50 years of Konami and counting.
As part of the 50th anniversary celebrations for Konami, they’re releasing a bunch of collections to mark the occasion – Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection, Castlevania Anniversary Collection, and Contra Anniversary Collection. All will be released digitally on the PlayStation Store, Xbox Live, Nintendo Switch eShop, and Steam for PC.
The Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection is releasing April 18, and will include eight ported titles, along with an in game bonus book showing concept sketches from the development of these titles. It’ll be priced at €20, and include the following games: HAUNTED CASTLE, TYPHOON (also known as A-JAX), NEMESIS (also known as Gradius), VULCAN VENTURE (also known as Gradius II), LIFE FORCE (also known as Salamander), THUNDER CROSS, Scramble, and TwinBee.
The Castlevania Anniversary Collection, on the other hand, will contain Castlevania, Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse, Super Castlevania IV, Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge, with more to be announced in the coming months. You’ll also be able to access an in-game bonus book that includes early developer notes and an interview with Adi Shankar, a producer on the animated series.
Finally, the Contra Anniversary Collection is bringing us games that were previously released on arcade and console units, and will include CONTRA (arcade version), SUPER CONTRA (arcade version), Super C, Contra III: THE ALIEN WARS, and more to be announced. There’ll be another in game bonus book in there too, documenting the history of Contra, and will show how the franchise rose to prominence over the decades.
Both of these will be released in early summer 2019, but keep your eyes peeled for updates.
