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It’s no secret I hold a special place for the survival-horror genre, specifically the Silent Hill series. There have been some bastard children from the franchise, but it still maintains a good fright-fest with a reasonably developed storyline. So when it was reported Konami was going to remake the original, fans were expectantly up in arms with an arsenal of questions. Would it be a straight up remake?  A re-living through a familiar character? Why do this to such a well established classic?

Thankfully, producer Tomm Hulett helped ease some fears pointing out that Shattered Memories will not be a remake, rather a re-imagining. The full interview is on Joystiq. Set for an ambiguous release, Fall 2009, for both Wii and PS2 (with a possible launch on the PSP); I’ll be interested to see how this actually plays out.

Some choice quotes from the interview:

Where do you draw the line between messing around with people’s expectations and completely jumping the shark? There’s a lot of differences, but I wouldn’t say we jumped the shark, because they’re all very calculated, they all serve the story and they’re all surprising.

He’s the guy that’s always there for Silent Hill [Akira Yamaoka]. Every single Silent Hill game, no matter whether it’s The Room, or Homecoming, Akira’s always there. Could you make a Silent Hill game without him? I wouldn’t like to, because I am a fan of the series and I do love his music. I think it adds a special element, it’s kind of the atmosphere of the town. If Akira’s music isn’t there, it just doesn’t sound quite right.

Is it more difficult to make something feel really scary on the Wii — just because I think survival horror games are very dependent on the production value and graphics and sound. …we’ve done some amazing things graphically here. Every object self-shadows with the flashlight that you’re moving around in real time, even the snow flakes. …What we’ve done with the Wii version is you’re interacting with the Wii remote. With puzzles, you’re not coming to a separate puzzle menu where you select options with the cursor, you’re reaching into the game so you’re immersed at all times.

[Joystiq]

It was only a matter of time until a Metal Gear Solid game ended up on the Xbox 360. It makes sense. Konami know they can’t keep being exclusive with MGS to Sony this generation. They can’t afford to. No developer can really.

This game was never going to be exclusive to the 360 as many speculated when it was first announced. It just wouldn’t happen unless it was some crappy little side title, and nothing more. Konami would never leave Sony in the cold. Not after it has been 3 systems of theirs that has played home to the Metal Gear Solid series and allowed it to sell record numbers. To make a game exclusive to the 360 and snub PS3 owning MGS stanboys would’ve been a huge mistake. Konami did the right thing going multi format with this game. And PC gamers, peep this: The game is heading for PC too!

I’m actually more excited about this than I was Metal Gear Solid 4. Weird. Considering there is no news on this game other than it will feature Raiden as a playable character. Metal Gear Solid 4 was a great game, but it just didn’t amaze me in the same way Metal Gear Solid 3 did. If there was ever a game that didn’t get enough recognition or praise – it’s Metal Gear Solid 3.

Hopefully Rising will explain what the hell happened to Raiden, because MGS4 didn’t explain a great deal about him. And what was disclosed was plain stupid. A dude goes from having only the part of his face melded onto a load of cybernetics, just to end up with a normal body again, plus a few scars!? Hell no! Raiden should have died, turned into an Mk.III or ended up as a talking head in a tank. Many hated Metal Gear Solid 2 for featuring Raiden as the main character. But I didn’t have a problem with it really. My dislike of Sons of liberty was due to it being so boring and long winded. None of the characters, cut-scenes or conversations were particularly memorable.

There are no screenshots or footage of Metal Gear Solid: Rising, and there probably won’t be for a good 2 years. Then we’ll have an onslaught of images and over-long videos right up until the games’ release.

So enjoy that image of Raiden’s face. ‘Cause that’s all we’re getting for now.

A new trailer for Konami’s upcoming Suikoden Tierkreis surfaced this morning and I must say that not only does the game look fantastic, it caught me completely off guard. And by this I mean that I haven’t heard much about the game since TGS ‘08. Allbeit Q4 2008 was packed with some heavy-hitting AAA console titles, but there should be no reason for Konami to be hiding/holding this potential handheld gem back, especially if it can hold up to its claim to be the “deepest handheld RPG of all time.” We’ll see if it can hold up to this bold statement come this March when Suikoden Tierkreis hits the Nintendo DS.

We want to hear what you have to say. What is your take on handheld RPGs? Does Suikoden Tierkreis look like a game that you could find yourself becoming obsessed with?

While we’re on the topic of silly franchise adaptations how about this? There’s a Dance Dance Revolution musical being prepared for this December. Its a “show set in an Orwellian society where dance is illegal. A group of local street toughs harbor no hope of overthrowing the fascistic no — fun government — until a mysterious dance prophet named Moonbeam Funk arrives”.

Oh boy, once Moonbeam Funk arrives you know its gonna be a party! Most disturbing of all though is that the show features original songs from Gary Adler and Phoabe Kreutz. Why the hell make a DDR musical if you’re not using DDR music? Not even ‘Moonbeam Funk’ can make up for that.

[TheaterMania]

Well, i thought we had heard the last of this, but it seems the Tokyo Game Show has brought this rumor to surface again. Yoshitaka Arai, the public relations head for Konami was heard telling the Japanese investor bulletin "Morningstar" the following:

"The worldwide demand for an Xbox 360 version (of MGS4) is quite high, and it is something we are currently looking in to."

Sounds like things are still hopeful for us Xbox fans out there, and I’m sure any fan of the series would love to see more people get the opportunity to play it. Will it ever come to fruition? Only time will tell, but keep your eyes pealed!

