Results tagged “konami”

Oh look, I'm breaking my "don't discuss newer soundtracks" clause, and I almost feel bad about it!

But that's mainly because this isn't the usual Recommended Soundtracks entry. Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth has some quality tunes, all of which use older technology that sounds like it's coming from a Genesis cartridge (though it admittedly sounds slightly better than that). It's a great way to pay homage to older games, especially if games in that genre aren't being made anymore. In that way, I'm recommending the soundtrack; and it's pretty easy to digest since it's a small soundtrack.


I also want to discuss the game's soundtrack because it does something many Castlevania games don't do: remix lesser known tracks. The developers behind the upcoming Castlevania: Lords of Shadow have expressed interest in providing orchestral remixes of older tracks that fans are particularly fond of.  That sounds fine on the surface, until you realize it probably means remixing "Vampire Killer," "Bloody Tears," and "Beginning" for the 10th time (a figurative guesstimate, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was literally accurate). They're all perfectly quality tracks, but does anyone really need another remix of these?

(And yes, I know this game also has a remix of "Vampire Killer." I guess it's a prerequisite.)

The fine folks responsible for Rebirth's soundtrack apparently realized this and decided to remix some tracks that weren't fan favorites, with the main job of remixing them being left to Manabu Namiki. They're redone versions of tracks that were (and are, really) woefully underappreciated but every bit as good as those aforementioned classics, and clearly someone thought they deserved another look.

Of course, the preferable alternative would be to have compositions of new music that's every bit as good as the older material. Nothing wrong with throwing in a few remixes, though.

"Reincarnated Soul" plays during the game's first stage, and originally comes from Castlevania: Bloodlines for Genesis, where it was also used for the first stage.  It's almost remarkable to see how similar they sound, but that's not surprising. There's no problem with that either. Usually the best tracks from older console games are the first to be remixed, so who knows why this one hasn't been remixed yet. I would have loved to hear it in Portrait of Ruin, given that it's a sequel to Bloodlines. That's not a complaint, though, since PoR is chock full of fine tunes:


"New Messiah" is used for the third stage, and is originally pulled from Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge for Game Boy, the only good Castlevania game on that system. The Adventure Rebirth is a reimagining of the original Game Boy game Castlevania: The Adventure, so it's fitting that it should include a track from another older portable title. Rebirth wasn't any good, so it desperately needed a remake. Both older Game Boy games have some excellent-though-woefully unappreciated tracks, so don't be surprised to see them pop up in a future entry:


"Aquarius" is used for the game's fifth stage, the final full stage, and originally hails from Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse for NES. This is one of my favorite Castlevania tracks ever, and I'm glad to see it get remixed. Again. It was also featured in Castlevania: Circle of the Moon for GBA. That version is noticeably mellower, and I prefer the version with more of a beat:


For how brief the game is, it sure has a nice variety of remixed tracks. The irony here is that's also precisely the main problem with the soundtrack. Castlevania: The Adventure still has a bunch of tracks clamoring for a remix, and this game would have been the perfect opportunity to showcase them. Hoping the LoS team considered some unappreciated tracks as viable candidates for remixing is admittedly a pipe dream, so I hope they decide to use them if there are more "Rebirth" games.

If someone were to ask me what my succinct opinion was after playing Metal Gear Solid 4, I wouldn't be able to give them a straight answer. It's not that I can't put together precisely what I thought of the game, but it's impossible to answer that question as quick as someone would like.

That hesitation arises because MGS4 is a very uneven game. It has plenty of good parts; heck, some of it is actually pretty damned brilliant, with some of the best sequences I've ever seen in a game -- interactive or not. The problem, then, is that it falls flat on its face just as often, with the game itself taking a backseat to the excess narrative and exposition. Basically, it doesn't play to its inherent strengths as often as it should.


MGS4 features a much older Solid Snake in appearance despite taking place in 2014, a mere five years after Metal Gear Solid 2. Snake has been aging rapidly due to a seemingly unknown genetic defect, and he doesn't have much longer to live. Despite that, he's still undertaking a mission he received from Colonel Campbell: kill Liquid Ocelot. Liquid's taken residence in the Middle East, and Snake will have to wade through the opposition and rebels to make it to him. Good thing you can make it easier by siding with the rebels.

And siding with them is pretty fun too. It not only makes progressing through areas easier, but gives a new dynamic to a Metal Gear game. The controls have been overhauled to make the game feel more like a shooter as well. You can tell that series creator and director Hideo Kojima, along with Kojima Productions, paid attention to specific criticisms from the previous games, and it shows with the controls. The main problem before was that it was impossible to jump out and firefight someone in the older games if you were spotted; this is now possible. It's not as easy as it would be in your average third-person shooter (you have to hold L1 to shoot), but it's fine for a game and franchise that encourages stealth.


The camouflage system is back from Metal Gear Solid 3, and its fine tuning is further proof of Kojima paying attention to criticism. The introduction of the camo system added a new sense of veracity then, but it became tiresome going into the menu to keep changing it by the end of the game. Now, it's streamlined with Old Snake outfitted with an Octocamo suit that changes automatically to blend with the environment to keep your camo index up. It sure wouldn't have had a place during the Cold War (when MGS3 takes place), but it does in the near future.

MGS4 also finally deals with the problem of enemies having ID locked weapons that you couldn't take when you either K.O'd or killed them, something you couldn't deal with in the first two MGS games. Now you can! For a price. There's a guy named Drebin (one of many, but this one has a thing for you) who can remove the IDs for you by paying him Drebin Points (DP). He'll also sell you weapons and ammo, though the former can be very expensive. You accrue DP by collecting weapons you already have, though you empty out the ammo first. It's true that it makes the game a little too firefight friendly, but it's a blessing when you're fighting alone. I loved it when I was in need of some tranquilizer ammo.

The instruction booklet also spends pages describing how to survive in the battlefield. A shame that setting is dropped one-third of the way in. The biggest problem with MGS4 is the glaringly obvious cut scene to gameplay ratio. Anyone who's played a Metal Gear Solid title before knows they can be unbelievably talky and preachy, but the cut scenes mostly weren't too unnecessarily long. MGS3 has the best of the aforementioned ratios -- among one of the reasons why that game is hailed as the best game in the series. This is one strength MGS4 does not play to in the least.


