This is continuing from the last post, displaying how much better Metal Gear's covers were compared to most other franchises video game companies put out, Konami or not. Yoji Shinkawa, currently the franchise's most prominent artist, has a very unique art style whose portraits contain an aura of mystery and imagination. Konami felt it best to display it on the covers of each title to intrigue the passerby in stores that happened upon a copy of the game.
Unfortunately enough, I really meant "felt" there, because Metal Gear Solid 4 was the first example of Konami moving away from featuring Shinkawa's art; no, not just on covers, but everywhere. Try looking around the internet for Shinkawa's Metal Gear-related art and you won't find as much of it for any game after Metal Gear Solid 3. I wanted to use Shinkawa's art for the MGS4 banner in the review linked above, but couldn't find any that perfectly fit into the desired ratio. And there's even less of his art available for Peace Walker. Not to say the CG art is bad, but it's definitely not as nice.
This post will focus on the special editions released on Sony's consoles. Other console versions will be covered in the next entry.
So who looked at this cover and didn't know what kind of game this is?Metal Gear Solid: Integral is an enhanced version of the original Metal Gear Solid, released for Playstation a little less than a year after the original. It was only released in Japan, since apparently Konami didn't feel it was worth it to rerelease the same game overseas again. It was released with the English language version with Japanese subtitles, assorted extra outfits, a "Very Easy" difficulty mode, a third disc including VR Missions, and plenty of other extras. Shinkawa's art is good here, but it would have been better if you could see more of Snake's body.
Integral may not have been localized in full, but Konami decided to release the new third disc in America and Europe as Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions. Remember the cyborg ninja from the game, well now you can play as him! And Konami decided to use that as a big selling point. It's not like the ninja has his own quest or anything, though. I think the cover comes off better here than Integral, if only because it looks a lot more harrowing. The European cover is the same, but the logo obscures a big part of the art.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance released a year after Sons of Liberty for...Xbox!? Though rumored for a good while, even before the system's launch, MGS2 did make its way to Xbox in America and Europe. It wasn't without its problems -- the sluggish framerate and slowdown made some shooting sections more difficult than they should have been -- but it was a mostly faithful port of the game. Substance's main new feature is...VR Missions. Go figure. But it also has a new campaign called "Snake Tales," that allow you to play as Snake instead of Raiden for a new story scenario. It also has a skateboarding minigame.Oh, but you came to hear about the covers, right? The American version features a very nice portrait of Snake on the cover, with the full moon over New York City. The European version has a nice picture of both Snake and Raiden, with the former being the more prominent figure. It's hard to choose which one is better here, but I like the European one a tad more.
And apparently Konami's U.S. offices did too, because they chose that cover for the Playstation 2 version that released four months later. America and Europe have the same cover in this instance, but Japan uses the Substance cover America used for the Xbox version.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence released a little over a year after Metal Gear Solid 3 with, as expected, numerous new features. It probably stands as the best of the three special editions, solely because Subsistence fixes a critical flaw that held back Snake Eater: the camera. There's nothing wrong with an overhead camera, but it's only mainly good for indoor places. It was a hassle for outdoor environments, where MGS3 usually takes place. Subsistence has a fully 3D camera. It also included a second disc with the original MSX versions of Metal Gear 1 and 2. There was also a third disc included in a very, very limited edition (as in "you may not have gotten it even if you pre-ordered" limited) with a movie version of MGS3 made from the cut scenes. You could have gotten it to sell it on eBay for well over $100, because it's not like the movie is good!Oh, and the cover is nice featuring some lovely Shinkawa artwork with Snake giving the salute. The scene it depicts is right out of the ending, but it's not a spoiler without any context. Every territory uses the same cover, with some very slight modifications. I used the American cover here because the writer here is an ignorant American. Fitting!
So now the question is: where's MGS4's special edition? Or should I say "was," since it was confirmed via Hideo Kojima himself on his Twitter account that it isn't coming. I wonder if the development team really doesn't have time, or it's a reflection of what they think about how MGS4 turned out. I'll be back next week with the next feature about...something in particular.
