With all-new entries in its flagship Metal Gear Solid series still on hiatus, Konami’s release schedule over the last few years has felt thin. Well, except for when it comes to Yu-Gi-Oh! games and Pachinko machines I suppose.
It was a very nice surprise, then, to be invited along to a Konami preview event where I got to go hands on with not one, but upcoming Konami games due out at various points this year. The collection of games on show were rather eclectic and they spanned multiple genres ranging from shmups to family-friendly party games but, crucially, it was just nice to see Konami acting like a video game publisher again.
During the event, I was given 50 minute hands-ons with Super Bomberman R 2, CYGNI: All Guns Blazing, Super Crazy Rhythm Castle and of course the biggest draw of all, Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1. You can listen to me tell Aoife Wilson all about my time with that, and all of the other games on show, in the video below, or you can go read all about them in word form just underneath the player.
Super Bomberman R 2
As a huge fan of Super Bomberman R Online’s 64 player battle royale mode, Battle 64, I couldn’t help but feel incredibly disappointed with Super Bomberman R 2.
Super Bomberman R Online started as a Stadia-exclusive game before it jumped over to all the other major platforms as a free-to-play title which provided me with many hours of fun. The fact it was free had crossplay functionality across all platforms meant that it was an ideal game for some community based live stream shenanigans, or at least it was until December 1st 2022 when Konami shutdown the servers and killed the game for good.
Battle 64 then was the first thing I checked out when I sat down to play Super Bomberman R 2 and it was almost identical to the previously free version that I’d played before, bar a couple of new unlockable characters. That means any fans of Battle 64 will now need to fork out around £45 if they want to play a game that they had previously enjoyed for free. Super bummer, man.