On March 21, Konami will celebrate its 50th anniversary. But unlike a typical birthday bash, fans and players will be the ones getting the presents in 2019.
In a recent post on its website, Konami confirmed that three collections of classic games would be heading to the PC (Steam), PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch this year. The games will cover those released on a wide swath of platforms, such as arcade, NES, SNES, and Gameboy.
The first will be a collection of classic Konami arcade games, aptly called the Konami Anniversary Collection: Arcade Classics. It will release on April 18 for $19.99. The games included are:
- Haunted Castle
- A-Jax (Typhoon)
- Gradius
- Gradius 2
- Life Force
- Thunder Cross
- Scramble
- Twinbee
Then in “early summer”, Konami will release the Castlevania: Anniversary Collection. As of this writing, only four of the eight games in the collection have been announced, including:
- Castlevania
- Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest
- Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse
- Super Castlevania 4
Lastly, the company will also release the Contra Anniversary Collection at another point “this summer”. As of this writing, it is not clear if this collection will release before, alongside, or after the Castlevania Collection, but we do know that it will also include eight games, four of which have been announced:
- Contra
- Super Contra
- Super C
- Contra 3: Alien Wars
Although all three collections will be released digitally, Konami will include other goodies, such as digital e-books books, behind-the-scenes interviews, design documents, and more. As of this writing, neither the Castlevania: Anniversary Collection nor the Contra: Anniversary Collection have been priced.
While it might not be the remastered catalog gamers have been hoping for since the last ice age, these three collections will most certainly be welcomed by fans of Konami or those that may no longer have access to now-defunct Wii Shop.
