Parodius - One of the most ridiculous game series of all time!

It seems like Konami is supporting the Wii's download services more and more - First the ReBirth games on WiiWare, and now support for the MSX catalogue on Virtual Console in Japan. No new MSX Virtual Console games have been released in Japan for over a year, so the fact that Konami has now announced 13 of them to be released over the next few months is quite surprising!

The first five games in the lineup will already be released in November. If you didn't look at the full Japanese Virtual Console list for said month yet, these five are as follows:

  • Metal Gear
  • Penguin Adventure
  • Road Fighter
  • Space Manbow
  • Yie Ar Kung Fu 2

Of course Metal Gear is the biggest surprise, but the remaining 8 games aren't exactly small-time either. In December, January and possibly a few more months after that, Japanese Wii owners can also expect the following MSX games from Konami:

  • Contra
  • Gofer no Yabou Episode II
  • Gradius 2 (Not the same as Gradius II!)
  • Knightmare: Majou Densetsu
  • Metal Gear II: Solid Snake
  • Parodius
  • Quarth
  • Salamander

As you can see, this finally means the original Contra will see a release on Virtual Console - Not the arcade or NES version, but rather the MSX one! There will also finally be a Parodius game - Hopefully the ridiculous sequels will make their way to the service as well!

Quite a number of Konami's MSX games were released in Europe, so we can only hope the system is added to the service elsewhere as well. Only time will tell!