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Post by Apollo Chungus on Mar 31, 2021 12:00:56 GMT -5
Despite having developed/published so many legendary games, I haven't played anywhere near enough of Konami's to muster up even ten games. But I can list eight I do like in no particular order:
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA) - My favourite of the Iga-vanias, with a mix of action, platforming and exploration that lines up closer to my interests than the other games. Also, the music's rad as heck.
Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster's Hidden Treasure (Mega Drive) - I'm not very good at this game, but I very much like its style and playing it back in 2019 gave me a childlike rush of discovering secrets that I haven't had in ages.
TMNT 1989 (Arcade) - One of my fondest memories of gaming was stumbling across a four-player cabinet in an arcade with some friends back in 2011. We had a ball playing as far as we could before the game accidentally crashed, and made me realize that bo staffs are the best martial arts weapon in video games (and also that Donatello is the best one).
Konami Krazy Racers (GBA) - Seemingly everyone I've ever heard bring up this game has done so glowingly, and while I'm not as passionate myself, it is very good for some quick races.
Play Novel: Silent Hill (GBA) - An awesome if unusual visual novel take on the original Silent Hill, with an excellent use of sound design, visuals and writing to create for an unnerving experience.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (360) - The only Metal Gear I've played a decent amount of. Gameplay's pretty good, though the enemies that force you to wiggle the stick to break from their grasp can bugger off. Story's quite compelling and the one-on-one fight with Sam is an awesome demonstration on how well you've learned the mechanics.
Zone of the Enders (PS2) - People consider 2 to be much better, but I've always had a soft spot for this one. It's good to play through quickly, and some of the cutscene tracks are excellent.
Pop'n Twinbee: Rainbow Bell Adventure (SNES) - I'm also not good on this, but I really like it and appreciate some of its ideas such as the multiple exits in the Japanese version leading to different stages and the many items you can use to give you a hand. It reminds me of the old Sonic games in certain parts such as the momentum you have and the leeway offered to you, which was a very nice surprise. |
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Post by dsparil on Mar 31, 2021 12:46:15 GMT -5
What years are we talking about? If you grew up in the 3d arcades era - say, mid to late '90s - then that makes sense, as that era was dominated by Sega and Namco arcades-wise. You might still have seen some Capcom and SNK 2d fighters around, but Konami wasn't doing too hot on the arcades front between the early '90s 4-player beat-'em-ups and when the dance games came out. They basically missed the two big waves that came next - VS fighters (though they did make a few, none of them were hits) and 3d in general (racing games, fighters, light gun games, "experience" games with peripherals like Sega made, etc.). I can't think of any big Konami arcade game from that era. They were doing much better on consoles. I was thinking from '93 for pre-Bemani so that sounds exactly right. I'm mostly surprised that some of the more popular games like TMNT or The Simpsons didn't stick around assuming they were there in the first place. |
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Post by Snake on Mar 31, 2021 13:53:27 GMT -5
The forum definitely could use some new blood. ^ ^
Top 10 Konami? No particular order, I'd rack my brain too long to make an actual placement. But off the bat...
10. Genso Suikoden, Playstation - The first RPG in the series is my favorite. A coming of age story, about a young man who eventually has to surpass his father. Yesterday's enemy becomes today's ally. A fun interconnectedness between the characters, plenty to explore, quick battles with fun combinations, an excellent soundtrack. And certainly some morality and motivations that aren't set black and white. The length of this RPG is just right.
9. Snatcher, Mega CD/Sega CD/Playstation - Just an overall, fun story. Since 1988, perhaps the beginning of Hideo Kojima incorporating a variety of this tropes that finds its way into Policenauts and the Metal Gear series: Struggling romantic relationships, a perverted protagonist, incorporation of health sciences and medical technology into the overall plot, an imaginative world and environment, and exploration of what life could be like in the not so distant future.
8. The Keisatsukan/Police 911/Police 24/7, arcade - Okay, come on, this was a light gun shooting game with motion sensors. Konami got really crazy with different peripheral arcade games, but I loved trying to physically dodge oncoming bullets. If I was filthy filthy caviar eating liquid gold drinking rich, this would be one of the arcade cabinets I would be collecting (how's that for a thread topic?)