MGS4 has plenty of cut scenes that are unnecessarily long. In what was Kojima's way of making the game more cinematic and movie-like, the character models have excessive gesticulations during many of its scenes, most of which only serve to lengthen them. It gave me flashbacks to Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, which had the same problem - though it's honestly not as bad as that game's. This is the answer to people who complained about too many Codec scenes before, and if you did I hope you're feeling sorry for yourself. I kind of dinged the comic book-style cut scenes that popped up in some of the PSP titles in lieu of CG ones before, and that's something I need to apologize for. After playing this game, I welcome them wholeheartedly.

The dialogue could also be a problem. No, not because it's full of cheesy moments, which is a series staple at this point. The truth behind some of the plot holes induced by MGS2, especially in the crazy last two hours, are unveiled in this game. Quite a few of them are confounding, with explanations that are either mind-boggling or, worse, retcon events from the last three games. Those explanations make the actions of some characters in the older games completely bizarre.


But wait, there's more! Another sticking problem is in how frequent cut scenes are, especially in the last three Acts. It's heartbreaking to see only Acts 1 and 2 follow in the footsteps of what MGS3 (and MGS1 before that) established, because the rest of the game doesn't have as much, well, game. You'll be watching more than playing, witnessing the bulk of the game's nine hours of cut scenes. Yes, NINE hours. To put that in perspective, that's more than Xenosaga: Episode I, which had seven-and-a-half. Most of the scenes and story revelations near the end are enough to make anyone who bashed MGS2's zany finale feel bad.

And man does Kojima know how to play to his fanbase. This game was supposed to be the series grand finale, the all-encompassing Metal Gear Solid title. As such, it's pack to the brim with homages and fan service. Quite a bit of it is lovely, and many of them are very clever for a video game. And all of the boss battles are homages to the first MGS game, down to having similar names. Some of it can become a little overbearing and fall flat a few times.


You can't deny how top-notch the presentation is, however. It may be a two-year-old game, and a game may have come to knock it off its throne as the best-looking PS3 exclusive since then, but it still looks fantastic. The voice acting is also as good as you'd expect from an MGS title. Everyone from the older games returns to reprise their role, and this is definitely David Hayter's best performance of Snake in the series. The music is also good, but I was disappointed to see that Norihiko Hibino didn't compose a single track. He only served as the soundtrack's director. I like Harry Gregson-Williams' material just fine, but I usually like Hibino's contributions the most. On the whole, the OST isn't quite as memorable as the last few games in the series. And you can tell there are many points where the Metal Gear theme would have played, but couldn't thanks to copyright issues.

When you think about it, Kojima tends to pump out his best work when he doesn't pay attention to his fan base. MGS4 is a game whose mere existence is living proof of how there is such a thing as too much fanservice, in a non-sexual way (though if you like the sexual kind, there's plenty of that too). There's an utterly brilliant game in here, but it's drowned deeply into the recesses of a river rife with excess pandering. That's precisely what's so upsetting about the end result of this game, and it's a crying shame that it's from a person...well, people capable of putting out much better work.

Metal Gear Solid -- and that's strictly speaking about "Solid," not any of the other games in the franchise or the spin-offs -- have had an interesting cover history. It's mostly been rather positive, standing in stark contrast to many other franchises. But in the last few years, they've taken a different turn and adopted an alternate overall style. Not for the better, unfortunately.

Many fans of the franchise, me included, love Yoji Shinkawa's art style that always accompanies the games in the direct franchise, and some of the spin-offs. His art used to be featured prominently on the covers of Metal Gear games worldwide, but for some strange reason, it's something we're not seeing much anymore. That's a shame too, because using art on the cover helps it stand out amongst the legions of generic titles that use CG (sometimes pretty badly) on their cover. The marketing execs of numerous companies seem to believe that consumers, especially in America, prefer to have their covers CG, based on the data they've supposedly obtained. Whether that data is empirical or anecdotal is unknown.

This is exactly what led to the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow cover situation. The standard edition, which most people will buy, has CG artwork for the cover. The LE, aimed at dedicated fans who are usually willing to spend more than most. An argument could be made for the LE not being worth an extra $20 (because it isn't), but that's another post (that I probably won't make). Both covers have received changes since that post, but they're only minor.

Rumor has it that Metal Gear Solid's cover wasn't originally going to be this, but the team working with the game internally fought to have this cover. Glad they did, too, because here we have something that's beautiful in its simplicity. The Japanese cover is the same. The European cover does use Shinkawa's art, but it doesn't come off as well. There's a lesson here: making a nice cover doesn't merely entail using art, but using it efficiently.

All of the covers for Metal Gear Solid 2 use Shinkawa's art, though Japan's is different from what America and Europe received. This cover comparison is actually quite hilarious for anyone who played MGS2 back in the day. The big surprise for MGS2 was that you'd actually be playing a new character named Raiden for most of the game, rather than Solid Snake; the complete opposite of what the hype and American and European cover art would imply. The Japanese cover ruins this surprise, but that's probably not a bad thing considering the negative reaction fans had to being robbed of controlling Snake.

Metal Gear Solid 3 is one of the rare cases of each territory having a different cover. Both Japan and Europe got Shinkawa's art, with the European one being a not-as-good variant of what's present on the Japanese cover. Comparing the two, the Japanese cover immediately wins for including one of the best female characters in video games, The Boss, on the cover. Meanwhile, the American cover takes a different approach, with Shinkawa art being at the top and CG used for the remaining aspects. It's awfully busy, and certainly the least appealing cover, though the CG use isn't quite as bad as some other covers.

Like this one! Apparently someone thought Old Snake's face was incredibly appealing for Metal Gear Solid 4's cover; so appealing that they wanted to show everyone through the cover. It's not, and it's not supposed to be either, which makes for an unappealing cover. A shame Japan's cover suffered the same fate. Surprisingly, though Europe's cover also has a close-up of Snake, it does it using Shinkawa art. It's by far the best of the covers.

In fact, MGS4 has the same situation as the aforementioned Lords of Shadow. I'm saving the LE cover for one of the next entries, though.

This is only the first entry in this series, which should be wrapped up in the next entry. Unless I find something else to talk about.

So! Konami and Genesis. They actually had quite a bit of good Genesis support, despite not being on the best of terms with Sega.

