Retro Konami Appreciation Thread

[electricmastro]

An appreciation thread for Konami's older games (as recent as 2005 or so), whether developed and/or published by them. I think some of their standout games from that timeframe would include:

 

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

 

Suikoden II

 

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

 

Silent Hill 2

 

Snatcher

 

Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner

 

Gradius V

 

Contra: Hard Corps

 

Rocket Knight Adventures

 

International Superstar Soccer Deluxe

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time

 

Mystical Ninja starring Goemon

 

Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django

 

Enthusia Professional Racing

 

Sunset Riders

 

Survival Kids

Edited June 4, 2022 by electricmastro

[Rhomaios]

80s/early 90s Konami was nigh unrivaled among its peers. I'd probably rank them #3 right under Nintendo and Sega and right above Capcom. Those four were responsible for so many great 8/16 bit games, both as developers and publishers.

 

So many nights were spent playing games from the Contra, Castlevania, and Gradius series. One thing they did right was just nailing atmosphere and aesthetic. The tight controls, the music, the art direction, the level design, just everything about those games are so perfect. And the difficulty was never too unfair. If you died, you knew it was your fault. Yes, even for Gradius and its sequels and spin-offs.

 

And before that, Frogger is easily among the top 10 greatest arcade games (imo), or at least certainly among the best known. What other arcade games are featured as an extensive gag in Seinfeld?

[electricmastro]

1 hour ago, Rhomaios said:

And before that, Frogger is easily among the top 10 greatest arcade games (imo), or at least certainly among the best known. What other arcade games are featured as an extensive gag in Seinfeld?

Ah right, I often forget that Frogger was Konami's first big success:

 

[+GoldLeader]

Scramble!!!!!!

[Lord Mushroom]

X-Men (arcade)

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Konami_games

Edited June 5, 2022 by Lord Mushroom

[Bloodreign]

The Gradius series

The Parodius series

The Twinbee series

Xexex

Turtles in Time arcade and SNES

TMNT Hyperstone Heist

Super C

The Taisen Puzzle Dama series

Time Pilot

Shao-Lin Road

Yie Ar Kung Fu

 

 

These are just some of the highlights from Konami back when Konami could do very little wrong

[The Usotsuki]

The original Castlevania and Contra, plus the TMNT and Simpsons arcade games, are what I think of when I hear "Konami".

[electricmastro]

13 hours ago, Bloodreign said:

The Twinbee series

Ah right, TwinBee too. Their Rainbow Bell Adventures game might just be one of the most colorfully whimsical games they've ever put out which is quite the standout:

 

 

[Tanooki]

Oooh now you're on it I have that SFC cart.  Who would have thought that a base set of shooters could turn into such a really fun and well crafted platforming title you know?

 

I'd have to agree even thinking upon various pre-3D era Capcom stuff, in retrospective, Konami did inch out between the two, not by much but it did...except maybe in fighting, SF2 is king as Konami really didn't bother there much, though TMNT Tournament Fighters of various releases is pretty nice.

 

Most won't throw a nod at it, but as great as they did on the NES/SNES front as everyone will run to call out the usual franchises on either side of the ocean...little gets said and credit given to those very franchises and some unique takes too thrown onto the Gameboy.  In some ways, a few of those arguably could be considered better, at least, equals.  They even did some pretty interesting demake takes on some stuff, like Contra the Alien Wars which I personally find more entertaining on there which I know likely few would agree.  Castlevania II and III (legends) are really amazing, solid takes on the franchise.  Gradius(Nemesis) had two really really well done games on Gameboy, especially the second one which has some really solid game stage design and visuals that rival/surpass the NES game.  Turtles took an interesting spin around the block going from platforming slasher type to a third entry that was like another SOTN precursor much like CV2 on NES was and it worked.  Pop'n Twinbee got a solid SFC port which seems like it shouldn't work but does, stupidly left outside the US(I got the english PAL area one of it) but also original Twinbee, Parodius, Goemon got titles again all-but-theUS (screw you Konami USA) that are just magnificent games one must play.  The fact they could work within that meager resolution and sprite levels they did wizardry there, though I imagine the added ram and CPU helped some over the NES, but still.

[electricmastro]

16 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Oooh now you're on it I have that SFC cart.  Who would have thought that a base set of shooters could turn into such a really fun and well crafted platforming title you know?

 

I'd have to agree even thinking upon various pre-3D era Capcom stuff, in retrospective, Konami did inch out between the two, not by much but it did...except maybe in fighting, SF2 is king as Konami really didn't bother there much, though TMNT Tournament Fighters of various releases is pretty nice.

 

Most won't throw a nod at it, but as great as they did on the NES/SNES front as everyone will run to call out the usual franchises on either side of the ocean...little gets said and credit given to those very franchises and some unique takes too thrown onto the Gameboy.  In some ways, a few of those arguably could be considered better, at least, equals.  They even did some pretty interesting demake takes on some stuff, like Contra the Alien Wars which I personally find more entertaining on there which I know likely few would agree.  Castlevania II and III (legends) are really amazing, solid takes on the franchise.  Gradius(Nemesis) had two really really well done games on Gameboy, especially the second one which has some really solid game stage design and visuals that rival/surpass the NES game.  Turtles took an interesting spin around the block going from platforming slasher type to a third entry that was like another SOTN precursor much like CV2 on NES was and it worked.  Pop'n Twinbee got a solid SFC port which seems like it shouldn't work but does, stupidly left outside the US(I got the english PAL area one of it) but also original Twinbee, Parodius, Goemon got titles again all-but-theUS (screw you Konami USA) that are just magnificent games one must play.  The fact they could work within that meager resolution and sprite levels they did wizardry there, though I imagine the added ram and CPU helped some over the NES, but still.

I think it was Rare, Konami, and Capcom that were consistently right below Nintendo as far as platformers went. Castlevania Adventure on Game Boy wasn't to great, but the sequel improved.

[+jgkspsx]

Video gaming doesn't get any better than this. It has all been downhill from here.

 

 

[electricmastro]

One of Konami's more amusing obscurities:

 

 

[homerj]

Batman Returns on the SNES is great. I never get tired of it.  I’ve always liked the Lethal Enforcers series too. 

[roadrunner]

Rumble Roses for the PS2 


 

 

[Cynicaster]

Fast Lane is one I really enjoy.  It's like Dodge 'Em but with changing tracks and power ups.  

 

 

Jungler is an awesome snake/maze game that I can't believe didn't become more well known:

 

 

Kicker (aka Shao Lin's Road) is a blast:

 

 

Quarth (aka Block Hole) is a super fun puzzler that I first discovered on Game Boy (and is up in the MAME HSC as we speak):

 

 

[Keatah]

Gyruss!

 

A nice shmupy game. But they could have done more with it IMHO.