Konami has announced three retro gaming collections as part of its 50th-anniversary celebrations.
The three collections will each be themed after a different part of Konami's gaming history. Anniversary Collection: Arcade Classics will offer eight early Konami arcade titles, Castlevania Anniversary Collection will (surprisingly enough) pack in eight Castlevania games, and Contra Anniversary Collection will contain eight Contra titles. So far, all eight of the Arcade Classics games have been confirmed. Four Castlevania and Contra games have been announced, with more to be revealed later. All three collections will be available for PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam.
Here are the games that we know for sure will be in each collection:
Anniversary Collection: Arcade Classics
- Gradius
- Gradius 2
- Life Force
- TwinBee
- Haunted Castle
- A-Jax (Typhoon)
- Thunder Cross
- Scramble
- Castlevania (NES)
- Castlevania 2: Belmont's Revenge (Game Boy)
- Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse (NES)
- Super Castlevania IV (SNES)
- Contra (Arcade)
- Super Contra (Arcade)
- Super C (NES)
- Contra 3: The Alien Wars (SNES)
The anniversary celebrations kick off with Arcade Classics, which will be released on April 18th and will cost $19.99. The Castlevania and Contra collections will follow in "early summer", and there's no word yet on what they'll cost. All three collections will be digital-exclusive, so there won't be any lovely physical collectors' editions to get your hands on, but Konami will be including a digital book with each collection. The books will contain staff interviews, concept documents, and behind-the-scenes info, among other things.
There are still plenty of untouched Castlevania and Contra games Konami can draw on for the collections. We reckon the Igavania-style games - Symphony of the Night, Aria of Sorrow, etc - will be out, but titles like Bloodlines and Rondo of Blood are up for grabs. On the Contra side, we'd love to see the Genesis' Contra: Hard Corps, which is a much more sound proposition. We're also holding out hope for a nice physical edition of all three collections collected (ahem) together, complete with collector-style books and artwork. One other addition that would be great would be the WiiWare Rebirth games that are no longer available due to the Wii Shop being taken offline and featured unique takes on some of Konami's classic titles.
What would you like to see in the Konami Castlevania and Contra collections? Let us know in the comments below!