7. Contra, Famicom/NES - It's Contra. One of the greatest all-time soundtracks. A difficult game, but still, a game that can be learned and mastered. A game that made the Konami code famous. A game where you can take your friend's spare lives to continue playing together. I replay this every year, just to unwind for a night with a glass of whiskey or a pint of lager. I kind of enjoy the extra scenes or transitions in the Famicom version.
6. Hikaru no Go 3, Wii - Okay, so it's just playing Go. It's not anything particularly innovative. But I'm biased for incorporating the anime/manga into its overall vibe.
5. Goemon 2, Super Famicom - I have a hard time choosing between this game and Legend of the Mystical Ninja, but I thought I'd mention this game since excelsior already listed the latter. Great upbeat music, and the addition of Sasuke makes for my favorite playable character in the series. Plus the addition of Goemon Impact adds some cool new gameplay schemes in the form of controlling a giant robot.
4. Dracula X - Rondo of Blood, PC-Engine CD-ROM - I've probably listed this game too many times. Replayability, interesting level design, unique interaction with environments for secret paths. The difficulty level is fair, and easy to pick up once you get the rhythm of the game. The rearranged tracks for Vampire Killer, Bloody Tears, and Beginning are among my favorites, and all the unique tracks to the game like Bloodlines, Cross a Fear, Slash, etc are all equally a joy to listen to. And Maria Renard kicks so much ass.
3. Dracula X - Nocturne in the Moonlight/Symphony of the Night, PS - Naturally a totally new style of Castlevania. Filled with fun details, plenty of magical weapons and items. A lot of love was put into this game, from someone who really seemed to have loved Castlevania 3/Akumajo Densetsu as much as I did. It's a game that made me sad when it finally ends... and yet even more happy when you discover that you're really only halfway through the maps. And still sad when it definitively ends.
2. Metal Gear Solid, Playstation - The Playstation Metal Gear Solid had the most entertaining boss battles, for me personally.
1. Pop'n Twinbee, Super Famicom - Great, lighthearted 2 player simultaneous shooter action. Colorful, bubbly atmosphere.
Other mentions -
Metal Warriors, SNES - Technically, seems to have been developed by a LucasArts team. But the controls and gameplay are quite tight, playing similar to another favorite on the SNES, Front Mission:Gun Hazard. But this one is straight action, and gives the ability to switch between different mechs within the stage.
X-Men, arcade - I love how Konami made this a 6-PLAYER game! All the onscreen action, and the voice-acting is just superb. Great fun as a quarter muncher, up there with The Simpsons.
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Post by Bumpyroad on Mar 31, 2021 15:04:59 GMT -5
Well, if you liked either game from Contra/Castlevania/Metal Gear/Gradius library, it'd easy to make a Top 10 out of those alone.
I played first 4 Silent Hill games, i liked 3rd entry the best. Then they had Kensei:Sacred Fist, which as i describe it, was their "poor man's Tekken". Wasn't bad, but prolly needed some more polish gameplay-wise. Briefly tried Enthusia on PCSX2, but due to emulation issues dropped it, unable to compare it more closely with Gran Turismo. Also tried a few games in Pro Evolution Soccer series, all had some issues, but at least could compete directly with FIFA series, which isn't perfect either.
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Post by excelsior on Apr 1, 2021 2:40:01 GMT -5
X-Men, arcade - I love how Konami made this a 6-PLAYER game! All the onscreen action, and the voice-acting is just superb. Great fun as a quarter muncher, up there with The Simpsons. They had this where I used to go swimming as a kid so I got to play it a tonne. 6 player though meant 5 of you were having fun, whilst one unlucky person got stuck playing Dazzler. Very cool cabinet though and a really nice colourful game. It also brought us the legendary 'welcome to die' phrase so it will forever be remembered. Of Konami's arcade beat em ups I also really enjoy Metamorphic Force, which I don't think anyone has mentioned. |
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Post by spanky on Apr 1, 2021 5:36:17 GMT -5
Metamorphic Force is great but definitely gets overshadowed by Konami's near ubiquitous licensed brawlers and the more memey stuff like Violent Storm.
