Konami Classics Series Arcade Hits for Nintendo DS

[LeafsFan47]

Is anyone else out there digging the new Konami collection for DS? I think it is way better than the GB Advance version, I would guess that the hardware is fast enough to do actual emulation.

 

I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for some classic arcade action. My only complaint is that it does not have Frogger like the GBA version.

 

BP

[Malc74]

Yep, it's a lot of fun. Most of the games included are classics, and although the graphics can appear a little tiny I haven't really had any problems playing any of the games. The fact that I can now play Scramble and Pooyan on the DS was more than enough of a selling point for me.

 

Let's hope they do a second compilation with the likes of Frogger, Gyruss, Amidar, Super Cobra and Hypersports on it.

[NE146]

I love it.

 

I like the remote control option where you can use another DS to control the games.. good for when you're playing the games with the vertical aspect ratio

[Crazy Climber]

I love it.

 

I like the remote control option where you can use another DS to control the games.. good for when you're playing the games with the vertical aspect ratio

Wasn't aware of that option, I was going to pass on this one but that might change my mind. I love new ways to play games, keeps them exciting. The only problem is I already own several versions of all these games on various systems/machines.

[Jess Ragan]

Better than the Game Boy Advance version... how did you come to that conclusion? The GBA version has enhancements for all six games and graphics that aren't squished to fit the screen. The DS game has its own merits, including some great gallery and history options, but it's not quite as good as it could have been. A center screen option (trimming away the edges of the screen while keeping the center pixel-perfect) would have gone a long way toward making the collection more appealing.

 

JR

[NE146]

The only problem is I already own several versions of all these games on various systems/machines.

 

We pretty much all do. I mean.. I'm such a sucker for collections and pretty much have to get them by default. It is kind of funny though how many times I've bought "Scramble" from the Tomy Handheld when I was a kid, to the Vectrex/psx/ps2/GBA versions, until today with the Xbox Live version, and now this

 

But yeah I think this is a great collection. I'd still get it even if I was a little more frugal about these things

[Crazy Climber]

The only problem is I already own several versions of all these games on various systems/machines.

 

We pretty much all do. I mean.. I'm such a sucker for collections and pretty much have to get them by default. It is kind of funny though how many times I've bought "Scramble" from the Tomy Handheld when I was a kid, to the Vectrex/psx/ps2/GBA versions, until today with the Xbox Live version, and now this

 

But yeah I think this is a great collection. I'd still get it even if I was a little more frugal about these things

Yeah, I have totally been trying to stop buying classic collections where I already own all or most of the games, I mean I was going to buy another PSP just for the Metal Slug anthology....even though I already own it on the Wii, thought it would be cool to have it on the go as well. Thats when it hit me that I have to start thinking about my purchases a little more so I don't end up with a ton of games that I never play. I am going to bend my new rule on this one though, it just looks to damn cool to pass on

[joeybastard]

I have Konami Advance but I'm buying this anyway for on the go arcade goodness. Konami Advance will just switch over to being used in the Gameboy Player for the GC. It's pretty sweet using the GB player and my Pelican arcade stick for carts like this on the big screen.

[LeafsFan47]

Better than the Game Boy Advance version... how did you come to that conclusion? The GBA version has enhancements for all six games and graphics that aren't squished to fit the screen. The DS game has its own merits, including some great gallery and history options, but it's not quite as good as it could have been. A center screen option (trimming away the edges of the screen while keeping the center pixel-perfect) would have gone a long way toward making the collection more appealing.

 

JR

One of my all time arcade favorites is Time Pilot, and I gave up on the GBA version because the difficulty was too high, when they had to rewrite the enemy AI for the GBA, it is just a bit different. And I think the GBA version allows more enemies and/or missiles on the screen, although I could be wrong about that one. It has been a while since I played the GBA version, I think it came out in 2002 or 2003.

 

BP

[BrianC]

Better than the Game Boy Advance version... how did you come to that conclusion? The GBA version has enhancements for all six games and graphics that aren't squished to fit the screen. The DS game has its own merits, including some great gallery and history options, but it's not quite as good as it could have been. A center screen option (trimming away the edges of the screen while keeping the center pixel-perfect) would have gone a long way toward making the collection more appealing.

 

JR

 

I like the Konami Arcade Collection for the DS better than the GBA collection because the games are much more accurate to the originals, retain their original dip switches and options, and have multiple screen modes. BTW, Konami Arcade DS has that center screen option you mentioned. It's listed under maniac options in the pop up menu that appears when you press L and R at the same time. It's called "lateral aspect ratio".

 

While the default screen is slightly squished, it's still very visible and highly playable. The lateral aspect ratio mode is too small. The ideal modes are the two vertical screen options. It seems awkward at first, but once I got used to it, I haven't gone back to the other options.

