konami

E3 Errata

  • Reading time:1 mins read

by [name redacted]

I really wanted Nanobreaker to be a step toward something excellent — or at least something compelling and odd. Or for it to show that Igarashi knows what he’s doing with 3D games. I don’t think it accomplishes any of this, in the state in which I saw it. I mean. It’s… sort of interesting in the sense that it’s just so damned bloody. Or. I guess Igarashi insists that this isn’t really blood, but oil or something. Whatever it is, it’s red and it’s goopy and it’s everywhere.

( Continue reading at Insert Credit )

Turtles Redeux

  • Reading time:1 mins read

by [name redacted]

For all of the booth space and PR devoted to the new Turtles games, they’re really… not all that thrilling, at least if we go straight by the E3 build. Dom might steer you differently. Don’t believe him!

Nor should you believe Donatello, for he is far out-of-character in the E3 trailer. If anyone is to declare the game “fucking rad” under natural circumstances, it should be either Raphael (for the first of the description) or Michelangelo (for the second). For Don to act out so — well, it had to have been scripted.

I don’t know. Playing the games, I’m struck by both a general sense of competence and a sense that these games aren’t receiving quite the amount of care as Konami’s original Turtles lineup.

( Continue reading at Insert Credit )

Konami

  • Reading time:3 mins read

Okay. I think I’m starting to figure Konami out.

  • KCET (Tokyo) seems to be the division where Nagoshi is; the “true” Castlevania games are developed here. This is also where Silent Hill apparently calls home. Contra, Suikoden, Gradius, Tokemeki Memorial, Dance Dance Revolution, to boot. KCET is host to Konami’s special soccer-devoted team, “Major A“.
  • KCEK (Kobe) developed the N64 Castlevania games and Circle of the Moon (aha! I was wondering why the character art looked so similar to the N64 games! And why the character once again wasn’t a Belmont, and nothing fit into the storyline properly — just as in the N64 games).
  • KCEO/Konami OSA (Osaka)… This is the original Konami office, founded in 1969. It seems mostly soccer games come out of here now, but I’m assuming this is where most Konami games were developed until the mid-90s sometime. This appears to be the group currently responsible for the Track & Field and Blades of Steel series.
  • KCKJ/Konami JPN (Tokyo again) is split into two teams, across two separate offices in Toyko: KCEJ East and KCEJ West. East is behind Reiselied and 7 Blades, plus a lot of dating sims. West is where Hideo Kojima is holed up, and thereby the home of Metal Gear and ZOE.
  • KCEN (Nagoya) — A few licensed games for the Gameboy Color and golf games for the GBA, plus a version of Vandal Hearts for the Saturn. KCEN are also behind Castlevania Legends for the original Gameboy, and they apparently did the Saturn port of Nocturne in the Moonlight. That seems like about it, though. Fishing and horse racing games seem to be their real specialties.
  • KCES (Shinjuku) — They seem to do even less than the Nagoya branch. Can’t find much information on them.
  • Konami STUDIO was formed in August of 2000, out of two former divisions: KCE Sapporo and KCE Yokohama. I don’t know what either originally did.
  • KCEH/Konami Hawaii (Honolulu) appear to behind all of the ESPN-licensed sports games that Konami used to put out before Sega snatched up the license. Also, they seem to be behind all of Konami’s domestic PC releases — such as the Castlevania/Contra pack from a couple of weeks ago — and a couple games for the GBA such as the new version of Motorcross Maniacs and a pretty highly-rated “classic Konami” pack containing Yie Ar Kung Fu, Rush ‘N Attack, Gyruss, and so on.

Konami also has a Shanghai-based division, who seems not to do much.

KCEK, KCET, and KCEJ seem to be the three most important divisions. KCET and KCEJ officially like to be called Konami TYO and Konami JPN now, for whatever reason — but I think their original names are less confusing.

There’s a long investigation of the Castlevania series which I dumped onto Lan and Shepard around a month ago. I might dig for that in a bit.