Some big gaming news is rumbling through the industry right now: it appears Konami is going through a restructuring right now and want the Konami branding front and center, instead of other studio names like Kojima Productions. As part of this, they’re renaming Kojima Productions LA Studio to Konami Los Angeles Studio, and the “A Hideo Kojima game” branding on Metal Gear Solid V ads and website has been removed. According to Gamespot and their anonymous source, the restructuring has resulted in a power struggle between Kojima Productions and Konami, the latter of whom has embargoed corporate internet, emails, and phone of KojiPro. Kojima and other senior studio staff are essentially only on as contractors now, and plan to leave once their contract is up in December. Gamespot goes into more details here, but suffice to say, it appears Kojima and Konami won’t be working together after MSGV. Read more…
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes was a good (if expensive) appetizer, but most gamers are waiting on the main course, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. IGN just leaked that the game will finally be out on September 1, 2015 in every region. Of course, Konami is so bull-headed with its PR plans that they couldn’t just roll with it, taking the video down instead. But the internet never forgets, and so you can expect to get your hands on MGSV in early fall. Read more…
Sony just released an interactive teaser on PlayStation 4’s digital store called P.T., made by unknown developer 7780s Studio. But just like Moby Dick Studios’ The Phantom Pain was a front for Konami’s Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, P.T. is really Silent Hills, a new entry in Konami’s Silent Hill series. While conventional wisdom states that only Silent Hill 1-4, the games made by Team Silent, are really worth playing — or even less, depending on your opinion — this may be one to watch for based solely on the people who are making it. Metal Gear Solid boss Hideo Kojima has teamed up with filmmaker Guillermo del Toro to make the game, and the main character is played by The Walking Dead‘s Norman Reedus. That sounds actually sounds pretty cool! Maybe if we’re lucky, we’ll get to see more at the upcoming Tokyo Game Show. Read more…
You could argue that there have been three main “eras” of Konami’s Castlevania series. The first era contains the classic 2D action games that started on the NES. The second era began with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, which redefined the series with Metroid-like progression and RPG elements, and ended with Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. The third era includes the middling Castlevania: Lords of Shadow games and whatever other random entries were released while Konami tried to figure out what it wanted to do with the series. Those second era “Metroidvania” games are easily some of the best in the series, only out-done by the level design in a few of the earlier action games, and most of them can be traced to producer Koji “IGA” Igarashi, the cowb0y-hat-wearing, whip-wielding man who was the heart behind Symphony of the Night. But it looks like he’ll never return to Castlevania, as he has announced his departure from Konami. Read more…
As Konami continues rereleasing various Metal Gear Solid collections, there’s often one sticking point: the first Metal Gear Solid. It’s not the first game in the series — Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake saw release on the MSX — but it’s arguably the most iconic entry, and it’s only available today in its PS1 form, and only digitally on PS3. So it’s no surprise to hear that Kojima is considering remaking the game. Read more…
Even though it’s not an Xbox One exclusive, Microsoft led the start of its E3 2013 press conference with the first footage of the anticipated Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Since the game is an open world game set in a wide-open desert region, the implementation of stealth has been dramatically redesigned. It looks like a very unique experience with stunning graphics. Naturally, the game is also coming out on PS4, though Microsoft didn’t want to mention that. It’s all looking quite impressive, so watch footage from the stream below! Read more…
Think you’re up-to-date on your Metal Gear Solid collection? You’ve got the original copies, the improved rereleases, the Essentials collection, and the HD collection? Well prepare to feel incomplete, because now there’s a new collection! But if you’ve never played a game in the series before, this is the one to get, because it covers pretty much every major game in the series! Read more…
When Konami showed a trailer at the Spike VGAs for a game called The Phantom Pain, they claimed it was being made by “Moby Dick Studio” and even fabricated a CEO for that company. People got suspicious after noticing certain visual clues and pieced together that it was probably the next Metal Gear Solid game, even though that game had previously been announced as Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes. Well, after a GDC announcement, it turns out that they’re both the same game! Read more…
Confession time: I only played Metal Gear Solid — the PS1 classic — for the first time last year. I liked it and plan to play more, but that’s just to establish where I’m coming from. Consider it a disclaimer for when I post that Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, the action game spin-off starring Raiden, looks absolutely insane in the best possible way. It helps that Platinum Games, makers of fine, yet crazy action games, is developing it on behalf of Konami. The latest trailer looks like it’s from the opening of the game and…well, give it a watch. Read more…
The other day Konami held a press conference dedicated to Metal Gear Solid to celebrate its 25th Anniversary – and of course, to announce new stuff. Two big items of news? The Metal Gear Solid movie is, according to Hideo Kojima, on its way. Avi Arad showed up to announce that he is producing the whole affair, but given that he’s been producing lots of game-based films that are currently going nowhere, let’s just keep this one in “maybe someday” folder. The real news is a new game, Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, a supposedly open-world stealth game in the Fox Engine. Read more…
In case you haven’t had a chance to catch the latest trailer for Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance — yes, that’s a real word, I know — then feast your eyes. Konami recently uploaded this latest trailer in preparation for E3, later this week. Mind you, it’s incredibly violent and there’s plenty of blood, so if that’s not your sort of thing, you might want to skip it. On the other hand, it’s pretty wicked stuff. How well it’ll actually play remains to be seen, especially considering the project has been outsourced to Platinum games, but if its anything like Bayonetta, then I imagine we’re in for a treat. Otherwise, it’ll be a bit of a toss up. To be honest, there just seems to be too much going on, but who am I to doubt Hideo Kojima? I’m sure if it was so terrible, he’d be the first to state so. He’s been candid about that sort of thing in past, after all.