 

I compared some of the games to MAME and the emulation seems dead on. Gradius slows down in the exact same places, the original patterns for Rush 'n Attack are used along with its original difficulty, all of the games with voice have their voices intact, etc. Even the newly renamed games, Twinbee, Tutankham, and Basketball, are dead on to the originals.

 

Another thing I should mention, Gradius is actually the "Nemesis" variant with the harder difficulty and instant power up enemies apon death when played with the DS set to English, despite being renamed to "Gradius". When the DS is set to Japanese, Gradius is the original JP version. Interestingly enough, the collection treats the two different versions of Gradius as separate entities. Even the replay video is different.

 

I personally like this collection quite a bit. It has an excellent selection of games. It also came in handy during the power outage (though, of course, that wasn't the only time I have been playing it) where I played some Gradius and Shao Lin's Road. I like all of the games in this collection, though. It's also nice seeing Tutankham get another version, even if the renaming for the US version of Konami Arcade DS was terrible.

Edited April 18, 2007 by BrianC

[Jess Ragan]

Better than the Game Boy Advance version... how did you come to that conclusion? The GBA version has enhancements for all six games and graphics that aren't squished to fit the screen. The DS game has its own merits, including some great gallery and history options, but it's not quite as good as it could have been. A center screen option (trimming away the edges of the screen while keeping the center pixel-perfect) would have gone a long way toward making the collection more appealing.

 

JR

 

I like the Konami Arcade Collection for the DS better than the GBA collection because the games are much more accurate to the originals, retain their original dip switches and options, and have multiple screen modes. BTW, Konami Arcade DS has that center screen option you mentioned. It's listed under maniac options in the pop up menu that appears when you press L and R at the same time. It's called "lateral aspect ratio".

 

Nope, the graphics are still distorted. I just turned on my DS to check, and sure enough, the characters are even MORE squished in this mode. It looks a bit clearer, but there's a lot of detail missing. Sorry, but my original complaint still stands.

 

However, the games look great on a PSP, if you ever felt like taking the Konami Arcade Classics disc for the Playstation and converting it to an EBOOT. There's slight ghosting but the games are otherwise pixel-perfect. It's the advantage of having a high-resolution display.

 

JR

[BrianC]

Nope, the graphics are still distorted. I just turned on my DS to check, and sure enough, the characters are even MORE squished in this mode. It looks a bit clearer, but there's a lot of detail missing. Sorry, but my original complaint still stands.

 

However, the games look great on a PSP, if you ever felt like taking the Konami Arcade Classics disc for the Playstation and converting it to an EBOOT. There's slight ghosting but the games are otherwise pixel-perfect. It's the advantage of having a high-resolution display.

 

JR

 

I still highly disagree with your complaint. It's unrealistic to expect a perfect aspect ratio in arcade emulation for the DS. There are other more important elements like playability that the collection got right. The emulation is spot on otherwise and M2 did their best to provide multiple viewing modes for the games. The ratios are not perfect, but most of them work quite well. As for that lateral aspect ratio comment, the way you posted suggested that you didn't know about it and I even said I didn't care much for it because it's too small. That unfair suggestion you made for the aspect ratio, since it was tried in this collection, wouldn't work regardless of how well it's done because of how small the display is.

 

As for the PSX collection on PSP, It sounds nice, but it doesn't sound like a replacement for the DS collection, especially since there's more to ports/emulation than the aspect ratio. The PSX collection doesn't have all the dipswitch options from the arcade and has fewer games than the DS one. Also, I'm not sure about the PSX collection, but the reason the GBA game has a better aspect ratio is because the games are ports where the sprites were redrawn and fit accordingly. But regardless, the DS collection is spot on to the arcade other than aspect ratio (and the changed high score music in Track and Field), which is something that can't be said of the GBA Konami Arcade Advanced.

 

BTW, I had no problem with the visibility of the bullets in games like Twinbee, Gradius, or Time Pilot in Lateral Full or the vertical aspect ratios. I found Time Pilot and Scramble easier to play than their GBA counterparts due to the larger screen estate and the fact that Scramble's screen doesn't scroll vertically like the GBA one.

Edited April 19, 2007 by BrianC

[Jess Ragan]

Fair enough... we can agree to disagree on this. I thought Konami Arcade Advanced was a very playable and ambitious collection, but to each his own!

 

JR

[BrianC]

Fair enough... we can agree to disagree on this. I thought Konami Arcade Advanced was a very playable and ambitious collection, but to each his own!

 

JR

 

I think you misunderstood. I wasn't saying that I didn't like Konami Arcade Advanced. In fact, I like it quite a bit. However, what I was saying was that, despite the aspect ratio (which isn't perfect, but works well in vertical and decent in full lateral), was that the games in Konami Arcade DS are much closer to the arcade originals, which is why I prefer Konami Arcade DS. Konami Arcade Advanced has excellent ports with some cool extras, but it's lacking when it comes to actual in game options and the ports aren't entirely accurate to the originals.

