Remember when Konami was Cool?

When Konami was cool

Unlike today where Konami is recognized as the foil to Hideo Kojima’s “Folk Hero”. There was once a time where Konami was considered cool and innovative,

And part of that time, was in the good old 90’s.

Today I’m going to be taking a look back at 1991 specifically for two very different games, on two very different platforms.

Sunset Riders for the Arcade, and Super Castlevania for the Super Fiacom/Nintendo.

Now in order for me to explain what makes Sunset Riders so great; we need to go back one year, to 1990.

Konami’s Teenage Mutant Ninjas Turtles beat ‘em up was enjoying overwhelming success. The staff at Konami soon discovered

That: it was not only the fact that the game was from one of the most popular IP at the time, keeping their machines fat with quarters

But, also the simultaneous gameplay for to 4 players. This being the 90’s, everyone knew the only place to get really good multiplayer was the arcade, and Konami saw this as

An opportunity to start making more multiplayer/co-op arcade games. 

Fast forward back to 1991 and Sunset Riders is released. Directed by Hideyuki Tsujimoto and published by Konami.

Set in the Wild West as a “Run n Gun” (not to be confused with shoot em up. Think Contra, not Galaga.), Sunset Riders features 4 playable bounty hunters: Steve, Billy, Bob, and Cormano. Each of the 4 characters is assigned to one of the control spots at the arcade machine and feature slightly different weapons.

Steve and Billy use revolvers, Bob a rifle, and Cormano a shotgun.

Characters are controlled with 8 way joysticks, a shoot button, and a jump button. Basic, but hey it worked for Contra.

Unlike contra the game featured a slide dodge mechanic rather than laying prone to avoid enemy gunfire.

At the beginning of each stage the players are shown a wanted poster of the stage’s boss showing their bounty value.

The players move through the multi-tiered, side scrolling levels making their way to the boss. The player who deals the most damage against the boss receives bonus points.

There’s plenty of cool power ups like a sheriff star that gives you full auto, or one that grants you a second gun allowing for multi directional fire. There’s even two stages on horseback.

Although the game didn't do anything revolutionary for the genre it was still fun and brings back great memories.

Super Castlevania IV

Unlike Sunset Riders, Castlevania is a series with a storied past and a fantastic legacy. One of the fan favorites of that legacy is Super Castlevania IV.

Directed by Masahiro Ueno, Produced by Kazumi Kitaue, and developed by Konami for the Super Nintendo/Fiacom video game system.

Masahiro Ueno who was the lead programmer was making his first ever 16 bit game. He loved the pure action of the original Castlevania  and wanted to make something similar to it.

This resulted in what was actually a soft remake of the original for NES.

The game puts you back in the boots of Simon in 1691 Transylvania, on his quest to slay Dracula. A lot has changed this time around though especially when it comes to Simon’s arsenal. Among many of the improvements to the actual gameplay:

·     The ability to swing the whip in all 8 directions of the d pad

·     Holding the attack button results in a multi-hit spin attack that also block enemy projectiles. (a staple in the future games.

·     Simon’s whip can also latch on to grappling points to swing across large gaps too wide to jump.

·     Simon can move while crouching

·     The length and attack power of the whip can be increased twice by finding two different upgrades.
          

All of these improvements came to fruition during the development process. Its thanks Masahiro Ueno commitment to making the game less frustrating for players when compared to its 1987 original.

Because the team was so small during the development process; there was a lot of cross pollination that happened between artists and programmers when it came to creating the maps.

Early bosses in the game were also designed to be more user friendly by being easier, and having discoverable weak points that could be exploited with the secondary weapons. Further more difficult bosses were made with detailed attack patterns. Neither of these were possible on the NES original either.

Since its initial release, to this day, Super Castlevania IV is still praised for perfecting the classic formula; and that’s a very good thing.

If it wasn't for Super Castlevania IV, the BEST Castlevania game ever would probably would have never been made.

But that’s a story for a different time.

Image Credits

www.vizzed.com

www.chapleofresonance.com

en.wikipedia.org

http://www.telebunny.net/toastywiki/index.php/Games/G10-SuperCastlevaniaIV