During this day, we had the opportunity to discover and try four titles from Konami’s line-up.Each game session lasted about an hour, where we also had the opportunity to chat with people in charge of development and publishing at Konami, who were able to answer our questions about the game. publisher’s future.
The return of classic licenses
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As you may have seen recently, Konami gradually revives from these ashes licenses adored by the public.Whether it be silent Hill as Metal Gear, the publisher seems to want to finally please the fans.And among this very large community, there are lovers of arcade proposals, historical brand licenses, such as bomber man.
6 years after the release of the last episode, bomber man is back with Bomberman R 2.In terms of classic Konami, you can’t do better.For those who had been seduced by the formula, they should not be too lost.If we haven’t had the opportunity to play the story mode – the duration of which should be between 8 and 10 hours of play – we took a tour of the rest of the owner to see what will be on the program.
And of course, when we talk about bomber manwe think above all of the multiplayer modes and the evenings spent competing in a loop on the game (for me it was Super Bomberman 2).For this, you will have fun.between the classic mode, a mode close to the battle royale named Battle 64a team mode “ Big Price“, and the brand new mode Castle.This mode is inspired by recent FPS, with an attack / defense system.One team will have to protect the castle and its 3 chests, while the other will have to open 2 of the 3 chests before the time runs out.
A map editor will also be available for this game mode, with creations that can be shared online.In addition to this, we will find a competitive online mode, and many customization options to have for example skins inspired by Konami licenses, such as the Pyramid Head of silent Hill.On the session that we had the opportunity to do, we had a good time.If the release of the title cannot be too late, we are rather convinced that this Bomberman R 2 has the weapons to be a good sequel.
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Snake!
We talked about it in detail in a dedicated article, but we will still come back here to what was one of the big pieces of the presentation: Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection vol.1.As you can imagine, it’s difficult to get started in just an hour in what represents 7 titles from one of the most important licenses in video games.It was more of an opportunity for us to take a tour of the owner, all the playable content and bonuses, and all the work done to provide the best conditions for fans and people wishing to discover the series.
We may regret the absence of the version The Twin Snakes from the first Metal Gear Solidbut the presence of a French localization on the whole collection is something that we really want to highlight.
A development of Western independent proposals
Two other titles, more confidential, were revealed to us and put to the test, coming not from the country of the rising sun, but from the old continent.The opportunity thus to discover new original proposals, which remain in the identity of Konami.The first of these two games is called Super Crazy Rhythm Castle.
Developed by the young British studio Second Impact Game, the game presents itself as an explosive mix between a rhythm game and a cooperative party game such as Overcooked.Playable from 1 to 4 players, you will link crazy levels, where you will have to both succeed in rhythm game sequences, while going, for example, to clear a field preventing you from seeing the notes.
More than 30 songs will be available, from almost all musical genres, and you can also replay them in a specific game mode, designed for lovers of scoring.In addition, in a desire to offer a game that is as accessible as it is challenging, two levels of difficulty will be offered and can be applied to each player independently.It’s a very good idea, and on the few levels we tested, Super Crazy Rhythm Castle was a little crush.We can’t wait to learn more and especially to have the game in our hands.
The second and last game we had the opportunity to try, also from an independent developer, this time from Edinburgh in Scotland, is called Cygni: All Guns Blazing.We leave the party-game to go to the horizons of shoot them up.And when we talk about this genre, inevitably, Konami and its history of arcade games were among the initiators of the genre with titles such as Gradius Or Parody.
Here is a vertical shooter we have.If the approach is necessarily arcade, the game takes advantage of all the developments to already offer a real visual treat.We find ourselves in a dark science fiction universe, with designs inspired by robots and mechanical monsters from works like Matrix.If we could not go into the details of the story, we glimpsed that a scenario will be told between the different missions.
In terms of gameplay, you will find a dynamic shooter with a good number of projectiles.The game system will offer a whole gauge management of missiles and shields that you can transfer from one to the other.You will also have to be careful to eliminate threats in front of you, but also on the ground, with a weapon designed specifically for this. Cygni is a promising game, even if a real balancing seems necessary to us so that it can be accessible, and not only reserved for the big players of the genre.
The future of Konami
In conclusion, what can we take away?Konami has been for two and a half years now in a real desire to go back to basics, with the reappearance of major licenses, but also this desire for openness by helping independent studios to launch their games.The idea behind, moreover, is to create a complementary game offer between these almost two entities.There is a lot of curation work in order to offer games that will be consistent with Konami’s history as well.It only remains for us to see what these games will give as well as the future productions that the publisher will offer us.