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February 11, 2011

Review – Hard Corps: Uprising

hard corps uprising contra review
The jury may be out on whether an alias allows a rose to ditch its sickly scent, but I can confirm that Konami’s anime-styled breakaway from the Contra brand doesn’t sacrifice the bullet-points that have come to define the franchise. This uprising begins with heavy guitars and vibrant explosions to paint a scene of idealistic resistance against the forces of old and evil, with characters cut from a familiar cloth of eighties anime memories and mournful war-zones – but Contra’s principles of play are ever present, remixed once again to provide a war opera worthy of the twitching that stirs in fingers left unsatisfied by many modern releases.

The lush palette softens the traditionally gritty edges of Contra’s battlefield, but a merciless spirit wears the pop-shifted aesthetic, and veterans can rest assured that Hard Corps: Uprising is fucking metal.

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January 6, 2011

Hard Corps: Uprising In February

Filed under: News Feed — Tags: , , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 12:46 am

Hard Corps Uprising
Late night CES emails from Microsoft catch my eye when they appear to out Konami dates, and so here we are. In an announcement regarding a lineup of titles for an Xbox Live Arcade House Party, Microsoft has ARC System Works’ Hard Corps: Uprising set for release on February 16th.

Additional titles for the five week house party include Beyond Good and Evil HD, Bejeweled Blitz Live, and Torchlight.

December 22, 2010

Lords of Shadow DLC

Filed under: News Feed — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 3:59 pm

Lords of Shadow
Konami Europe has offered up details on new downloadable content for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, which involves two installments titled Reverie and Resurrection.

Reverie sends Gabriel back to the castle to destroy evil, while Resurrection picks up from the retail release’s insane ending, which is said to feature a showdown with a notorious enemy as Gabriel meets his destiny.

Both DLC installments are expected to release early next year, the first in February and the second following in April – leaving us waiting only for pricing details, and Konami to issue the announcement for North America.

In lew of those details, I offer you art.

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December 16, 2010

Your Latest Dose of Hard Corps: Uprising

Filed under: News Feed — Tags: , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 6:29 pm

Hard Corps Uprising
I’m not really a screenshot kinda guy, and the latest batch for Uprising offers very few – however every shot that emerges this year testifies to Arc System Works’ mastery of visual pop, and that once again seems worth a nod.

I continue hoping we won’t have to wait too much longer to be seduced by the actual release, but in the meantime you can catch some freshly frozen glimpses after the break.

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Love Notes – X-Men Arcade

X Men Arcade
Konami’s 1992 side-scrolling beat ’em up is one of the few arcade games I hold a great deal of nostalgic love for. Buy me a coffee sometime and I’ll regall you with stories about loitering near any building that housed the game, from the last of the arcades in my area to the seedy poolhalls that later served as poor but functional substitutes.

Konami was able to turn anything into a beat ’em up back in the day, from the Ninja Turtles to The Simpsons, but only The X-Men had six glorious arcade sticks jutting out of an over sized cabinet that cried out for my quarters – so it’s safe to say that I’m pretty stoked to see the game hit XBLA and PSN this week.

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November 18, 2010

Review – Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

Filed under: Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , — Brad Johnson @ 8:22 pm

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
I’m riding on the back of a long-dead dragon, the size of a skyscraper, animated through dark necromancy and thundering through the sky. I’m clawing my way up the massive spine, balancing precariously when it rears its head and tries to shake me loose. I slip, and pull the right trigger just in time to jam my ridiculous crucifix-weapon into the bone and save myself from the fall—and this is about the time when it hits me just how much I like this game.

This is the last of three titanic boss encounters in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow; battles that have seen me scaling massive creatures in elaborate platforming puzzles. Like many elements of this game, this may draw comparisons to the defining hack-and-slasher, God of War, and these aren’t unwarranted. Castlevania, when considered piece by piece, is a wholly derivative affair, but as happens so rarely, it manages to provide a unique and worthy experience all the same.

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November 8, 2010

Q&A – Konami Talks No More Heroes: Heroes’ Paradise

No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise
No More Heroes led a series of unique and alternative experiences offered by the Wii when it released in 2008. The story of Travis Touchdown’s quest to survive the streets of Santa Destroy in order to rise to the top of the United Assassins Association, if only to get the girl, represented a wave of punk sensibility rarely seen in the industry and also exclusive to Nintendo’s console.

Marvelous Entertainment broadened the chance for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 owners to share in the bloodletting with the Japanese release of Heroes’ Paradise this year, and many of us have patiently waited to learn which publisher might plan to bring that HD love our way.

Recently it was revealed that Konami would answer the call, announcing a Move supported PlayStation 3 version. Not unlike starving dogs, we hungered for more details.

Luckily for us, both Marvelous and Konami production team’s Tak Fuji have merged forces not only to bring Heroes’ Paradise to North America, but also to answer our most pressing questions – as well as leaving us all with one I know many of you will offer answers to.

Get your Heroes’ Paradise fix after the break.

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