Konami actually used to be a big fan of picking favorites, something rather surprising given the nearly even stance of the SNES and Genesis during their time in the market. The SNES received the greatest support right out of the gate (or close to it) with titles like Super Castlevania IV, Contra 3, and a superlative home port in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time. They did decide to support the Genesis a little later with some quality titles, but it was never with the same amount of support. And here are their covers.

Konami decided to reuse the asses from the aforementioned Turtles in Time for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist -- or Return of the Shredder. Sega fans were clamoring for something Turtles related while Nintendo's consoles had received four games in the franchise, so Konami felt that Genesis fans earned a title. And it was every bit as good as Turtles in Time was. Both the American and Japanese covers are quite nice, but I like the busy action that consumes the Japanese cover a little more. A shame about the comparatively blase European cover, though, which happens to be the same as the Japanese cover to Turtles in Time.

Rocket Knight Adventures was the first title to prove that Konami was starting to get a little serious with Genesis support; as serious as Sparkster is on the American cover. It turns out the angry Kirby effect isn't exclusive to that series and Dragon Quest IX. The cover is mostly the same aside from that, but it was well worth pointing out since it predates the Angry Kirby phenomenon.

You can take that paragraph about Hyperstone Heist above and apply it to Castlevania as well. Four games, and Konami finally gets one on Genesis, and not starring a Belmont. Unfortunately, the results weren't as pretty in the actual game, though it was still better than Castlevania II. I'm kind of split on which cover is better here, and it's definitely one of the weaker covers in the franchise on both sides.

I kind of talked about Contra: Hard Corps cover before with Hard Corps: Rising's announcement, but here's a completely comparison. The Japanese cover has a very late 80s/early 90s anime vibe, but since that was still considered a little abstract outside of Japan during its time of release, they made things more, uh, hardcore for the western audience. In more ways than one, since the American version was quite a bit harder than the Japanese version. I like the American cover a bit more, because it's more in fitting with the previous Contra titles.

Yeah, I think this was the weakest entry in the series, honestly. But I promise you that the next entry will be the best. I'm sure you can guess what it will be for.

Continuing from the last entry in this series, which will definitely be four now.

It's not possible to describe a lot of older video game covers as anything great, especially when they're localizations - or "translations" rather, because there sure wasn't a lot of localizing being done in this era - of Japanese games for a western audience. The itinerary for cover art seemed to be "make it as un-Japanese-looking as possible" so that no one would find it unfamiliar. That, or companies thought we couldn't handle that oh-so-wacky art Japan was capable of churning out in droves.

Konami did things a little differently, though. But that's probably only because many of their older games (and some newer ones) were rooted in western media influences, and thus used western-style art to promote them. But not every game had the same cover when localized for western audiences. Some of them were better. We've done NES already, but they actually gave some care to their Game Boy covers as well.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue was different from the usual TMNT game, Game Boy or otherwise. It was one of the earlier Metroidvania games; so early that it predates the establishment of the term (which didn't arise until numerous Castlevania games became Metroid derivatives). It's probably one of the least discussed games in the franchise, but its well worth playing.

The main difference between the American and Japanese covers is the different approach, with the latter merely displaying the four of them, which makes it feel like it's from an alternate source that had nothing to do with the game. The American cover has Leonardo drilling through a wall with his sword. Utterly implausible, but it makes for a more appealing cover that actually highlights one of this game's unique features; each turtle had a separate ability to gain entrance to places others could not, and this one displays Leonardo's.

It also represents the trope that American covers can't have happy specimens on the cover, human or not. But it's so good that it's kind of irrelevant here.

Here we have Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge, one of the best portable Castlevania games around. Notable for being vastly superior to the first GB game, Castlevania: The Adventure, Belmont's Revenge was the best we had on the go until the GBA came along. The music is also fantabulous and criminally underappreciated, even by Castlevania's current developers. Many Castlevania tunes are remixed for future titles, but this game's music is rarely a source.

Oh, but you came here to see the cover. Right. The Japanese cover features Christopher in a rather headless skeleton-whipping pose, with a preview of what the player will encounter in the game, concluding with Dracula himself fixed at the top. The American cover has a much simpler approach, and looks miles better artistically. That's mainly because of Christopher's design, but also for some beautiful landscape art.

And now we have a brilliant-though-disappointing subversion. Operation C for Game Boy feels like a blend of NES classics Contra and Super C. Like those games, this game has a cover that takes inspiration from American media, and given how it would easily resonate with a western audience because of that, who knows the true reason why they didn't stick with the Japanese cover. It could be that the original has a cover that looks a tad too familiar, but it still would have been legal to use it under a parody defense. That's a shame, because it's fantastic, while the American cover couldn't be more bland and predictable. Not to say it's bad, of course.

That wraps it up for Game Boy. There are two more features on Konami's covers to look forward to, exploring two other systems. Imagine that.

What's this? A Cover Art Chronicles entry? It's been a while; three-and-a-half months in fact. Time to rectify that.

When you browse a plethora of covers for old games, you'll notice something: they're mostly pretty terrible, especially when it's for a localized Japanese game. Publishers in the US had no qualms with translating and releasing games from Japan, but they tried their best to make sure the game didn't look distinctly Japanese from its exterior. These publishers thought we would be instantly repelled by anything that had some anime flavor in it. These releases happened in mainly the late 80s and early-to-mid 90s, an era where anime and assorted products distinctly Japanese weren't too popular outside of their home base. Needless to say, the tide has turned.

Those intentions for localization aren't bad at all on the surface, but do you think they would hire good artists to adapt these covers? Of course not! Though sometimes there were covers where the new "Americanized" art was pretty good, but that was sadly an exception. And even then, it was in stark contrast to the anime-style artwork that would be present in-game. This, along with localizations of said games themselves, started to change in the PSX era, and said change is in full bloom today.

Though that doesn't mean you won't get some bizarre aversions today.

That aforementioned material isn't for all publishers, though. In fact, there was a big exception: Konami. Honestly, they were probably only an exception because the themes of many of their games - the ones that were localized, anyway - were inspired by western works. So it followed that they should have western-style art for their covers. But said covers weren't always the same for every territory. No, some of them were actually better for western audiences.

With this, I'm kicking off a short series Cover Art Chronicles posts discussing Konami's efforts starting with their NES material. This will be the first of three posts. Or perhaps four. We'll see.