We knew that a new Valkyria Chronicles title was on its way the minute someone discovered that 
Valkyria Chronicles 2 on PSP.
The first Valkyria Chronicles on PS3. Will the series go HD again? Or...
In the interim between 
And they all look so excited to be there. "Bad Box Art Mega Man" (called "U.S. Mega Man" on that pic. No, really.) is curiously ecstatic though, probably because he's shocked he's actually getting another chance in the limelight. I mentioned in Thursday's post that "Mega Man" looked similar to the version that appeared on the American Mega Man 3-6 covers. Upon taking another glance at them and comparing them to the artwork here, he...really doesn't. He doesn't seem to look like his American cartoon version either. So he's just someone else's interpretation of what Mega Man would look like. And damn if he doesn't look hopping mad too.
This is the first one, released to retailers around E3 after the release date was announced. It's not bad, and is fittingly in the same style ACII had. The main difference is protagonist Eizo being joined by the Brotherhood - well, four members of it, not including Eizo. Slightly obscured in the background are computer effects, which are seen while the real world protagonist Desmond enters the game's virtual world. Not a bad cover at all.
But apparently it wasn't good enough for someone, so it received another one in July. This version has a lot of the same effects the last one had, but with one major change (that you probably noticed already): Eizo's stance. It's a more neutral one compared to the possibly symbolic stance he has on the first one. Also notice that the Brotherhood is more obscured while there's more focus on Eizo himself.
And this brings us to the final cover, released to retailers a couple of days ago. Eizo once again has a stance change, this time with a more threatening stance. Americans seem to like their protagonists to be menacing, violence-thirsty bastards, so why not? Not only are the Brotherhood members no longer obscured, but there are two more of them. But it's just that they're in view this time; you can actually see parts of them on the sides of the second cover above. Rather than have potential customers wondering what exactly was on the sides, Ubi decided to remove all doubt. Lastly, the bluish hue is completely gone. It's definitely the best of the three.
The Mega Man's used are the most hilarious aspects of the trailer. The Gamespot version uses "Bad Box Art Mega Man," an SD version of the dude shown on this cover. He's pretty hideous, yeah, but that's intentional. He could be a fun novelty to have as a playable character. 1up's version uses "Rockman" which is the Mega Man (Rockman in Japan) you've come to know and love. The IGN one uses "Mega Man" which I guess is the western interpretation of what Mega Man looks like, as evinced by Mega Man 3 and 4's NES covers, i.e. not taken to the extreme like Mega Man 1 and 2's covers. He also has some big eyebrows, which make him look pissed. 
Oh look, I'm breaking my "don't discuss newer soundtracks" clause, and I almost feel bad about it!
It's packaged together with Contra Rebirth's soundtrack.
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.
The battlefield is something we've never had in an MGS game. It's a welcome and fun edition.
It's still possible to play stealthy, though. It's just going to be a little harder.
I was thrilled to see the briefings come back from MGS1. I wasn't thrilled to see that a couple of them are excessively lengthy.
There are quite a few familiar faces here. But there are a lot of new ones too.
The robots aren't quite as fun to fight as humans, but they would be if you were playing this guy.
Perhaps it's something I should have realized upon seeing that the file size was a mere 240MB, but it still felt threadbare after playing through it. The hypothesis that compression could have been the cause of the small file may have been adequate prior to playing it, but nope. My immediate reaction afterward was wondering whether I missed something, but again, nope. And part of that file size is reserved to having the choice of both English and Japanese languages.
In recent news, looks like 
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 
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.
It looks like Capcom did have something to show for Gamescom this week after all, despite 
Meanwhile, Dormammu looks as great as you'd expect, and has a fittingly menacing voice. His music is, well, not as menacing. But it's possible the trailer version is using a different mix, so we'll see how it sounds in game soon enough. I hope it sounds more frightening.
Yeah, you'd be intrigued too.
Spot the Easter egg in this pic!
Don't you wish you had dreams like this?
