Konami Game Reviews
Review Gradius Origins (Switch) - An Almost-Perfect Package For Shoot 'Em Up Fans
Road British
It is testament to Konami’s back-catalogue, from an era when it was the undisputed king of the 16-Bit and 2D arcade craft, that it can muster so many extraordinary compilations. Gradius Origins joins both the Contra and Castlevania Anniversary releases, and Digital Eclipse's wonderful Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga...
Review Survival Kids (Switch 2) - Konami's NS2 Debut Is Cosy, Competent, Kid-Friendly Co-op
At first I was afraid, I was petrified
A treasure map: a voyage. The ocean sploshing happily at your makeshift raft. Then a ferocious storm! Shipwrecked, alone, starving, surely doomed. Well, not exactly. The happy sploshing part, yes — and technically a shipwreck — but then you’re in for a calypso-tinged, cosy hangout with friends. Survival...
Read the rune, Konami
Few RPGs, or video games, deal with war and hope in the face of tyranny like the Suikoden series. Konami’s prime RPG series, created by the late, great Yoshitaka Muriyama, is beloved by those who have played them – particularly the first two. They’re about the underdogs, about those who want better for their country, and...
Review Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection (Switch) - A Comprehensive Round-Up With A Few Real Winners
Duels in the crown
One of the most striking elements of Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection, which celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game, is the sheer number of Yu-Gi-Oh! video games that came out between 1998 and 2004. The Early Days Collection includes 14 games just from Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance titles, some...
Review Castlevania Dominus Collection (Switch) - The Strongest Konami Compilation Yet
Glyph I could turn back time ♫
Konami has been making waves this year with its upcoming duo of high-budget remakes of Silent Hill 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. For Castlevania fans, however, it’s been a bit of a quiet one, with seemingly no sign of any new entry in the long-running gothic franchise. Despite this, the publisher has been...
Unsung hero
‘Underrated’ is a term too often applied recklessly, but for Rocket Knight Adventures, a series that struggled to reach global stardom despite Konami’s three-pronged stab, it’s appropriate. Its initial entry resides in the upper echelons of everything 16-bit and is one of the finest titles on the Mega Drive. Yet, Sparkster,...
Review Felix The Cat (Switch) - A Cute But Costly Clowder
Retro charm aplenty but no purring
As one of the earliest animated characters dating back to the silent film era, Felix the Cat’s popularity has waxed and waned over the decades. His charm, though, continues to endure beyond his centenary. He may be the only cartoon mascot older than Mickey Mouse to have also tried their hand at the Super Mario...
Review Contra: Operation Galuga (Switch) - Does The Series Proud, But Best Played Elsewhere
Aggressively attacked
With Konami seemingly devoid of both in-house developers and any kind of passion to revive their beloved IPs, WayForward, predominately a licence mule during the '00s, is by far the best option for a new Contra entry. Its work on 2007’s brutally hardcore Contra 4 cemented the developer's prowess, allowing the player to...
Mini Review Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - Still Outstanding On Switch
What a thrill
Originally released in 2004, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is widely considered to be the finest entry in Hideo Kojima’s Magnum Opus. And almost 20 years later, it’s still easy to see why, even though some aspects of the game haven’t aged particularly gracefully. For Switch owners who have never delved into the Metal Gear...
Mini Review Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty - A Solid Switch Port, But Fans Deserve Better
I need scissors! 61!
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty has long been considered one of the weaker entries in Hideo Kojima’s stealth franchise, nestled between the iconic PS1 original and the critically acclaimed prequel, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Yet playing the game in 2023 is, quite frankly, a revelatory experience. The story once...
Mini Review Metal Gear Solid - A Faithful Switch Debut For An All-Time Great
Kept you waiting, huh?
Going back to Metal Gear Solid in 2023, it’s undoubtedly clear why the game created so much fuss when it originally launched on the PS1 back in 1998. What’s also obvious, however, is how much the title has aged in the decades since. For its release on the Switch, Konami has opted to retain as much of the original’s...
Review Castlevania Legends - A 'Vania So Poor It Got Booted From Canon
Tainted bloodline
This review was originally published in October 2012. We're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival in the Nintendo Switch Online Game Boy library. The odds were stacked against Castlevania Legends almost from the start. When it was released towards the end of the '90s, it had the near-impossible task of following
A legend returns
Editor's Note: If you're looking for our thoughts on the individual releases within the Collection, then check out our reviews on Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, which you can buy individually on the Switch eShop. For Nintendo fans, the Metal Gear franchis
Review Super Bomberman R 2 (Switch) - A Feature-Rich Return With A Cracking New 'Castle' Mode
"Time to make a comeback!"
Those of you who picked up the Switch during its launch period in the distant early days of 2017 may remember that, believe it or not, there were other games available at launch besides Breath of the Wild. One of those games was Super Bomberman R, which at the time was the title that broke the longest dry spell (nearly a...
Pizza dude's got 30 seconds
For gamers who weren't yet born in the 1980s, it may be surprising to learn that Konami’s pedigree was once second only to Nintendo’s first-party output. Undyingly creative and highly quality-driven, the innovative glow that earmarked their arcade years was never truly rekindled post-1994. Hot on the heels of...