You might be old enough to remember the first Contra title if you're reading this. This classic 2D side-scrolling shooter comes from an age where games that tested your (hopefully) youthful reflexes were accepted as normal. A game like that needed a cover that oozes testosterone, and the American one definitely does that better than the Japanese version. It also contains three references to American movies on the cover, and Bill Rizer (that's the blonde-haired guy on the left) has a stance that's lifted of the protagonist of one of the movies. Lance should also look familiar. Try and guess! You may use the internet.

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse is regarded as the best of the NES Castlevania games, and one of the best action/platformers on the console. It's also the only game to have a different cover from the Japanese version, and though that one isn't bad - it looks like the cover to a novel, honestly -- the American one gets the job done a little better.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project took after its immediate predecessor, The Arcade Game, in being like, well, an arcade game. It was a side-scrolling brawler that allowed for two players, and it was definitely the best of the NES games. It was also the least popular, too, releasing around a time where TMNT was dying down as a fad among us youngins (you know, at the time). The American cover actually has work from a comic book artist, while the Japanese cover favors turtles with awkward-looking faces. Especially Raphael's.

You may also be wondering why the Japanese version is called "II" instead of "III." It's not that they didn't get the first game inflicted upon them, but II was just called "The Arcade Game."

  Metal Gear's cover is actually the same in every territory, but it's being featured here because it's that good. It has a very G.I. Joe-style flavor, an undoubtedly intentional decision given how popular it was at the time of its release. Oh and the game was good too! Like the Contra cover, this cover also has a reference to a popular movie, and Snake's art and stance is lifted from said movie. Apparently Konami realized how close it was; when the MSX versions Metal Gear (and its sequel) were rereleased as part of Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, they had Yoji Shinkawa redraw the art.

These are all nice, but there are better examples on other consoles, and those will be covered here, uh, sometime in the future.

Actually there is another game I kind of forgot to talk about from E3. I guess that makes me a liar. I've betrayed you all!

But it's not from E3 2010 really. We first learned of the existence of Castlevania: Harmony of Despair when Konami trademarked its name back in April, which led to some wild speculation. Well all of those hopes came crashing down when the first screen shots were leaked soon afterward, which showed a game utilizing all of the sprites present in the DS games and Symphony of the Night for a multiplayer co-op romp through (supposedly) Dracula's castle. And I'd link to proof if Konami hadn't requested every website to remove the screens -- which inadvertently confirmed them to be real.

People like to criticize producer Koji Igarashi for constantly reusing the same sprites for every 2D installment, but this was too much. These sprites were clearly not made for HD resolutions, so I couldn't imagine how this would look on someone's actual television Upon seeing it, a strange feeling manifested within me; a feeling of...despair. So, mission accomplished?

Another negative: how are people going to know whether HoD stands for Harmony of Despair or Harmony of Dissonance. Note that HoD (that's D for Dissonance!) has a name that's perfectly apt.

Though one of the shots proved that Ayami Kojima was doing the character designs for this game. She hadn't been involved with a Castlevania game since The Dracula X Chronicles on PSP three years back, so I'm glad to she still has some work.

But after seeing what was present at E3, and having Igarashi explained the point of this game, it actually doesn't sound all that bad. Metroidvania games are usually single-player affairs, but the idea of having two or more (many more, if the screens are any indication) friends traverse through a labyrinthine castle together sounds pretty cool. OK, the locations shown so far look similar to the environs from Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin -- albeit with different enemies -- but placing a bunch of characters in at once should give it a new dynamic.

Not that any chance of it being a harmony of despair has completely diminished, of course. There could be balance issues or assorted other issues, like the game looking hideous on your HDTV. But even if those are problems it could be a lot of fun.

The game will be a part of Microsoft's Summer of Arcade this year, and releases on August 4th. The price? 1200 MS Points ($15). This game will be good with friends, but fans of the series might have a hard time convincing their possibly non-Castlevania fan friends to buy it at that price. Alucard, Soma Cruz, Jonathan Morris, Charlotte Aulin, and Shanoa are going to be initially available, but more characters will be available later via DLC. So have at you, Harmony of Despair.

During these days of our unofficially-named advent of E3, developers have been announcing plenty of new games that they either feel would be overshadowed amidst the potential heavy hitting titles, or they feel would make their press conference too interesting -- like Sony, in the latter case. In other words, it's E3 season, and stuff like this is to be expected before this gets crazy.

But Konami, a company whose output this generation has been, uh, underwhelming on consoles (like too many Japanese companies), had something special to announce yesterday. Thus far, we've had two Contra games this gen: Contra 4 for DS (from American developer Wayforward), and Contra Rebirth on Wiiware (from M2). Both of those games have been trying to pull the franchise out of the doldrums it sunk into due to the abysmal iterations released on PSOne. Yes, you can throw Shattered Soldier into that pile too. But these days, it's still struggling. Somewhere, someone thought it was time for another turn on a different set of consoles.


Enter Hard Corps: Uprising, a new 2D HD Contra game for Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network. The game a spiritual sequel to Contra: Hard Corps (not a sequel like IGN says) and it's developed by Arc System Works (of the Guilty Gear and Blazblue franchises). It's due for release in Winter 2010. It's possible that you may not have needed me to tell you who was developing it, given the developer's trademark character designs in the screen shot above. No one really expected a Contra game like this to come along, and it has the potential to be pretty good.

"Potential" being the key word there, as there are a few things here that could go wrong. ASW has plenty of experience with making good fighting games, but they haven't made a lot of 2D shooters, which could hurt. But if they have good talent from Konami overseeing the project, there may not be too much to worry about. If anything, the game will be pretty and colorful to look at.

Oh, and if you're upset about the anime look, it's not the first time Contra has had an anime-like aesthetic. Hell, just look at the Japanese cover to the game this a prequel to!

I hope this game is successful, as Konami has been embracing a lot of 2D products on digital platforms. And if it sells well, and it's good, then maybe they could give them a Castlevania game. It's not like Konami gives a crap about doing a 2D game in that series themselves anymore. Look forward to seeing more of this at E3. If not earlier.

