Your Favourite Konami titles / memories

[Finsbury Girl]

Now that Konami is effectively dead, what are some of your highlights?

As an old arcade gamer, for me, along with Capcom, Konami used to mean quality, if it was a Konami game, generally it was going to be pretty bloody good.

Some of my all time favourites:

Track and Field - yes there were peeps who used cigarette lighters to get fast button presses, but aficionados such a myself, developed an alternating two handed running finger movement to get the extreme speed required.

Badlands - surely a one button game cannot be fun? To this day, this is one of my all time favourites. I was one of 2 peeps who could beat this bad boy, in fact I could go though it twice on one credit. Boy it took time to remember the exact timing required, some of the scenes were incredibly difficult. One to get the crowds around you though!!

Yie Ar Kung Fu - before Street Fighter this was the fighting game - a fairly steep difficulty curve but a rewarding game when you get it right. Typically had me bashing the cabinet!!

TMNT - graphics were trash really for the time, but with 4 players, a whole lot of fun.

Arcade, console or PC - what are some of your great Konami games or memories?

[Dogg Thang]

No shortage of greats to choose from. Castlevania is an obvious one - a series I slowly grew to like as it developed and then it hit me with SotN and it just blew me away, especially in the little details. As a Metroid-type game, I felt its progression was perfect. Suikoden 1 and 2 I love to this day.

Metal Gear Solid is another obvious choice. Whatever about my feelings on where the series went (or even where it began with Metal Gear, which I didn't experience back in the day), that PS1 Metal Gear Solid was breathtaking. The gameplay was sublime, the game world incredible and it just worked for me in just about every way. I adored it.

But actually, the Konami game that would have the biggest impact for me was one I first encountered with MGS. With that game was a demo for a horror game: Silent Hill. I was sceptical. I'm a huge horror fan, or was back then, and I was getting bored by it - it can't scare me any more. But I put Silent Hill on and pretty much crapped my pants. The atmosphere is incredible and the fact that I'm the one to make the decision to turn the next corner? That created tension a film just can't match.

The full game didn't disappoint. It's murky and dark with dodgy animation and godawful writing and yet it crept under my skin and worked the one area that counted - it's a truly creepy game.

And then they made SH2. Could it compete in the scares? Surely not. And no, it didn't. SH1 I feel is by far the scarier game. But it did something else that I don't think any other game managed to do before that and I'm not sure many have done since - it got under my skin and affected me emotionally. There was something in the loneliness. Like it harkened back to the isolation of the first Tomb Raider but coupled it with a story about a seemingly regular guy and it felt like a grown-up story. It felt like it all had meaning. And that ending hit me like a brick and did it while actually being quite slow and empty and desolate.

I thought about that game every day for weeks after finishing it. And then played it again after buying the Platinum version that had the extra little bit from the XBox one. Oddly, I don't think I have played it since (memory might be failing me here... it's possible I had one more play through at some point) but it's one that still stays with me. An incredible experience.

I enjoyed the next two (yes, even 4) but not to the same degree at all. When they went back to the cult witchy stuff it felt like it was going backwards into less adult territory. But I still love the atmosphere, locations and experience of those Silent Hill games. And then later loved Shattered Memories too but that wasn't Konami.

Out of all their games, Silent Hill 2 probably made the biggest impact.

Edit: Silent Hill 2 is 14 years old. 14!

[briareos_kerensky]

Probotector - completing the game without the Konami code (didn't know what that was at that age) but with three continues.

Valken - the whole game. [edit] Yeah, no. It was published by Konami in Europe but it's Masaya's. My bad.

[Golgo]

Castlevania: SotN.
Silent Hill 2.
Metal Gear Solid.

And what a legacy to just give up on...for fitness clubs and pachinko!

[Leon Retro]

Contra III[SNES] Still my favourite run-'n-gun game - the graphics, sound and action are superb.

Castlevania IV[SNES] My favourite game in the series and still a joy to play. Great in all areas.

Axelay[SNES] My favourite shooter of all time, I will never stop enjoying what it delivers.

Parodius(All of them) A superb series of immensely fun shoot 'em ups.

[CMcK]

Turtles (Arc) - 4 player mayhem, great fun.

Rocket Knight and Sparkster (MD) - Both great action / platform games. For me arguably Konami at their peak on home systems.

TIny Toons (MD) - More great platforming action. Not to be confused with the iffy drop kick mechanics used in the SFC version.

Gradius V (PS2) - My favourite game on the system. Treasure goodness applied to the classic Gradius series. If you haven't played it get a copy now.

[teddymeow]

I remember the time that Konami fell out with Kojima and scrubbed his name from the MGSV packaging and promotional material. Then they pulled out of AAA Console development! Crazy times.

I've a soft spot for Krazy Racers on GBA.

[Neon Ignition]

Ones that stand out in my mind are:

-Sunset Riders
-Metal Gear Solid/Twin Snakes
-Shadow of Destiny
-Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
-Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time
-Twinbee: Rainbow Bell Adventures

The upper tier stuff that resonates with me though is:

-The Simpsons Arcade
-Silent Hill 2
-Zone of the Enders 2: Second Runner

And the absolute pinnacle, possibly still up there amongst all games for me:

-Metal Gear Solid 3: Substance

[SUMIRE]

Pretty much all the titles they did on the MSX.

Penguin Adventure
Gradius 1, 2, 3, + Salamander
The Maze of Galious

Snes, the main one had to be Castlevania 4.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Any Konami arcade or home console game that came from the era when they used this logo.

[importaku]

Konami whent to total ****e around the time their logo changed to that god awful bland red one.

I still miss the walking Konami intro


Goemon & bemani games are the 2 massive ones for me. I remember DDR when it was at at it's peak. Many happy DDR arcade memories.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Konami whent to total ****e around the time their logo changed to that god awful bland red one.

I still miss the walking Konami intro

I agree, though I should point out that I meant any variation of the 1986-2003 logo which would certainly include the walking one you've posted.

[Nu-Eclipse]

TMNT - graphics were trash really for the time, but with 4 players, a whole lot of fun.

Eh? TMNT Arcade looked and sounded state-of-the-art for its time, like a literal real-time version of the 1987 animated series!

That said, it looks awful now. Konami improved upon the original engine massively with Turtles in Time.

[importaku]

It was a change for the worse when that red logo appeared. Kind of sad really as Konami made some incredible games, still annoys me that they reduced Goemon to a pachislot machine. DS was the last time he appeared anywhere

[QualityChimp]

Konami first became apparent to me with the Game Boy.

They really pushed the tiny handheld with both graphics and gameplay with titles like Turtles, Nemesis, Castlevania, Contra and Motocross Maniacs.