E3: The Konami Conference 2006

It was time to head back Downtown for Konami's briefing and a first look at the exceptional, extended MGS4 trailer, Konami's first game for Wii, Coded Arms PS3, and a 'whole library' of surprise games. Detailed report inside.

Page: 1  2 

After a busy day that saw thousands of tired journalists crawl around Hollywood for Nintendo and Microsoft's respective conferences, it was back Downtown to the LA Public Library in the afternoon, for Konami's annual media briefing. And what a line-up the publisher had in store for us this year - certainly enough to wake up some media members, practically passing out from exhaustion (not us).

Konami's briefing kicked off Tuesday afternoon in LA

Kicking off the proceedings inside the intimate golden hall was Konami PR guru Marc Franklin who received more applause for his mere appearance than any other speaker on the night including Kojima-san. The former Sega spimaster promised an exciting line-up at this year's briefing but first welcomed on stage funnyman John Heffernan to host the event. Once again, this guy isn't bad at all; to one cocky attendee: "you're on MySpace? Did you get that friends request...? No...?". You had to be there. All credit for trying all night to make amusing game-related jokes - mostly in vain, "damn, you guys are hard to crack" but even the unfunny stuff was amusing. A nice way to settle the audience in, after a bitterly hectic day.

Portable Ops is one of several MGS flavored titles

Geoff Mulligan, Konami America's COO stepped up next to discuss the publisher's general position, back-pat his sales and marketing team, and promise the firm's partners an outstanding line-up for the year ahead. Geoff also mentioned a new deal that will see CBS showing a DDR tie-in show called Dance Revolution this fall. Meanwhile, one of Konami's biggest strengths in recent times has been its support of the handheld market, with an absolute commitment to unique titles for both GBA and DS. The trend is set to continue, it was declared, as a brief handheld line-up video rolled.

Hideo Kojima introduced his studio's four titles

Chief among the publisher's handheld line-up for the event was a new Silent Hill game for PSP, Silent Hill Origins (see our upcoming interview to be conducted later this week). The game will offer an original story that explains the transformation of Silent Hill, introducing new characters along the way. There's a new 'barricade' system that lets players manipulate environment to impede the progress of pursuing enemies, along with a new control scheme that makes combat easier.

Silent Hill: Origins for PSP

Another more recent handheld franchise returns, not just to PSP but to PlayStation 3. While Coded Arms Contaigen will be the follow-up to PSP's Coded Arms, the focus of the next presentation was for Coded Arms Assault on PS3, marking the series' console debut. An extended trailer was shown before Konami's Yasuo Daikai explained more about the game. Depicting a futuristic cyber Tokyo, Assault is based on the Unreal Engine 3 and lets players cyberhack and battle their way through enemy lines, and the campaign mode can also be played online co-operatively with four players.

Coded Arms Assault for PlayStation 3 - full trailer shown

Coded Arms Contaigen for PSP meanwhile comes from the company's Creat Studio, and offers original enemies with an all-new selection of firearms and explosives that lets them "counter the terrorist menace with more firepower than ever before". Up to eight players can go head-to-head in the game's new online multiplayer modes. Both new Coded Arms titles are scheduled for release in 2007.

Koji Igarashi, respected producer of the Castlevania series, was next to present with a new Castlevania for Nintendo DS, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. The title marks the series' 20th anniversary and comes from the acclaimed Dawn of Sorrow team.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin on Nintendo DS

The new DS game will allow players to control two different characters in a story that threatens the resurrection of Dracula's Castle and a new reign of darkness -- Jonathan and Charlotte must work together to confront the face of evil, with the ability to collect and use different weapons and items to increase overall skill along the way. Portrait of Ruin is likely to be another hit DS title, and the trailer shown was further evidence.

The Castlevania follow up comes from the Dawn of Sorrow team

Something a little bit different was up next with Elebits for Nintendo Wii. It's a new franchise debuting especially on Wii that sees mischievous characters Konami describes as "overly cute", the Elebits, inhabiting a world in which they are the sole source of energy. One day, explained the game's producer, "they decide to stop working", leading humans everywhere to start panicking. Elebits allows players to interact with their environment in all-new ways as they search for the power-generating creatures - and it's scheduled for release around the time of the Wii launch.

Elebits is a quirky new title for Wii

Backbone Entertainment's Chris Charla was next up, to announce two new Death, Jr. titles for PSP and DS that incorporate new features based on user feedback from the series' PSP debut title last year. A key improvement that was promised is the camera system which will be undergoing tweaking. Death, Jr. 2 for the PSP, sees DJ and pals team up via wireless cooperative play in an all-new story that takes them into a conflict against an army of evil toys, robotic llamas, mutant mall security guards, and an evil waffle restaurant.

Death, Jr. returns to PSP in - wait for it - Death, Jr. 2

Death, Jr. and the Science Fair of Doom for the Nintendo DS, meanwhile, offers a "warped and twisted story surrounding the worst science fair ever". Using the touch pad, players can execute cool scythe combos, string together multi-enemy attacks in succession and switch between DJ and Pandora as they progress through the game. Charla said that the PSP game also uses "framebuffer effects that simply haven't been seen before on PSP".

Death, Jr. also makes his way onto Nintendo DS

The surprises from Backbone didn't end there as one of Japans most intriguing exports made its way into the briefing in the form of a girlfriend sim for the North American market, called Brooktown High: Senior Year. Players will be able to "recapture their high school days", explained Charla, by trying to date one of 12 different male or female characters, each with their own distinct personalities.

Players can make friends with different types of students such as jocks, nerds, preppies and rebels as they search for the perfect partner to make their senior year truly magical. Hopefully the game will not be based on reality in which all efforts are in vain; at least you'd hope so for the handsome price of a PSP title. This one's due in 2007.

Page: 1  2 

NEXT PAGE >>