Say, I have an interest in retro games and retro-style games, so why the heck haven't I talked about Rocket Knight here? Got me! Konami and Climax's revival of the classic franchise, which you might remember in Rocket Knight Adventures and both the SNES and Genesis versions of Sparkster --which were actually quite different - is actually shaking up really well; to the chagrin of certain "fans" who were begging for its death because it isn't hand-drawn. Not to completely discredit those individuals, because it actually looked a little rough initially.

It's easy to understand why they chose a 2.5D perspective, as going all out with hand-drawn characters seriously isn't financially feasible nowadays. But you could tell that something was missing initially: a layer of color that could help it match the older games in terms of aesthetics. It's a mystery as to whether Climax just hadn't implemented the remainder of that graphical style for the initial reveal, or if they really paid attention to the fan reaction and decided to enhance it a little. It probably doesn't matter too much if the end result is good.

It looked pretty good in motion before, but it looks even better now with the new trailer released on Friday (well Thursday actually; the event was embargoed until yesterday morning). It looks a little easy in a few other videos around the internet, but it looks like a lot of fun. I hope they're using a game like Bionic Commando: Rearmed as a template for how to revive a classic the right way. We don't have to wait long to find out if it's good or not; the game releases in May for Xbox Live Arcade, Playstation Network, and PC via Steam.

Also, Konami revealed another game yesterday (again, actually Thursday) that's another retro revival, this time for Rush'N Attack, called Rush'N Attack: Ex Patriot. With the way it looks and how it's using Unreal Engine 3, everyone who immediately thought about Shadow Complex is completely vindicated. It certainly seems to be more inspired by that than the original Rush'N Attack in terms of its visual style, but the trailer hints that it will be more like a standard side scroller than a Metroidvania title. The game is scheduled for a fall release for Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network.

So there you have it, a game one of the most anticipated revivals and a game in a totally random franchise revival. Rocket Knight, since is the game from a franchise more people have fond memories of, so it'll probably be more anticipated than Rush'N Attack will ever be. Despite that, I still think Ex Patriot is worth keeping an eye on, if only for how it will eventually turn out.

Hideo Kojima is a crazy dude.

Given the prevalence of them in previous Metal Gear Solid titles, fans of the series expected there to be some bonus crossovers and in-game advertising in some form for Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. Though Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater had some advertising for Calorie Mate, it also had a bonus game that was a crossover with Ape Escape. It was a mode where you, as Naked Snake, shot at a bunch of monkeys with sirens on their head, who also tried to shoot at you. Zany? Well yeah.

And that's not even mentioning the plethora of softcore porn pics that are spread around in every game since Metal Gear Solid 2 - some of which can lead to some interesting (and hilarious) cutscenes. They also appear in magazines that you can use to distract soldiers. There are also the bonus Rumble Roses outfits that appeared in Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence. Just to make sure you didn't know this game was definitely Japanese before.


But yeah, the bonus stuff and advertising. For some reason I can't comprehend for the life of me, Metal Gear fans across the internet are appalled with Kojima Productions including a plethora of advertising and bonus modes in Peace Walker; as if they don't want to acknowledge that the series has done this in the past plenty of times. Granted, they are upping the ante ten-fold here, but its all to be expected given Kojima's sense of humor.


With Peace Walker, there will be a mode where you can fight dinosaurs from Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (or Monster Hunter Freedom Unite for anyone not in Japan). And as you can see, it looks unbelievably silly; yet therein lies what makes it gorgeous. And I'm sure Konami will also find the money they make from this tie-in gorgeous. There is also a tie in with Assassin's Creed II, though that one is perfectly fitting, and it probably would have been a bigger part of Metal Gear Solid 4 if the first Assassin's Creed didn't receive such a mixed reaction.


The game will also feature tie-in's with Doritos, Mountain Dew, Axe Body Spray, Sony, numerous Japanese gaming magazines, and more. They're really going all out with this.

And that's not all! Square Enix also teased that they had a special announcement to make this week. Speculation for what it would actually ranged from tame (Final Fantasy IX on US PSN, which is somewhat reasonable given their mention of it coming to Japanese PSN soon) to positively insane (insert Kingdom Hearts III here). The actual news? They're producing a series of Play Arts figures for this game. This is why it helps to keep your expectations very low whenever a company announces an announcement.

You can't help but wonder why Konami's going through with all of the advertising for this game. The ostensible reason is that Kojima Products merely wants to inject some humor in a video games franchise they know really doesn't take itself seriously, but there may be more to it than that. While this game may not have a budget as big as its predecessor on PS3, it's definitely big for a PSP game. And it's something that may not sell as well on a system that's nearly dead outside of Japan. An awfully sad predicament for a system with such a great lineup, but it's likely true. The game hits Japan three weeks from tomorrow, with an American and European release on June 8th and 17th, respectively.

Let's face it: The majority of your favorite games are always inspired by either other games, works from other forms of media, or situations from real life -- whether they did or didn't happen to the person responsible for creating said game. And really, there's nothing wrong with that. A lot of people like to say that we've probably hit a brick wall in terms of completely new ideas, and new ideas are implemented by taking inspiration from numerous other works and fusing them into something that seems different within the confines of one new game. You could refer to this as an alternate form of creating ideas.

But this doesn't just refer to story and scenario ideas; it also refers to how those are implemented in terms of gameplay. Not that I'm saying that every game should ape all others to create a me-too title, which happens a bit too often. During the later period of last generation, Grand Theft Auto became the popular game for that, where development teams borrowed the entire formula for their own game. That's missing the point. But taking a few ideas and using them in an innovative manner is definitely what companies should be doing.

Case in point: I've been making my way through God of War II via the God of War Collection for the last few days. Yeah, it looks excellent from being upscaled to HD resolutions, and it's a great game that never lets go of its frenetic pace (I played the first game before, but this is my first time playing the second). But there are a lot of things about it that are interesting in terms of its inspiration from other games, namely the Castlevania games. Every time I had to swing from something, I couldn't help but think of swinging in Super Castlevania IV. And don't even get me started on the sections that involved going through a castle.

When Castlevania: Lords of Shadow was announced back at E3 last year, it's first trailer displayed that the development team was definitely taking some inspiration from the God of War titles -- something I noted before, but with a tone of concern. Now that I've gone through God of War again and (I assume) most of God of War II, they're definitely looking in the right place for ideas. Sometime after God of War originally released in March '05, plenty of people remarked that it felt like how a Castlevania game should feel like in 3D. Of course, not too soon after that, Castlevania: Curse of Darkness released. Bummer. Also, plenty of people said the same thing about the original Devil May Cry as well, and the 3D Castlevania's admittedly did take some inspiration from it. But not in the greatest ways.