Review GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon (Switch) - A Dead Ringer From Konami That Struggles To Succeed
Packed with potential — and not much else
It takes mere moments to notice that GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon, the welcome revival of Konami's Famicom-exclusive action/RPG hybrid GetsuFumaDen, is the once-respected publisher's uncomfortably close take on Dead Cells' excellent 'action roguelite' gameplay. There's the opening room containing a visual...
Review Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel (Switch) - A F2P Card-Battler With Potential, But Noobs Beware
I summon Pot of Greed to draw three additional cards from my deck!
Back in the late '90s and early 2000s, it felt like Yu-Gi-Oh! was seen on the playground as the game only played by the kids who wouldn’t play Pokémon. Nonetheless, the franchise has persisted for nearly as long as those popular pocket monsters, and has always maintained a...
Review Castlevania Advance Collection (Switch) - Utterly Essential Thanks To Aria Of Sorrow
You're out there playing your high class games
Konami has been bringing back some of their older Castlevania titles recently. While 2019's Castlevania Anniversary Collection focuses mostly on the “Classicvania” style of games (stage-based progression, limited lives), this one features the “Metroidvania” style (open-ended exploration, RPG...
Cleaning up the streets
Back when belt-scrolling brawlers were the arcade genre of choice for millions of players worldwide, Capcom's output was considered by many to be the gold standard. Titles like Final Fight and Alien Vs. Predator pulled in an astonishing amount of revenue during this period, but the company didn't have the genre all to itself;...
Bombs Away! ...Eventually
With an influx of incredible modern takes on classic titles such as Tetris 99, Pac-Man 99, and the short-lived Super Mario Bros. 35, Super Bomberman R Online feels like the video game equivalent of a kid picked last for the sports team; an altogether scrappier, less elegant battle royale title than its peers, but one that...
Review Arcade Archives Haunted Castle (Switch) - The Worst Castlevania? Quite Possibly
Sucks to be you
Back in the early '90s, Castlevania was mostly known for being a console series, with three entries on the NES, three on the Game Boy, and four total across the 16-bit platforms (assuming, of course, you consider the PC Engine to be a true 16-bit system). But early in the series’ life, Konami released an arcade game, known as...
Yee-haw!
Well, it's about time. Not officially available anywhere since making its arcade bow (outside of the well-intentioned but obviously weaker home ports on the SNES and Mega Drive, at least), Konami's phenomenally good Western-themed run n' gun Sunset Riders has finally been re-released as part of Hamster's superb Arcade Archives line. The...
Review Skelattack (Switch) - A Likeable Platformer Suffering From A Bit Of An Identity Crisis
Dem bones, dem dry bones
Skeletons are brilliant. Their clickety-clacking, rattle-me-bone structures are unambiguously fun to look at, and – best of all – no matter how terrible the fate of the fleshy prison surrounding a skeleton, they always look really happy. It's always a treat to dive into a game like Skelattack that features skeletons so...
Review Pop'n TwinBee (Switch) - Konami's Colourful 16-Bit Shmup Shines With Couple Mode Co-op
Colour me glad
The TwinBee series enjoyed relative success in Japan throughout the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Pop’n Twinbee was the sixth game in the series, and the last proper shoot ‘em up entry before Konami took it in a different direction with things like spin-off platformer Rainbow Bell Adventures. Because it was never released in...
Review Arcade Archives VS. Castlevania (Switch) - Fixes Some Sins, But The Original Remains Superior
Fangs, but no fangs
The original NES Castlevania has seen its fair share of re-releases over the years, but the same can’t be said for its alternative arcade version. VS. Castlevania was originally released for the Nintendo VS. System of arcade hardware, which for the most part offered tweaked versions of NES games designed to focus more on...
Review Contra: Rogue Corps (Switch) - An Ugly And Unfocused Mess That Shames The Contra Name
A very shattered soldier
Contra: Rogue Corps sets itself some seven years after the cataclysmic events of 1992’s Contra III: The Alien Wars, one of the very best entries in the franchise. It’s certainly a bold move to tie yourself so directly to such a beloved game; a sign of supreme confidence, you might think. Well, if it was confidence, it...
Mini Review Arcade Archives Track & Field (Switch) - Timeless Button-Bashing Fun
Old 'un athletic
Sometimes you just get it right the first time you try. This was the case when Konami released Track & Field in arcades and completely nailed its mechanics right away, then spent decades trying (and arguably failing) to better them. Now that original arcade title has made it over to the Switch as part of Hamster’s ever-growing...
Heart of the cards
Once upon a time, there wasn’t a single card-based game on Nintendo Switch, but now we have loads. We have the post-toys-to-life Lightseekers, the challenging warfare of Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Champions and the all-out silliness of Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission – and there’s even The Lor
Review Contra Anniversary Collection (Switch) - Run 'N Gun Perfection
Gunning for glory
And so we come to the end (for now) of Konami’s triple helping of retro compilations. After giving us an arcade collection that was heavy on the shooters and a Castlevania collection that celebrated the spooky series’ early days, the same treatment has now been given to the Contra series, which offers some of the finest run...
Review Castlevania Anniversary Collection (Switch) - You'll Want To Get Your Teeth Into This
Whip it good
Konami recently kicked off its trio of Anniversary Collection compilations with an assortment of arcade shooters that, while certainly classics, were let down by limited emulation options (though since then Konami has confirmed it’ll be fixing most of our concerns with a patch). Now it’s time for the second helping, this time aimed...