You've undoubtedly been hearing quite a bit about the 3DS all around the internet, this blog included. You really can't blame anyone for bringing it up, because a number of things about it look great. And hopefully it will get the media, and most gamers in general, to take portable gaming seriously. They did for a time around the PSP's launch, but that quickly dissipated when Sony fumbled about with how to market the system. The 3DS is already looking to be home to some great games, but there's a potential problem.
The thing about the 3DS is that only the top screen, a 3.5 inch widescreen display, is capable of showing 3D, with the touch screen being the same 3 inch one you see now on your DS or DS Lites (albeit with better horsepower behind it). Instead of allowing developers to have a focus on any screen given they had an even aspect ratio with the original model, all attention looks like it will be primarily fixed on the top screen this time around. This could hinder the development of games that primarily rely on using the touch screen.
For a game this late in the system's life, it...well, it's certainly not a looker. We're seeing games now that really take advantage of the system's 3D hardware like 
Radiant Historia takes place in the land of Vancool, and the main character, Stok (no, really) lives in the country of Alicetel. Alicetel is, unfortunately, not in a good state, with the country being in the heat of war and on the verge of becoming a desert wasteland. Stok eventually stumbles upon the power to travel through time, and is told that he and his power will be important for the fate of the world. It sounds generic on the surface, but how the story will be told will be the most important factor. You'll be able to see enemies on the field, and it uses a turn-based battle system.
The developers behind The 3rd Birthday, the next game in the Parasite Eve franchise that you might remember, launched 
The shots you're seeing here are also from their Twitter account. You might have been able to tell that they're taken off a monitor. This game looks like it upscales awfully well. The developers mentioned that the development team they're collaborating with at 
Castlevania's debut on SNES began with a remake of the first game in the series in Super Castlevania IV, and it's still one of the most beloved games in the franchise. And they gave it an excellent cover for its American (and European) release. It's a heck of a lot better than the awkward-looking 
Contra III: The Alien Wars was also a stunning example of the franchise and the genre during the 16-bit era. It was one of the earliest examples of cheesy 80s action movies being represented in video game form. Some of said movies had video game adaptations, but you're more likely to see retrospectives of them on lists describing the worst licensed games ever. Most earlier Contra games represented that trope better than many older games could ever do. A shame about the pit the franchise would fall into after that generation ended.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Tutles IV: Turtles in Time managed to be one of the best examples of having an arcade game (which was released without the "IV") at home early in the SNES' heyday, and that's among many other examples. The 
Actually, that's pretty nice; definitely better than the temporary art released about a month back. It also looks like there will be a limited edition. Konami hasn't officially confirmed it yet, but looks legitimate, so it should be announced any day now. Looks like we have another great Castlevania cover on our hands.
Well, if only that was the cover for every version. The standard cover is a little different, and for all the wrong reasons. For a game that has some pretty good concept art, the fact that they'd put together a cover with a huge lack of creativity is pretty insulting. There's still time that they could change it, but the chances of that happening are, as always, quite minimal. 
But I'm featuring it anyway. One of the reasons why this feature is called "Recommended Soundtracks," is because I'd like to do more than just original soundtracks. Releases of remixes still fit under that definition, so I'll be able to feature Sound Story of Shining and the Darkness, the actual title of SitD's remixed soundtrack, without a "the." It was called "Shining and the Darkness" in Japan, which was probably changed for western audiences because "in" rolls of the tongue better than "and" when used for that title, and using "and" there gives the title a more abstract meaning; or, depending on your interpretation of the name, because it was borderline nonsensical.
And here's a brand new Shining game from Sega. And true to form, it sure as hell isn't what you Shining fans wanted! It's Shining Hearts for PSP, announced within Famitsu's pages earlier this week. A mere glance at the game is almost enough to think it's a follow-up to the much-revolted Shining Tears and Wind, considering it shares a somewhat similar visual style with them, and has the same character designer in Tony Taka. It also has a Keyblade in the title for some reason, which might be an homage to Cross. This game is a traditional RPG instead of an action/RPG. Oh, and ex-Squaresoft composer Hiroki Kikuta is composing the soundtrack (