The last side effect I expected from playing the God of War games was to be looking forward to playing Lords of Shadow even more. Again, there's nothing bad about taking inspiration from other games if the end result is quality (as long as its nothing beyond taking inspiration), and I'm not saying that Castlevania should also ape the "RAGE! REVENGE! ANGER!" tone that God of War has in spades (oh god no). Hopefully MercurySteam and Kojima Productions are willing to take ideas from it and implement them in a way that makes them work. Hideo Kojima himself is a fan of western games, so I have faith that the game will turn out well.

God of War Collection pic courtesy of Bitmob.

You can either thank or blame Capcom for starting something that's become what you could call a "trend" in the gaming industry now: new games made in the spirit of classic ones. Mega Man 9 was not only regarded as a return to form for the main franchise, but also as an interesting-though-successful experiment that was received well by fans. But it was also a hit with certain gamers who weren't fans of the franchise, and who were intrigued by the idea enough to drop a mere $10 on it to try it out.

You might hear quite a bit about how bad the coming age of digital distribution is for consumers; sometimes even here! And for good reason, too. The thing about it is that it's only a bad thing when you're referring to specific topics. When you see something like Xbox 360 Games on Demand and the majority of PSP digital titles - specifically the new ones - you can't help but frown upon the medium as a whole. But the truth is that there's a lot of good to it; it's given us a lot to be thankful for.

Digital distribution has been a viable venue for smaller and independent developers, people who felt their work really wouldn't stand out on a retail shelf. Also, developers don't have to worry about spending the money on packaging and distribution, something the aforementioned companies likely don't have the money to do. For them, it's good to have a venue for simpler distribution like Xbox Live Arcade. A game like, say, Braid definitely wouldn't have received the same kind of attention if it was placed on a retail shelf alongside games like Gears of War 2 or Resistance 2, but some word of mouth and positive press was able to help the game become a nice success.

But there are still plenty of people who would rather have all of their software in physical form; not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. To ease their suffering, some developers and publishers have decided to release some of their games in collections, specifically on 360. Thus far, you have Namco Museum: Virtual Arcade, which includes the usual assortment of Namco classics along with XBLA games Mr. Driller Online, Pac-Man: Championship Edition, and Galaga Legions; these days, it only goes for $14.99-$19.99, meaning that you'd be saving $10-$15 buying the collection for the three Arcade games alone. There's also the recently released Qubed collection, which collects three of Q Games' titles: Lumines Live!, Every Extend Extra Extreme, and Rez HD. Lumines Live! also includes all of the utterly ridiculously priced DLC as well, making the value of the package skyrocket (the game has around $30 worth of DLC). But this one is also only $19.99, making it quite a bargain.

In addition to the ones discussed above, Microsoft has also released their own collections. Not all of them are available as separate retail products, though. Some of them are included with controllers and the Xbox 360 Arcade console, mainly as an added bonus. Some of them don't collect the best games on the service - like the collection with the Arcade - but it's the thought that counts.

It's no surprise, then, that a few other developers would want to experiment with this as well, seeing it as an opportunity to make a little extra money and increase exposure for something that perhaps went under the radar. So enter Konami with two collections of their own, with some of their apparently most well liked Arcade titles. Upon observing the packages, they look...well, seriously, I don't know what the hell Konami's thinking with these. They're missing the point entirely.

Konami Classics Vol. 1, pictured on the left, includes the venerable Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, along with some game called Frogger and Super Contra. The three of them range from good to great, and the package itself retails for $19.99. This means by opting for the collection instead of the digital versions, you're saving...absolutely nothing. What a deal! Consider the fact that two of them are merely upgraded ports of old arcade roms, and it makes the package's overall value a little bit of a rip-off.

(Psst, it's more than a "little bit," actually.)

But that's not the best one! No, there's also Konami Classics Vol. 2, which includes Contra, Rush 'N Attack, and Track & Field, which are all upgraded ports of old roms. The real kicker is that this one is also retailing for $19.99, and given how they're $5 each on XBLA, it's a little difficult to recommend a collection that actually gouges the consumer for an extra $5. Also, keep in mind that by "upgrades," these games only have marginal updates to their original arcade counterparts. It always takes someone to do it wrong entirely with these experiments, and Konami is now that very company.

I like the idea of collecting some games offered digitally and putting them on one disc, potentially at a discount; and I like it even more when companies collect a plethora of their older games and put them on one disc - the latter of which is more uncommon these days, though we still have collections like Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection and the upcoming Data East Arcade Classics. However, I don't think anyone in their right mind that's not a corporate opportunist would be a fan of exploiting the consumer, and that's what Konami's collections represent. It's so easy to distribute them at a bargain price, but who knows why Konami chose the hard way.

We're now in the advent of Halloween, a time where people will be watching movies, reading books, and playing video games based with some theme of fear and horror in them. The day of Halloween itself is, around most parts, usually seen as an excuse for kids to dress up and get sugar high because of all the candy they'll consume. (Though there may be a hindrance this year.) Somehow it also became a consummation time for adults also, in that they'll engage in some kind of entertainment medium that will horrify them.

But way too many sites around the internet are giving recommendations on what to watch, read, and play. So here's a mini-feature about the games you definitely won't be playing at this time of the year, either because of delays due to the frightening (ha ha) duo of Halo 3: ODST and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 or plain bad timing.

When Silent Hill: Shattered Memories was revealed earlier this year, its developers promised that it would be a return to form for a franchise whose installments since Silent Hill 3 have been a pretty questionable (excusing Origins, of course). Shattered Memories is a retelling of the first game in the franchise that seeks to differ itself from the creepy immersion factor previous games in the franchise strove for. That's not to say it won't intend to be horrifying, but that its new features plan on making it more horrifying. The game is built from the ground up to use the Wii's motion controls to semi-realistically control protagonist Harry Mason's actions.  Of course, the PSP and PS2 versions will miss out on that feature, not to mention they're being handled by a different developer.