MF definitely looks like a licensed game though. When I discovered the game years ago I had to double check to make sure it wasn't based on some obscure 90s cartoon that I had never heard of because it certainly looks the part.
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Post by windfisch on Apr 2, 2021 9:08:09 GMT -5
in no particular order: TMNT: Turtles in Time (SN) - Basically a tie between this and its remix Hyperstone Heist. It plays a bit more smoothly on the Mega Drive, while TiT on the SNES has better level variety. I'm glad we got both, because one can never have enough TiTs.
TMNT: Back from the Sewers (GB) - Part Spartan X-style brawler, part platformer, it offers an intense roller-coaster-ride with lots of variety, while looking and sounding spectacular. Sprites are huge and plentiful, yet there is no slowing down whatsoever and the backgrounds utilize every single pixel on the tiny screen. Meanwhile your auditory system is treated with the punchiest of 8 bit-explosions and drums straight out of an 80s synth-pop song. Non-verbal storytelling bits, establishing how we get from one set-piece to the next, are a very nice touch on top of that.
Parodius (GB) - Parodius is great, no matter what system. But the Game Boy version still stands out: It achieves the impossible by feeling "colourful" despite the lack thereof. Everything looks cute & sugary sweet – even the suggestive (body-) parts. And who knew that classical music could actually sound amazing played via the hardware’s primitive sound channels?!
Axelay (SN) - Pretty much the ideal shoot ‘em up for me. The vertical scrolling stages with their rolling-drum-surfaces have a wonderfully surreal quality to them - flat, yet curved at the same time. I miss pseudo-3D trickery in this age of trillion polygons.
Super Castlevania IV (SN) - 8-way whip + bass-heavy Jazz tracks (+ inverted Axelay-3D) = best Classicvania
Castlevania The Adventure (GB) – My first Castlevania won me over with imaginative stages and eerie atmosphere. This is one to separate the hardcore from the softcore: Anyone can enjoy fast-paced action games, but can you maintain your rhythm when things get really slow?! Yeah, thought so.
Castlevania Aria of Sorrow (GBA) - Is it better than Symphony? Probably not, but I can’t even tell, because I have never finished the latter. For someone who came from the decent, but stubborn, Circle of the Moon and the confusing Harmony of Disappointment, Aria was a revelation.
Metal Gear Solid Integral (PSX/PC) - Played it on PC first. That version loses some features, but also adds niceties, like more stable graphics and the option to freely move in first person. Well, as “freely” as the stiff controls of the original allow for anyway. Like the Japanese Integral-version, it includes all the VR-missions. Those get the most out the core-mechanics, nicely complementing the story-driven main game.
Cave Noire (GB) - I don’t know much about the likes of Rogue, only that this is a Rogue-like-lite I like – a lot. I especially enjoy its puzzle- and stealth-like elements. There are four main quests, each with slightly different rules, helping to keep things fresh. It does get rather tough later on, but luckily individual dungeons remain bite-sized enough that dying won’t hurt too much. In typical Konami-fashion the music is varied and incredibly well composed. Due the inherent repetitiveness of the genre this is a true blessing, since the tunes carry even more weight than they would in an action title. To my knowledge there aren’t many other games like it. In fact, the only one I know of is Cave Wonders for the Watara Supervision – a heavily watered down clone that ditches many of Cave Noire’s more nuanced features. And yet it somehow works, barely but still, which is a testament to the original’s robustness.
Contra: Hard Corps (MD) – It’s more intense than Contra III and also far more insane, sometimes even out-Treasuring Gunstar Heroes. It also out-Gigers R-Type in terms of nightmarish penes/vaginae. This is the rare case of me preferring the less robotic Contra-designs to the ones of Probotector - I like my sunglasses-wearing werewolf with fur please! And since I'm actually not as harcorps as previously claimed (see above), make it the Japanese version with hitpoints. |
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Post by retr0gamer on Apr 2, 2021 10:58:06 GMT -5
Someone else like Castlevania the adventure!
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Post by windfisch on Apr 2, 2021 12:56:42 GMT -5
retr0gamer And there I thought I'd surprise nobody at this point.  Like a broken record I've mentioned and defended CV The Adventure numerous times since joining this forum. I certainly remember you being one of very few other advocates for it - probably the last one who's still active these days.
