Late in 2009, Konami secretly released two classic game compilations on the Xbox 360. And since I love classic arcade collections, I thought I would get them and write about ‘em for ya!

Konami Classics vol. 1 and 2 are just versions of their Xbox Live Arcade titles on a disc. That’s really nothing out of the ordinary. Other companies do that, too, like PopCap. And even Namco did it with their Namco Museum Virtual Arcade. In a way, it’s kind of understandable to do that. While I consider the Xbox Live experience part of the bread and butter of the 360, many people don’t have Live accounts and wouldn’t be able to download and play these games otherwise. Plus, others might rather have a hard copy of these games that they could hold in their hand, and I can understand that, too.

Really, the main problem I have with the Konami Classic collections is that there are only three games on each disc, and they sell for 20 bucks each (don’t worry, folks, I didn’t pay that much for them, I found them on sale). In this day and age, putting only three classic games on a disc is inexcusable. What I would’ve rather them do is put ALL the Konami Xbox Live Arcade titles on ONE disc, and add a few as well (Time Pilot and Gyruss, two other Konami Live titles, are not on here). Anyway, now please allow me to share with you my personal opinions and experience with each game. Konami Classics vol. 1 has Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Super Contra, and Frogger; while vol. 2 has Contra, Rush N Attack, and Track & Field.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

I read blogs and articles all the time about people who missed out on a renowned classic game and just now got to play it recently. Maybe they never got around to playing Chrono Trigger or Klonoa, but thanks to remakes, finally got a chance to do so. Well, one of MY ‘late to the party’ games is Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

This game came out on the PSOne when I was in college. I didn’t play it back then, and the reason why is a little unusual. Back then, my roommate’s girlfriend (now his wife) always hung out in our dorm room with us. I didn’t mind that at all, though. We were all good friends and almost like a family in college, so I enjoyed both their company. She really liked horses (she owns a few) and was very sensitive about them and didn’t like watching TV shows or movies if a horse got hurt. When I first saw a preview of Symphony of the Night on a PlayStation Underground preview disc, it showed some undead horsemen you have to fight, and the horses were cut in half and running around on two legs. I knew that my roommate’s girlfriend wouldn’t like that if she saw it, and I didn’t want to make her feel uncomfortable, so I decided not to play that game in college.

Plus, I’m not a big fan of Castlevania games anyway. Most of the classic action style games in the series; I didn’t care much for the play control. The Belmont’s have another curse besides Dracula, and that’s a lead foot! Seriously, any time these guys jump, they fall like a stone. Especially if they’re over a pit! Many people have told me that I would like the Metroid-styled Castlevania games like Symphony of the Night, as well as the GBA and DS games a lot better. But I’ve never gotten around to trying one of them. I did have an opportunity to try Symphony of the Night on the PSP, but it was on a collection that forced you to play a crappy remake of Rondo of Blood with ugly 3-D graphics, so I said no thanks to that.

There is ONE Castlevania game that I like, however. It’s a spin-off called Kid Dracula. It was on the Famicom in Japan and on the old Game Boy in the US. It’s a silly Mega Man style action game that’s best described as the Parodius of the Castlevania series. Speaking of which, Kid Dracula is also my favorite character to use in the Parodius shooter games. Anyway, if Konami would make a Metroid-style Castlevania game starring Kid Dracula, a Silly Symphony of the Night, if you will, I would totally play it! And some say that Kid Dracula is supposed to be a young Alucard, star of Symphony of the Night, so that could make sense. But I bet Konami would rather make another Rumble Roses game instead of MY idea.

So what DO I think of Symphony of the Night now that I’ve gotten a chance to play it? Well, so far it’s pretty good. It has a classic PSOne ‘feel’ to it (bad voice acting and all). Some say it’s the best 2-D platformer on the PSOne (sorry, I say that honor goes to Klonoa). But it’s certainly a game I could sink my teeth into. Ewww, I just made a vampire reference, and I hate vampires! I think they’re so gross. I don’t understand how sucking blood is alluring.

