage overviews for 1UP and for GameSpot are being extensively updated as the day progresses, and GameSpy also has a coverage overview page.

Comments

Castlevania

[heinousjay]

I want more Castlevania for my GBA. That is the greatest portable series ever.

Re:Castlevania

[neostorm]

How about some more 2D Castlevania on the PS2 or other current system? If I recall correctly, Harmony of Dissonance was originally targetted at the PS2. While it was still a decent game on it's own, a lot of my interest was lost when I found I'd be playing it on my GBA player instead.

Konami really knows how to harness the goodness of 2D design and gameplay to where it still appeals to a lot of gamers today. I'd really like to see one of these designs with the quality of Aria of Sorrow, but utilizing the powers of the PS2. Would make for some truly amazing experiences and would also revitilize the vision that Symphony of the Night brought to the PS1 when everyone thought 2D was dead *then*.

Re:3D Contra? been there, still traumatized, howev

[Nutcase]

I played the recent ps2 2.5D Contra - they went back to the 2d formula, but used a 3d engine to draw it... and it RULES. It's really really difficult, but a ton of fun. Hopefully the new one will be more of the same.

I guess I will find out when I go home and get away from works draconian web filter - it's like they think I goof off on the web when I should be working or something... jeez.

Some thoughts

[DrDoombender]

What rule stated that every game on the nextgen consoles HAS TO BE 3D? I still like to 2D games. I mean, they could just as easily used fixed angle 3D, so it looks 2D.

But I'm glad to hear that another silent hill will be produced. I like how konami is reusing their game engine to produce quality games instead of trying to constantly top their last game's graphics; while not bothering with story. I mean, Silent Hill 3 was far superior to Silent Hill 2 in so many ways. Hopefully SH4 will be better story wise, and I want to explore Silent Hill more in 4!!!!

FInal thought: Grand Theft Auto: Silent Hill City

Re:No more

[Mattcelt]

Problem is, every one in a while someone does a truly great 3D adaptation of a 2D game (Prince of Persia:Sands of Time, what a great game) and everybody and their brother tries to get into the act thinking they can copy the success. So we end up with 3D ports of great 2D games which truly suck.

How about a Symphony of the Night sequel?

[imitier]

Why doesn't the PS2 Castlevania team get it together and gives us what at least some of us really want -- a PS2 sequel to Symphony of the Night? They've had their flirtation with a 3d/action-oriented Castlevania, now how about a fully updated, 2D sequel to SOTN, with all the RPG elements intact? The GBA Castlevania's have obiviously been successful with this model, so where's our full blown SOTN sequel? It would be easy for that team -- they made the original game, they know what to do. I want more SOTN!

i will only buy 3d contra if

[theMerovingian]

Up-Up-Down-Down-Left-Right-Left-Right-B-A-B-A-Sele ct -Start

still works.

Silent Hill : spooky crack

[thirty2bit]

The Silent Hill series are like spooky form of crack: it's horrible like a bad trip, but cool at the same time, and you keep going back to your dealer for more.

Konami has officially announced Silent Hill 4: The Room for PS2 and Xbox on their website..

Hey! Silent Hill *3* still isn't even out for Xbox yet! Konami, aren't you jumping the gun on announcing SH4?

I really dug Silent Hill 2 on the Xbox. Then I bought Silent Hill 3 for PC and found the controls are klunky, and with the fixed camera, I wished I had it for Xbox instead. It's really made for game controllers, not KB and mouse.

And hey, Konami, do us a favor and re-release Silent Hill 1 on a modern platform! (it's currently only available on PS1) Stick it on the SH4 CD as a bonus or something...

Dance Dance Revolution Extreme

[shadowcabbit]

To the best of my knowledge, only Gamespot and DDRFreak have covered this, but Konami also unveiled the next DDR game for the U.S. region, DDR Extreme. Here's the official site, and GameSpot's coverage. I first saw the news on DDRFreak.

For those of you about to lament the unfortunate use of "Extreme", it should be noted that this is more of a "greatest hits" collection of the best, most challenging, or most popular DDR tracks throughout the series' seven-game lifespan, as well as imports from other Bemani series such as Guitar Freaks and Pop'n Music. The game should also introduce new gameplay mechanics such as "mission mode", but details are as of yet unknown.

Don't look at me like that, somebody here must want to know this.