The BSR crew was invited to the Konami games suite during PAX Prime. The private media chamber was filled with delicious hors d’oeuvre’s as well as demos of a few of their upcoming titles: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Silent Hill: Book of Memories, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow- Mirror of Fate, and New Little King’s Story.
We all got some playing time with each title and while one of my colleagues made mention of Raiden in the forthcoming, MGR: Revengeance, as ‘He is too ninja to be wearing high heels’…I had to disagree. Tis not the shoes that make the Ninja but the sword mechanic that allows me to cut bad-guys into several hundred thin slices of meat. I had a blast playing this! ‘Revengeance’ looks to be a kick-ass action adventure with a unique tool-set with the tactical espionage action qualities that you have come to know from the Metal Gear universe. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is set to release in Q1 of 2013.
VOURtron was so impressed by Konami’s line up, So it goes.
There I was, at PAX, drifting through a sea of faces that were right on the margins of computer recognition software parameters, when Dagobot said that we had an appointment OFF-CAMPUS. It was with Konami.
We left the hustle of the convention center and walked a few blocks through the dense Seattle downtown, where a bum said to a sports car that peeled out, “Slow Down! DICK!”, and our game, “hipster or cosplay”, slowly turned to, “bum or businessman”, and we arrived at a mysterious hotel that was decorated like Hugh Hefner’s dream skyscraper; or Pottery Barn’s.
In a secret room a few floors up, we found some TV’s and PSP’s connected to secret computers, and there were also well dressed, attractive people lounging around (not the other press) and telling us to make ourselves at home. There was a long table with gourmet snacks and drinks. There were servants bringing new trays of food.
I played the new 3DS Castlevania, it was great. Some light puzzle based exploring style narrative to get to the end of the level, some fancy whipping combat with many moves and combos to do. I imagine that the bulk of the fun would be creatively destroying the enemies with your combos (I hadn’t mastered them). The exploring and puzzles were nothing special. In pacing, graphics, and general presentation, it was very much like an early Devil May Cry: Creepy and compelling wanderings, punctuated by mundane yet thrilling hack’n’slash. The graphics and drama of the level breaks and bosses was excellent- and in 3D! So I thought I was actually a little guy in there.
Next I played the new Metal Gear. If you’re a nerd, you’ll like me to just describe what I remember.I started on a training beach. I was Raiden with a metal bod, high heels, and naked bottom teeth, and I could slash ANYTHING with my sword. Except the cat on the beach who would back-flip out of my way in slow motion. Tap the sword button to go crazy. Hold the sword button to go in slow-mo, aim your sword swipe with the right analog stick, and do precision slicing! There was a soldier hiding behind a young lady (in cardboard) and I sliced the soldier and not the girl! And her clothes sliced off too!!! her picture was in it’s underwear after!
Then, off to battle. I walked around and sliced soldiers and after I thought I got them all, one was in a cardboard box hiding, and he had the key. Box: slashed. Key: got. Then I fought a disgusting robot that looked like a small metal gear walker, but on these sick spandex looking goat legs. Consider him sliced. During this, I also completely destroyed a large ferris wheel for fun. Then I ran across a bridge full of cars while helicopters destroyed the bridge. Gameplayer’s note: This part was very hard, and they had a cut scene followed by a camera change, so immediately after the cut scene, you’d run the wrong way off the edge! Bull! This part was not fun. At the end, I had to hang on the last ledge, button mash to activate a climb, which was a PERPENDICULAR RUN up the side of the smashed bridge. Why do I have to button mash when I can do that?? At the top of the bridge, the level opened up and I confronted a small and ferocious helicopter intent on kicking my ass. Boy was it hard. I ran and hid, tried to shoot a rocket launcher, leapt and dodged, etc. I had met my match. But, to make a long story short, I prevailed: I climbed up onto a ledge, and when he shot a barrage of missiles at me, I nimbly tippy-toe ran quickly from missile to missile as they flew in mid air, and then leapt from the last missile in a slow motion flip above the spinning blades of the helicopter, throughout which I proceeded to slice beneath me as fast as I could, and I chopped the helicopter into about fifty metal slices. End of demo.
I should mention just a few other things that happened and you decide whether they’re true or lies.
1. When you kill bad guys, you charge up a meter. when the meter’s full, a button press puts you in a slow-mo mode for a second, where every sword slice cuts through anything, so you can run up to a soldier and, in slow motion, start slicing him into as many pieces as possible, with guts and everything, as he bounces through the air. Like, fifty pieces.
2. At the Hard Rock Cafe dance room, it was Hideo Kojima’s 25th anniversary of Metal Gear party, and a cardboard box was slowly sneaking onto the dance floor and I started pretend slashing it.
For more info on all things Konami, check out:
http://www.konami.com/