Monday 7 September 2015

Konami, what happened to you?

Konami, when I was growing up you were, as the Doctor would say, fantastic and so was I. In all seriousness though you were, what with releasing the likes of Castlevania, Contra, Gradius, TMNT arcade, Tournament Fighters AND Turtles in Time as well as  Lethal Enforcers, Sunset Riders, Zombies Ate My Neighbours, Legend of the Mystical Ninja, International Superstar Soccer and many many more fantastic games. Hell, I could probably fill this post with all of the fantastic games that I played and still continue to play over and over and over.



You were even continuing to knock it out the park not so long ago with the likes of Metal Gear Solid, Castlevania, Pro Evolution Soccer and Silent hill and then bam, suddenly you are no longer the Konami that we know and love.

Where did it go wrong? What happened to you?

Losing Hideo Kojima, cancelling Silent Hills, the announcement of moving primarily into mobile, pretty much only concentrating on Pro Evo and MGS and then the allegations of treating employees like dirt have really definitely not helped with the reputation of the company. Also, letting IP's from both yourself and Hudson Soft remain dormant is dam annoying.

Come on Konami, get with it again. I mean damn, you even have a cheat code named after you. A cheat code that no one growing up in those days will ever forget Up, Up Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right B A. People are still inserting it into games and websites now, that is how much your legacy means to people.

Sadly now that legacy is quickly disappearing and I for one am saddened about that.

RIP Konami

GOY

4 comments:

  1. That new Rocket Knight Adventures game a few years ago was a massive disappointment and all...

    It's telling that the best thing they've done lately is Konami Classic Arcade for the DS. Contra 4 was fantastic, but I think they only published that one.

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  2. Such a shame. I love their games up to (and including) the PS2 era but afterwards it's been very hit-and-miss with the last few years in particular being pretty forgettable. Can't remember the last Konami game that felt like a must-have. Capcom are also constantly on the verge of toppling over the same cliff in my mind.

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  3. Funny you should mention Capcom DS90 cause my instant thought on reading this was that Konami and Capcom were basically more or less tied for most important 3rd Party NES and SNES developer and yet look at them both now. Hopefully Capcom can have a good upswing or two and avoid ending up like this, I have Castlevania on the PS2 to try at some point have to admit when I brought it second hand I wasn't even aware of its existence, seeing as I am not much of a fan of the Metal Gear games and I have played pretty much everything else as far as I know this might be my last slice of untouched Konami goodness, sad times :(

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  4. It is interesting that people are mentioning Capcom as after I posted they did pop into my head but I decided not to go back and add them in.

    Capcom still have the Resident Evil and SF franchises which are proving popular but I do think that any more slip ups with those and they could start heading the way of Konami.

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