[Yahoo! Japan]

Kotaku received an anonymous tip yesterday which contained the supposedly complete songlist for Konami’s upcoming band game Rock Revolution. Some interesting things to note are that these are all licenses, and no Konami originals (often the hallmark tracks of Bemani games) are included here.

The tracklist is a believable one, sporting a lot of generic tunes and familiar names to the American rhythm game scene (Foo Fighters, Fall Out Boy, Rush, and The Who). Some songs like “Detroit Rock City,” “Highway Star,” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” of course, have already appeared in Rock Band.

A few tracks are a bit of a surprise to see on this kind of list: Lacuna Coil’s “Our Truth” and Dream Theater’s “Pull Me Under” are some metal oddballs that seem a bit out of place. Overall it’s a solid list that will appeal to a lot of people, but at 41 songs, it’s just too little too late, if indeed it is the real deal. Hit the jump for the full list.

Read more!

Konami has added the contents of the Konamistyle Special Edition of Quiz Magic Academy DS, the DS incarnation of the strangely popular series of trivia arcade games by the same name. Without a doubt the title is bound to fly off shelves with the combined popularity of the DS in Japan and the fascination with mind training and/or quiz games.

Both the Konamistyle edition and the standard edition include the game and a pencil stylus. The Konamistyle edition also includes a special bag-looking DS Case as well as a full set of character badges, making 16 in total. The standard bundle will run for 4,500 Yen (About $42) while the Konamistyle package will cost you 7,500 ($70). A stateside release is unlikely and the sheer amount of text makes this anything but import-friendly, though.

The game is set to come out September 12 alongside a Quiz Magic Academy OVA.

[Konamistyle via MOONPHASE]

Not ones to forget the female audience of DS owners, Konami are have released their latest entry into the Tokimeki memorial series! Originally the game had the player step into the shoes of a young man to kick some game amongst some lovely ladies, but the DS version has spun things around and has the gamer now stepping into the shoes of a young lady on a mission to snag a man…

You take control of a girl newly enrolled at a high school. Being the new hot young tottie on the block, you’re pursued by a bunch of guys and your aim is to woo them, have them woo you, play a little hard to get and win over their affections in order to get one of them to confess their love to you. Players can spruce themselves up, hit the gym, get some beauty sleep, participate in extra curricular activities to boost their appeal to the opposite sex pick before heading out to get that all important love confession. During conversations you’ll get a bunch of possible answers, with how you answer determining how much that guy will like you. Everything you do with affect the love meter of your potential boyfriends. Your aim overall is to keep the meter high. If you don’t, you can kiss your love confession goodbye. Guys will get fed up if you date them infrequently, give silly responses in conversations and don’t stroke them enough with the stylus. These guys will also spread the word and f**k things up for you, dropping the love meter for all of the potentials in the process. Damn. It’s just real life!! You’ll also come across girls on campus with whom you’ll converse with, but there’s no option to chat these girls up and engage in some girl on girl action. Neither is there an option to beat a girl down for checking your man.

This game was released in Japan on February 15 and I doubt very much it will get a western release seeing as the Tokimeki memorial has been exclusive to Japan for over 10 years now. I think it was considerate for Konami to think of the Japanese female gamers though, as well gay Japanese guys who wanna kick it with some kakkoii boys. Plus, the DS is the perfect platform for games such as these, so the series is right at home on the system. Dare I say it, this game sounds kinda fun! It sure as hell beats Face training.

Hit the link below to check out an interview where the pretty, but slightly scary looking actress Natsuki Kato declares her love for the game.

[Famitsu]

If you’ve been around the web this week, you might have heard of a certain “Megaton Announcement” from Capcom. And we get not one, but TWO old-school franchises being developed. One involved Nazis and SuperJoe, while the other paved the road of quarter-circles and lots of quarters being fed to machines back in 1992. Yes, Bionic Commando and Street Fighter IV are confirmed to be coming out hopefully by next year or so. Check out the teasers if you think I’m making this up.

Street Fighter IV: I’ll need actual game footage in the next year if I were to make a tiny bit of judgement. Bionic Commando remake? His arm is about as subtle as a 4-ton sledgehammer. Still, nice to hear from you, old favorites of mine. Also, here’s an in-game video of the first level of Contra 4, developed by Wayforward Games and published by Konami. Mmm…pixel explosions. Good.

Technorati : about time, capcom, contra, dark diamond, konami, street fighter

Ahh. . .Konami. Always giving us excellent games; great franchises like Metal Gear, Dance Dance Revolution, Contra, and other great ones that, sadly tend to shine less than others. Axelay is a good example; a vertical/horizontal shooter for the SNES using an unorthodox weapon selection style, great graphics, and very fitting music.

Released in 1992 on the USA, the game went into what I’d like to call an underground game. A game that didn’t even appear on the lowest shelf of your local Toys’R'Us. Hell, I bet it would’ve been an more difficult feat to even see one at your even more local videogame shop (which tend to have a bunch of very underrated games [and obviously, before the Game$top plague]). I’m sorry to say that these gems of Video gaming are that: Gems; one must literally mine through mountains and mountains of old videogames, some of them good, the other lot awfully bad, but I assure you, getting a game this way, the reward seems brighter.

User TheMogX shows us a run of the bosses of the game on Hard mode. Impressive indeed.

Pretty neat, huh? This game gives me so many memories. . .Thank you, thank you, Konami.