In the game, you play as Alucard, Dracula’s kid, and he’s a lot more maneuverable than the Belmonts. Ever notice that Alucard is just Dracula spelled backward? That would be like naming my kid Yrac. No wonder Alucard doesn’t like his dad. The manual and in-game instructions are pretty crappy, so there are a few things I had a hard time figuring out at first. Like how to save your game. And is there an in-game map you can view? Maybe one of you Symphony of the Night experts can help me out. At any rate, this game is probably the crown jewel of the Konami collections, and the one I bet Castlevania fans and collectors will be willing to pay for.

Super Contra

Well, now that I’ve made all the Castlevania fans mad at me for all the mean stuff I said, I guess it’s now time to make the Contra fans mad, too. I have to say that I don’t like Contra. I thought I did at one point, but I think I just liked playing it on the NES and Contra 3 on the SNES with my friend, who was a heck of a lot better at that game than I was! By myself, it’s not nearly as fun to die every time a stray bullet hits my big toe. Super Contra is the arcade sequel and not near as good or playable. I have better memories of playing Super C on the NES anyway.

Frogger

Now I actually really LIKE Frogger! Mainly just the arcade version, though. Before Konami got the rights back to use Frogger, Hasbro made a couple of popular Frogger games on the PSOne, but they were really bad. When Konami got the Frogger license back, they made a horrid PS2 3-D platformer with an ugly, revamped Frogger mascot. Luckily the GBA Frogger adventures were pretty fun. Too bad the ones after that on the consoles and DS were really bland. Xbox LIVE Frogger is the classic arcade game, but you can choose to have somewhat enhanced graphics. I actually had this game before on Live, it came with a cheapy 360 arcade joystick I got on sale for 10 bucks and it had three Live game cards on it: Frogger, Time Pilot, and some Popcap puzzle game. Digital Eclipse didn’t ruin the game too much, at least.

Contra

It’s kind of weird that the sequel to Contra is on the first volume, and the original is on the second. I found the first arcade game to be a little more playable here, but still ridiculously hard.

Rush N Attack

OK, be honest, who REALLY likes Rush N Attack? I find it to be even less fun than Contra. At least in Contra you have a gun. In Rush N Attack, you’re forced to infiltrate a whole army with mainly a knife! Sometimes Konami refers to Rush N Attack as a proto pseudo-prequel to Contra, just the same way they kind of consider Scramble to be a predecessor to Gradius. I don’t see it either. Rush N Attack was one of the arcade games that was at the Pizza Inn near my house at one time. I played it once and went back to enjoying Pizza Inn’a mainstays: Ms. Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, and Arkanoid. You can choose to have enhanced graphics in the Xbox Live version of Rush N Attack, putting some detail and snow effects in the first level.

Track & Field

One time at band camp…OK THAT’S NOT THE WAY THIS STORY IS GOING! Seriously, as a kid I was in school band, and one summer I went to band camp for a week and it was at a college that was out for the summer. So we all stayed in the dorms for that week. In the dorm lobby were three arcade games that I played after jazz band practice (my claim to fame at band camp was I actually made it past the jazz band tryouts). Anyway, the three arcade games were Black Tiger, which I played A LOT there, a generic vertically scrolling shooter, and Track & Field. I had seen that game at many an arcade before, but watching all the other kids play Track & Field all that week helped me learn ALL the secrets to that game. Like hitting the bird with the javelin, for instance.

Track & Field takes button mashing to a new level. If you want to wear out your 360 controllers, this game is the best way to do it. Luckily, moving the joystick also works as button presses, making it more bearable to do the running events. The ‘enhanced graphics’ option doesn’t really change things much. There are just some particle effects in the long jump event and the announcer voices are much clearer. The game seems a lot harder than what I remember, too.

A while back, Konami made an update on the DS called New International Track & Field. Too bad the stylus controls really SUCKED in that one. It’s a shame because the rest of the game had really high quality production values. Even online leaderboards and such. And you could unlock classic Konami characters as players, such as Solid Snake, a girl from Rumble Roses, Frogger, even Sparkster! Too bad I’ll never unlock any of them since the game’s controls are so bad!

Konami Konclusions

And that’s all I have to say about the Konami Classics collections. They’re only worth getting if you can snag them REAL cheap, or if you’re a huge fan of Symphony of the Night and want a hard disc copy of the Live version. In the comments sections, let me know what YOUR favorite classic Konami games are. Mine are Time Pilot, Gyruss, and Frogger. And of course, Gradius, Parodius, and Kid Dracula are cool, too.

Tags: Game Reviews