But it's been delayed quite a few times now. Its original date was earlier this month, until it was silently moved back until early-November. But it's not that anymore either, with it having a date of early-December. Apparently Konami felt it needed a little more time in the oven, which probably isn't a bad thing. Who knows if it will be delayed again.

Though it's not liable give you any scares, there's something harrowing about venturing through Dracula's Castle while blood is dripping from crevices in the background. It's the feeling that Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth intends to recapture: the classic feeling of journeying through a bizarrely designed iteration of a castle whose platforming is as frightening as its enemies. Actually, this game being here is kind of a lie, because it's actually available on WiiWare right now. Well, in Japan at least. It's due for a release in America and Europe any week now, though a good week would have been this very one.

Not that the fact that it didn't release this week is a surprise, since Konami hasn't even announced the game outside of Japan. Though given current release standards, it'll release in Europe tomorrow, and in America next Monday. If that doesn't happen, then that means Cave Story comes Monday, right?

(Yeah, sure.)

If I owned a Wii, I'd sure be disappointed if I didn't have that new Castlevania game for Halloween! Though it's likely there's at least one you haven't given a shot yet. If there is, just make sure you stay the hell away from any of the 3D ones -- a trend that hopefully Lords of Shadow will buck next year. Also, I'd definitely like Shattered Memories to be good, as I think the franchise deserves some success after suffering a minor hindrance in the last, oh, five years (again, excusing Origins). That's all for Konami, but I'll have some from Capcom tomorrow.

Metal Gear must be pretty big these days, because otherwise Konami wouldn't have had three Metal Gear-related announcements to make during E3. Two of them were big enough that series creator Hideo Kojima had to introduce them himself at their respective press conferences. I'm sure Metal Gear Solid 4 selling well on the PS3 was enough to regenerate interest in the franchise, and I'm sure Konami knows it as well, hence all of the new announcements.

From only observing the subtitle "Lightning Bolt Action," you can already tell that Metal Gear Solid: Rising isn't going to be your typical Metal Gear game. The man in the piece of art is clearly the renewed version of Raiden, now donning a cyber ninja suit to make him all "cool looking," according to the kids. Though the game was announced at Microsoft's conference, the game is scheduled for a Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and PC release. And really, that's all we really know about the game, which has led to people around the net making a lot of inferences as to what kind of game it will be. Who knows at this point what kind of game it will be, when it releases, or if it will even be any good. If there's a person you shouldn't ask this question to, it's Hideo Kojima.

Because it was at the Sony conference that he announced Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, which he claims to be the real Metal Gear sequel. You can tell, too, because he's producing, directing, and writing the script for this one, unlike that other game. I guess we shouldn't look forward to Rising, because though Kojima didn't say it per se, he certainly implied that Peace Walker is the game Metal Gear fans should be paying attention to. It's pretty hilarious to see how desperate he was to distance himself from Rising.

For now, at least, we can believe him, since Peace Walker actually had some gameplay shown in its trailer. It looks to be a natural evolution of the gameplay found in Portable Ops, with its main story taking place ten years after Metal Gear Solid 3 (which would make it four years after Portable Ops, if you're counting). The trailer drops hints pertaining to the rise of the regime known as Outer Heaven, implying that it will tell the events that lead into the beginning of the original Metal Gear. The fact that two games from the same company and the same franchise are supposedly competing to be the real next Metal Gear game sounds silly, but hopefully that means they'll be competing to make the best game, which could give us two superlative products.

But if you want to avoid all of the drama, you can make due with playing the original Metal Gear Solid, which will be available on PSN this Thursday for $10. The game has been on Japan's PSN for around a year now -- which you could probably say for anything Japanese related that hits these days. The Japanese version is around 775 MB, so you can expect the US version to be somewhere around that big; so make sure you make some free space on your memory stick. I'm waiting to see what they do about that codec code.

You can't say you don't have anything to look forward to if you're a Metal Gear fan. And if you're not, there's always the The Essential Collection that released last year to get you started.

At this point, there's no denying that E3 2009 was one of the better E3s, considering how the internet is still abuzz with discussions about what happened and what surprises were revealed days after the convention ended. But like any other convention, there are always games revealed that pique your interest in an alternate kind of way; games whose concepts provoke observational skepticism. This is very much to the chagrin of game developers. There were quite a few of these at E3, but I'll just give my opinion of the biggest three that caught my eye. Starting with this one.

When Castlevania: Lords of Shadow was unveiled at Konami's Press Conference on Wednesday -- with a trailer being subsequently uploaded to Konami's Kojima Productions E3 2009 page -- gamers were immediately taken in by its looks. Admittedly, it looks quite breathtaking from what's been shown; it contains some of the best graphics seen from a game this generation along, with some excellent voice acting by the likes of Patrick Stewart, Robert Carlyle, Patricia McElhone, and Jason Issacs. Even though the gameplay itself looks a little more-than-inspired by God of War, it's quite breathtaking.

But it's only after viewing that until it dawns on you to look into exactly who is developing it. The game was teased on Kojima Productions' main page for a few weeks, and apparently Metal Gear Solid's Hideo Kojima is serving as a producer (though really it's still unclear as to what role he'll have in its development). However, the game itself will be handled by MercurySteam Entertainment. If you've never heard of them, they also handled last year's Clive Barker's Jericho, which wasn't received all that well.

A lot of my concern stems from the fact that I probably care about Castlevania a bit too much. But after thinking about the trailer a little, I don't think it really feels like a Castlevania game. I'm sure there's more to be revealed about it in the coming months -- until its release date sometime in 2010, ideally -- but I hope Kojima and crew (still referring to Hideo, not the series' venerable artist Ayami Kojima) are more integral to the project than they're letting on at the moment.

Though it's not like the previous 3D console Castlevania's have been that great. Though Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness contained elements that made them feel like Castlevania games, the products themselves were of middling quality because of the amount of repetition that was involved. (Seriously, you don't know the meaning of the word "repetitive" if you haven't played these games.) It feels as if Konami had no choice but to pursue an alternate development team to produce a 3D Castlevania right, but time will tell if it's actually MercurySteam. The problem with what's been shown so far is that the trailer has nothing that makes it feel like a Castlevania game. It really seems like it's something that was initially developed as an original project, but Konami happened to see it and slapped the Castlevania name on it. That in itself wouldn't stop it from being a bad game, but there aren't a lot of opportunities these days for the series to be fully realized in 3D, so it would be great if it had a fusion of both a Castlevania feel and a quality action/adventure.