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Feb 22, 2012 in Videogames
I always thought it’d be cool to work on one of Konami’s Metal Gear projects, but until recently that would have been a difficult prospect. Konami always handled production of the series in-house, and since relocating to Japan would have been the first of many hurdles, I never gave it a second thought. Several years ago during his keynote at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Hideo Kojima announced that he was looking to expand his studio, and to embrace western development, and now it looks like he really meant it. Kojima Productions recently posted a recruitment page looking for candidates to work on their next Metal Gear project. Read more…
This has got to be the most fashionable handheld to date — Konami’s upcoming limited edition Metal Gear Solid 3DS. There’s been no official word on the pricing or availability just yet, but those details will be announced later this month. Hideo Kojima has, however, confirmed via twitter that the unit will feature the embossed snakeskin pattern pictured above, and that it isn’t just a removable skin, or case. It might be worth mentioning that the last Konami 3DS bundle to be sold never made it stateside, so there’s a good chance you’ll have to import one.
Believe it or not, this actually exists — in Japan. Back in 2008 Konami released a first person “on rails” coin-op entitled simply Castlevania: The Arcade. The game lets you play as a whip-wielding Belmont, a Witch, or a gun-toting Eastern wanderer and makes use of a motion-sensing light-wand for attacks. Players then swing it at enemies or pull the trigger depending on their character of choice in order to vanquish the monsters. Sounds pretty awesome right? As if that weren’t enough to sell you on it, Konami threw in a soundtrack of arranged music from previous games in the series. Sadly, the arcade machine was never formally released in the United States, and though Wikipedia mentioned something about a European release back in 2009, I haven’t heard any reports of it showing up. Hopfully with the recent boom in motion-related gaming, Konami might have a change of heart and port it to a console.
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Sep 28, 2010 in Videogames
I had heard about this awhile back, and I can’t believe I had forgotten about it until recently, but one of our favorite starship captains will be lending his voice to the upcoming Castlevania title, Lords of Shadow, that should be hitting stores next week. It’s not Shatner — though that’d probably be just as awesome — but rather, Patrick Stewart will be joined by Robert Carlyle and Jason Issacs and a host of other well-known stars. In recent years, Stewart has provided voice work for a variety of media, often causing me to pause and wonder just how awesome his life must be. Needless to say, I doubt he’ll ever be unemployed. Read more…
Posted by Tim Sheehy on May 25, 2010 in Videogames
Konami’s Love Plus, the ever-so-popular dating sim, has spawned even more merchandise for those of us lonely enough to want — this time, in the form of a cushion. I know what you’re probably thinking, “it’s a body pillow, isn’t it?” Well, at first glance, it sure looked that way, but after reading the description, stick cushion actually seems more apt. The cushion is about 5 ½ inches in width by 1.3 feet in length. That’s big enough for maybe your neck, or wrist at best, and while it may seem small, I’m sure that won’t stop certain people from getting creative. Perverse thoughts aside, the cushions are kind of cute. If you’re looking to pick one up, they retail for around $20. HLJ should have them in stock, though they’ll probably sell out fast. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 9, 2009 in Videogames
The 1988 NES game Contra
Contra Rebirth is a WiiWare title that’s based on the 1987 Konami arcade game Contra ((魂斗羅) where you get to play an mutant killing commando (as a game the plot owed a great deal to the popular films of that era like Predator). The original game did so well that it was ported to NES in 1988 and has a well deserved rep of being the toughest game to beat. I’m really glad that we’re starting to see the market for retro games move out of the hobbyist era and into something more mainstream. Here are some screenshots: Read more…
