The fact that what I liked the most about Sony’s recent State of Play was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles compilation doesn’t say much about the rest of the games presented… except for that attempt at Fire Emblem by Square Enix that It’s called The DioField Chronicle (and not Final Fantasy Tactics), which I did like.
That retro has weighed so much, not only for me, but for many more people, says a lot about the affection that we still profess to Ninja Turtles and by extension to the classics that were released Konami since the late 80’s after the unforgettable Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game. In addition, it once again demonstrates an upward pattern on the part of the Japanese giant when it comes to recovering forgotten games due to expired licenses or closed digital stores.
A giant with a lot of history… that does not take advantage
That Konami is no longer the one of yesteryear is something that we have explained repeatedly and you don’t have to be a lynx to realize it. The last century was one of the largest companies along with Capcom, SNK, SEGA or Nintendo.
This is clearly explained by seeing the current situation of two of its most important sagas (Metal Gear and Silent Hill), in a comatose state after the departure of Hideo Kojima in 2015. This caused several fronts in the industry: the cancellation of Silent Hills (where Kojima was), the debacle of the espionage saga with Metal Gear Survive (for the first time, without Kojima) and that one of the GOTYs of 2019 was not from Konami, but from Kojima (Death Stranding) with his new studio.
Konami has tried various moves since then, but without much success. Saving the Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, which continue to pull, his image with the Pro Evolution Soccer has been very deteriorated as a result of the recent eFootball 2022, which has not yet corrected its many flaws and shortcomings. And they are already many months late with this version that clearly looks like a demo.
Let’s not forget that Konami celebrated its 50th anniversary recently. 50 years in the video game industry!, which is said soon. Few are as veteran as this Japanese company, having to remember the special that we dedicated to it together with other companies born before the 80s, such as Capcom, SNK or Nintendo. In my case, my favorites were always Capcom and Konami, although not for the typical ones (Metal Gear Solid O Silent Hill 2), but igamesnews Hearts or the sequel to Suikoden.
It is the good thing about Konami, which has an indelible legacy of games in our memory, but which is not being used as it should: neither with new iterations nor with remakes or remasters to return them to the market. If there were new collections of Metal Gear Solid and Silent Hill
In this sense, one of the changes that the Japanese giant has undergone timidly reminds us of what it did in its old stage, where it did not develop everything, but from time to time it limited itself to giving visibility to other productions acting as an editor. For now, however, she hasn’t experienced the success of yesteryear: Skelattack was nice, but could be improved. And three quarters of the same for GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moonwaiting for the releases of Crimesight and CYGNI: All Guns Blazing on Steam, date yet to be determined.
Konami surprises now with its retro collections
Her work as an editor today or the lack of skill with her soccer saga par excellence, does not detract from the merit of watching Castlevania on Netflix, for example. Yes, we would like to see a new Castlevania video game, but neither can one complain after receiving Castlevania Advance Collection last year. Without a doubt, a turning point in terms of retro collections, giving us three exclusives from yesteryear for the portable Game Boy Advance on current systems.
It is not the first time that it does it if we stick to the movement of the last years, in any case. There is, for example, the Castlevania Anniversary Collection, with the NES trilogy, the two Game Boy adventures, the shocking SNES Super Castlevania IV, the Mega Drive exclusive and a rarity never seen here, the Famicom Kid Dracula . And he also took out the Contraeye.
They are not the only ones of this most recent stage, but they are the ones that have encompassed the greatest number of games or rarities, having received in 2018 the most parsimonious Castlevania Requiem: Symphony of the Night & Rondo of Blood. And it cannot be forgotten either that the legendary arcade game Sunset Riders has been reissued.
But none of this takes away from the fact that the news about the Ninja Turtles has surprised us a lot. Because almost the entire stage of the early 90s is included beyond the “trite” Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time (which failed with its Ubisoft remake, the improvable Re-Shelled) by including three Game Boy games or the 1vs1 fighting games for SNES and Mega Drive, not forgetting of course its beat ’em up.
Will there be more collections? Seen what we have seen, we do not rule it out… Cowabunga!