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Post by Snake on Apr 5, 2021 13:43:53 GMT -5
Someone else like Castlevania the adventure! Make that ditto for 3. Stage 1 and 3 are among my favorite BGMs, as chiptune melodies go. This was my staple Gameboy game on long car rides. |
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Post by windfisch on Apr 5, 2021 14:10:52 GMT -5
Someone else like Castlevania the adventure! Make that ditto for 3. Stage 1 and 3 are among my favorite BGMs, as chiptune melodies go. This was my staple Gameboy game on long car rides. Great, let's form a band.
And yes, the music is phenomenal! CVA's sequels can't hold a bonus-candle to it in that department: Belmont's Revenge, while featuring great compositions on their own, sometimes feels less like Castlevania and almost like Contra. And Legends' instruments can sound kinda off.
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Post by personman on Apr 6, 2021 2:53:11 GMT -5
Hm... oh, I got this!
Castlevania series
Gradius series
annnnd.... Boktai. Yes.
Joking aside, let me actually think of this. Though really that's probably going to be a close approximation lol.
10. Snatcher- Honestly its a visual novel with typical hammy writing but it has impeccable charm and atmosphere. I guess I just want more cyberpunk noir-ish stuff.
9. Boktai 2- I wasn't joking though. Even without the sun gimmick these are fun little action adventure games and their over all art direction I like quite a bit and I found the second one to be the best. They deserved better than they got. (Yes, that's totally a dig at Lunar Knights)
8. Air Force Delta Strike- A game that is pretty rough around the edges but the variety of its mission design and personally had a bunch of character. Even if all the cast of characters and story was all just a bunch of low hanging fruit of anime trends at the time I felt it gave the game nice texture to just have the option to look around the base between missions, talk with people, see some world building done etc. But that's all not important, what is are the unlockable Planes from so many of Konami's shooter library Vic Viper? its there, the Axelay? Yep, hell even Twin Bee. Come on, that's the coolest unlockable ever.
7. Gradius III (SNES)- I grew up with this one so, obvious bias. I really do think it's one of the better ones though. Plus it stands out more to me since it successfully salvages a really terrible game. The soundtrack to this one has always stuck with me.
6. Axelay- This one has a fun creative direction :sci-fi with weird fantasy elements giving it a kinda surreal touch. Plus the intro was one of the first times in a game where the context behind it got me motivated to play. Once again amazing soundtrack and I really respect how it has a little identity of its own with how weapons work.
5. Super Castlevania IV- My favorite classicvania (I still havent played Rondo yet, one day). Wonderful atmosphere, tight level design, and challenging but chill enough not to induce rage. Bestest.
4. Metal Gear Solid 3 Subsistence- Just about the whole Metal Gear series is excellent... maybe not for the reasons many say but lets not get into that. While I liked Solid 1 and 2 I found 3 stuck with me much more and there is little I can think of to criticize it. It's got fun goofy GI Joe villains and sneaking through an outdoor environment was infinitely more fun than being in a sort of Pacman maze. Plus the best boss fight ever: LADDER (what a thrill)
3. Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow- Some prefer the former title and I think both have their merits. Personally I had more fun with Dawn and while I didn't like the touch screen junk it never bothered me much.
2. Gradius Gaiden- The absolute pinnacle of the series. Nearly all the levels have a cool gimmick that isn't annoying, the music is the best, theres variety with 4 different planes, you can customize what powerups you get first, just awesome, awesome, awesome. One of my favorite shmups.
1. Castlevania Symphony of the Night- I mean, come on. I don't really have to explain this. I boot this up on my psone every year just to goof around with it for a reason. From wonderful art and music to goofy interesting items that allow some fun creative uses to the many, many memes it inspired online its just about all gold. Oh, and it inspired a rich subgenre too, sure. But mostly sweet, sweet memes. But seriously it's one of my favorites of all time.
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Like a broken record I've mentioned and defended CV The Adventure numerous times since joining this forum. I certainly remember you being one of very few other advocates for it - probably the last one who's still active these days.
