Sometime this morning, between me taking the dogs for a walk and drinking a cup of coffee, Konami held their Gamescom keynote. Not being one to let the small matter of missing the conference get in the way of bringing you news of it, I’ve put my sleuthing skills to good use to bring you the following round-up, and have poked around behind the Internet’s sofa so you don’t have to (ooh, a pound coin).
First to the stage was Def Jam Rapstar, or more precisely someone called Curse, who Google informs me is a German hip-hop artist. He performed a Method Man and Redman track (who again Google informs me are well known in rap circles). As you’ve no doubt noticed, my knowledge of rap and hip-hop is somewhat lacking, but you can imagine me saying it in a Tim Westwood accent if it helps.
He finished off his performance and talked to the Konami host about how proud he was of Def Jam Rapstar and that it will be something he wants to show his grand kids.
Next up was a Kinect title called Crossboard 7, which is to be known as Adrenaline Misfits throughout the rest of the world. It’s an arcade style boarding mashup and although details are pretty thin on the ground at the moment, anyone’s who’s seen Shaun White’s Snowboarding on the Wii with a Wii Fit will know how this plays. Although, thanks to the power of Kinect, of course no Wii Fit board is needed. There is no Gamecom footage available yet, but back at E3 an IGN journalist had a go, and as you can see here the game certainly looks fun to play, and once he’d got used to the controls about halfway through, it all seems to respond as well as anyone can expect.
Third in the ring was Dance Masters, a Kinect exclusive spin off of Dance Dance Revolution. Footage is so far non-existent, but again at E3 IGN threw some shapes, which you can see here if you fancy a laugh.
Next up was Dance Dance Revolution for PlayStation Move. I think it’s best I just show the trailer, because for me looks like a bad TalkTalk ‘bright dancing’ advert with an horrendous soundtrack.
Hopefully your ears have recovered from that assault on the senses, as Konami’s next reveal showed just how varied they can be, with Neverdead which was previously revealed at E3. As you can see from the shakey cam footage, this takes dismemberment and decapitation to a whole new level.
Konami then went on to talk about Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, before introducing Shigenobu Matsuyama to the stage to talk about Metal Gear Solid: Rising. He let slip the fabulous news that he was hard at work on the title and didn’t have anything new he could share with us.
After that massive bombshell, Konami rounded their conference off by revealing box art for Castlevania Lord Of shadows and PES 11. Yes, I really did just say they used the closing two pitches of their conference to reveal box art. Still, at least that gives us time to watch that Dance Dance Revolution trailer again.
jimmy-google
Well at least Sony and EA have treated Europe with a bit of respect and kept something to actually announce.
cc_star
nintendo and Microsoft are present on the show floor only, SEGA were a no show, and Konami basically hit the repeat button on their E3 show. Europe deserves better, that’s why I wondered if a) Cologne is the right venue for something like this b) is it the wrong time of year sandwiched between E3 & TGS, where all the moster reveals traditionally take place.
Just wondering what the impact would be of brining it to London, maybe at the o2
beeje13
I think it would be a more high profile event, maybe even televised
jimmy-google
I think the time of year is one of the biggest problems. E3 was about 2 months ago and TGS is around a month away. Maybe moving it to March/April time (which would be just after most of the big hitters get released now) would probably benefit it greatly.
Having it at the o2 in London would probably give it a boost as well because of reputation of the venue.
I’ve always felt it’s days were numbered as they’ve been trying to clamp down on “violent” games being sold and made in Germany so to have a games show there doesn’t really fit.
jimmy-google
From what’s been shown you wouldn’t think that Europe is the largest of the 3 main game territories.
Shakugan
DDR for me.
cc_star
:)
KeRaSh
I can imagine having to collect all your limbs every now and then in NeverDead can get annoying real fast…
cc_star
Yeah, it makes a fantastic trailer, and very katamari but if you struggle to get one of legs back its going to make defeating one of the bosses (or whatever) very difficult. After all if they ‘killed’ you when you were complete they’re going to find it even easier with a limb missing.