Nintendo Ds: Konami Arcade Collection


slaanesh

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I recently bought Konami Arcade Collection for the Nintendo DS.

Why? I hear you say. MAME can do all these easily.

Well, I love emulators of all sorts and I like to see see how the commercial variety compared to their homebrew cousins.

First off, this collection of games is excellent. Huge selection of classic Konami games, brilliantly presented. Possibly the most impressive aspect is the staggering amount of options that goes along with it.

Screen handling options, which are amonst the most important are well handled.

Most games allow you to orientate the screen either landscape or portrait and allow you to scale with the original aspect ratio or a better fitting ratio depending on the original screen. Games play fine in either orientation.

Other options provide a means to set dip switches (where you actually switch them on the board using the stylus), music jukeboxes providing means to play music and sound effects, scans on flyers, original circuit boards, hints and tips, control configuration and background information on the games and more!

I had loads of fun just playing around with all this stuff before even playing the games!

Okay, so the actual games.

What a selection! If you like Konami games you're in for a treat as all the early classics are here! Pooyan, Time Pilot, Circus Charlie, Track & Field, Rush 'n Attack, Tutankham, Yie Ar Kung Fu, Twin Bee, Gradius, Contra, Scramble and more! Crikey! Where to start?

I won't describe the games as anyone reading this will probably know them already. They're all great and arcade perfect. Of course the only thing is that the screen resolution doesn't quite fit, but the games are 100% full speed action here and as far as I can tell being fully ROM emulated. Pity those super-fast CPU emulators can't be used in homebrew!

Anyway, you can't go wrong with this. The Japanese version which I've got here is fully in English so no problem there. All instructions and setups are in English.

This is a 10/10 product which if you like classic games is a must have. I'd love to see other developers produce similar titles for the Nintendo DS. Konami Arcade Collection proves that top-notch emulation can be achieved on even this humble machine.
 
I think the more appropiate WHY question is;WHY the hell do these companies turning out these arcade classics? Did you miss out on the GBC collection or the GBA version? Come on, I know you have the PSP version. PS1 or PS2 version just didn't cut it? You know I think SEGA has the classic market cornered on every f***in' console ever made. Wait they don't stop there. Noooooo. Let's remake them with a fresh coat of paint and sell them at full price. Now I'll admit classics are good for a fast 5 minute pick-up but come on originality people. It's done. It's done to death! Let it GO! Stop encouraging them slaanesh. It's a cheap fast buck for game companies nothing more and it has to stop.
 
I would normally agree as they are often just bad rehashes with no extra work put into it, but Konami Arcade Collection is really a special case.
The main reason I bought it is because:

I love the Konami games.
Wanted to see how well emulation would be handled on the DS.
Unlike consoles, handhelds are perfectly suited to this kind of pick up and play gameplay.

Anyway, it's just my opinion.

:)
 
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