 

For example, Rush 'n Attack in Konami Arcade Advanced is much easier than the original and the patterns are different from the arcade. The patterns are dead on for the DS version. Also, Konami Arcade Advanced lacks the option to change difficulty. Not only does Konami Arcade DS have that, but it also has all of the other dipswitch options like setting the bonus score and amount of lives as well.

 

My comments on Time Pilot and Scramble may have been misleading. I didn't find the GBA versions unplayable at all. I found the display on Time Pilot in the GBA version to be a bit small, but very playable. The GBA version of Scramble is a very good port despite the vertical scrolling. However, I prefer the larger display of the DS Time Pilot and the lack of vertical scrolling in the DS Scramble.

Edited April 19, 2007 by BrianC

[jboypacman]

So what games are on this collection anyway?

[Jess Ragan]

Off the top of my head, there's Yie Ar Kung Fu, Shaolin's Road, Contra, Gradius, Rainbow Bell, Circus Charlie, Horror Maze (Tutankham with a new, stupid name), Time Pilot, Track 'n Field, Roc 'n Rope, Road Fighter, Scramble, Pooyan, and a couple of others which I can't remember but will probably kick myself for forgetting later.

 

JR

[Colecovision]

Tutankham with a new, stupid name

 

I wonder why. Tutankham is a Konami game.

[Jess Ragan]

I've got no clue why they changed it... Horror Maze doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, does it? Oh well, at least we got Shaolin's Road here... the Japanese got the game with the far less appealing title Kicker!

 

JR

[BrianC]

the Japanese got the game with the far less appealing title Kicker!

 

Yes and no. It's "Kicker" only when played with the DS set to English. When the DS's language is set to Japanese, the title is Shao Lin's Road for the JP version of the Konami Arcade Collection. Oddly enough, the JP version changes the titles of some of the games to the western versions and sets the menus to English when the DS's lanuage is set to English (and the US version plays in Japanese when the DS is set to Japanese mode, but still keeps the changed names for Twinbee, Tutankham, and Super Basketball. Rush 'n Attack stays Rush 'n Attack in JP language mode for the US Konami Arcade DS too).

 

The games with different names in English mode and Japanese mode in the Japanese Konami Arcade DS are Shao Lin's Road (JP)/Kicker (EN), Gradius (JP)/Nemesis* (EN), Contra (title screen change to the original kanji, no actual name change. The US version of Konami Arcade DS does this too), and Green Beret (JP)/Rush 'n Attack (EN). Oddly enough, Track and Field is Track and Field in both JP and EN language modes for the DS. Here's a

.

 

*The US version of Konami Arcade DS has the title of the game as Gradius in both the EN and JP language modes of the DS, but Gradius is actually a renamed Nemesis variant in EN mode and the original Gradius in JP mode.

 

Off the top of my head, there's Yie Ar Kung Fu, Shaolin's Road, Contra, Gradius, Rainbow Bell, Circus Charlie, Horror Maze (Tutankham with a new, stupid name), Time Pilot, Track 'n Field, Roc 'n Rope, Road Fighter, Scramble, Pooyan, and a couple of others which I can't remember but will probably kick myself for forgetting later.

 

That's most of them. The other two games are Rush 'n Attack and Super Basketball (renamed to Basketball). I don't like the name changes for Twinbee, Tutankham, and Super Basketball for the US version, but the games are unaltered otherwise. Super Basketball even retains its "Super Basketball" voice, despite the name change to "Basketball".

 

Tutankham with a new, stupid name (Horror Maze)

 

I wonder why. Tutankham is a Konami game.

 

It's a Konami arcade collection, so it should come as no surprise that it doesn't have any games from other companies. Tutankham isn't the only game with a new name either. Twinbee and Super Basketball also had their names changed (the former to RainbowBell, the latter to just Basketball). Aside from the titles, the games were left unaltered and even have their original voices and music intact. I'm guessing Konami was trying to localize the game, but it doesn't make much sense since those names were never used in arcades and two of the titles had a US release. I doubt it was due to copyright reasons since the promotional material uses the original names.

Edited April 22, 2007 by BrianC

[Flojomojo]

I have a feeling this collection will either quickly drop to $5 or so like the Konami Advance ... or become impossible to find. Either way, I'm not rushing out to buy it, even though I really like this sort of thing. Between MAME and all the other conversions, I have a hard time imagining the DS bringing much to the experience.

 

Is it really emulation, and if so, can it be disassembled to add other ROMs?

[Vic George 2K3]

Would like to see an "arcade version" (note the quotes) of Frogger II: Threedeep in a Konami game compilation somewhere along the line, maybe as a hidden bonus.

[Rogmeister]

I went looking for this yesterday afternoon...it wasn't at any of my usual stores so when I got home I just ordered it from an online site. I guess I'll have it sometime next week.