Though admittedly, it looks more faithful to Castlevania than Castlevania Judgement for Wii, which featured some utterly bizarre character designs by Takeshi Obata (of Death Note).

Also, this news makes me wonder what exactly has happened to Koji Igarashi, the (former?) main producer behind every Castlevania game for a little over the last decade. Sure, he and his team couldn't do 3D well at all, but their 2D games have been quite superlative -- including Order of Ecclesia, which was just released in October of last year. I think I'm going to miss the supposed (though nearly guaranteed) lack of involvement from him, along with Michiru Yamane and Ayami Kojima. Here's hoping they're working on a 2D game whose release will coincide with this one, and that, uh, they're not out of work. I was looking forward to the 3D sequel to Symphony of the Night that was teased at the Tokyo Game Show last year (though I have no idea why Gametrailers.com lists that as a teaser for Lords of Shadow, as they're clearly not the same game).

At this point, I'm at two minds in what I think about Lords of Shadow thus far. I'll admit to being incredibly impressed when I saw the trailer, and I always thought that God of War is what Castlevania should have been in 3D -- which makes the fact that this game is borrowing a few ideas from that one incredibly ironic. I'm going to cross my fingers and hope Kojima is really integral to its development (while not adding any hour-long cut scenes to it), and hope that MercurySteam is more talented than I and a lot of people think.

I can't say I thought too highly of Six Days in Fallujah when I first saw it and heard of the concept. There's something about making a game about a comparatively (to all the other war games out there) modern war that reeks of tastelessness and feels like a soulless practice to profit on something inherently tragic. It makes me quiver to think that a company would actually even think about making a fun experience out of something that soldiers went through only five years ago and where people lost family members in that. And I'm shocked and appalled that a company like Konami, whose published titles are usually a bit more tasteful, would even think of publishing this.

Or should I say "made me quiver," because now that I think about it a little more, maybe this idea isn't so bad. Probably the best thing a war game can have going for it is the approval of veterans, which this game had, so maybe this is something the gaming industry needs. The supposedly primary intention of video games is to induce fun, but no one said that had to be the itinerary of every game released. If Six Days in Fallujah could somehow achieve more than what your average game aspires for and relay the message about how dirty and horrible war is - and do it in a less preachy and borderline silly manner than a Metal Gear Solid game - then it had my approval. It's a shame we may never find that out.

And this is considering the developers could even achieve the aspirations they had. The lede you see above is definitely a knee-jerk reactionary opinion, thinking that they're approaching this content too soon. But upon reading the description of the entire concept, it wanted to achieve more than it initially let on. It really sounds like it wanted to be the video game equivalent of something like the HBO miniseries Generation Kill, which really hit the mark in sending the message in making people realize how tragic the current war is. Check out the interview over at Joystiq with the developers; it gives a lot of insight as to what Atomic Games (of the Close Combat franchise) wanted to achieve with this game.

Because it's pretty evident that vocal critics of the game (some of which include war veterans) definitely didn't do much research before labeling it as a shameless cash-in on an event that cost human lives. And unfortunately, this isn't a surprise either. I'm sure the developers and gaming press knew this was going to spark a controversy because of the subject matter and how recent it is, and boy did it ever. Though I didn't think it was bad enough for Konami to end up dropping the game within less than a month of announcing it. That's a shame, too; though I didn't have any interest in playing as an insurgent in Iraq, I'm sure a lot of people did. And if they could've full realized its concept, then I would've at least given it a try and respected the work. I'm sure a number of others who were hesitant towards the subject matter would feel the same way.

But maybe there's still some hope for it, faint as that may be. Atomic Games made a statement saying that they don't intend to cease development simply because Konami dropped it. It's easily probable that the game may find a new publisher sometime soon; probably one that's more attuned to releasing games with ostensibly egregious subject matter.

To be honest, I'm surprised Konami actually decided to drop it. History has proven that anything in any medium that stirs a controversy is bound to sell well and rake in the cash, regardless of whether it's quality or not. My guess is that Konami feared that their reputation would be ravaged by publishing something most people would find completely tasteless, but the approval of war veterans would offset it enough that they wouldn't get too much blame. That's not taking into account Konami's numerous other franchises, niche as some of them not named Metal Gear unfortunately are.

Funnily enough, a lot of gamers seem to be upset because they're under the misconception that Konami is also developing it, leading them to think that this is hindering the development of a new Zone of the Enders game or something. Not true guys! Please take everything into consideration before jumping to inane conclusions.

Given the aforementioned example of certain developers loving controversy for free publicity for good software sales, and given how war games sell generally well, I think Six Days of Fallujah's chances of finding another publisher are pretty good. Besides, it's not like controversial video games are anything new; if something like Pokemon could start a controversy, nothing is really off limits. 

So today was the day where weeks of hype finally came to an end, as Konami finally put to rest what that ambiguous "A Next Metal Gear is..." banner actually meant. There were actually a few leaks through the cracks last night, as a small shot of it surfaced on various websites. Nerds can now rest, as there is now nothing wrong on the internet; that secret game is....Metal Gear Solid Touch.

To be honest, when I first saw it, I thought the Forbes writer who said that Apple could kill the Nintendo DS might have had a point. The iPhone/iPod Touch now had the backing of a major studio that just announced four games for it today. Aside from MGS Touch, there's also Frogger, Silent Hill: The Escape, and DanceDanceRevolution S Lite.

Frogger seems like a game that should have been there when the store launched. The game's available for everything nowadays, especially if it's portable. Nice to see that's coming, though.

 As for Silent Hill, it looks like an abomination. honestly. From a purely observational standpoint, it looks like something the newly-hired workers put together in their free time as a  fun little side project; like a development style similar to Mega Man 2's, but on a much lower scale. Then there's DDR, which...don't you play that game with your feet?

I'd like to know who greenlights this kind of stuff over at Konami. So much for there being a new Ac!d game in the franchise, too. Its games like this that remind me of what was releasing for the DS circa late 2004/early 2005. Developers suddenly had this dual-screened piece of hardware with a touch interface, and they reacted by putting games that resembled tech demos. I think the iPhone/iPod Touch has the potential to be a viable gaming system, but it has a long way to go. It won't be supplanting the DS though.