UUDDLRLRBAStart, y'all.
As part of celebrations of their 50th anniversary, Konami will be rolling out three compilations of their classic titles into the summer.
The three compilations are themed around Konami arcade titles, Castlevania and Contra. The Arcade collection, releasing first on April 18 for US$19.99, will include Gradius I and II, Life Force/Salamander, Twinbee, Scramble, Thunder Cross, Haunted Castle, and Typhoon/A-Jax.
The Contra and Castlevania lineups have also been partially revealed: the Castlevania collection will include the original, Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, Super Castlevania IV, and the Game Boy title Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge. There may be more than one Castlevania collection, as Konami has said "The first Konami Castlevania Collection is designed to be a completed collection around the origins of the historic franchise."
The Contra collection has confirmed Contra (NES), Super Contra (arcade), Super C (NES) and Contra III: The Alien Wars (Super Nintendo): this is the first time ever that the NES Contra title has been re-released in a digital format, after being included as an unlockable in 2007's Contra DS.
I would pay $60 USD for Contra
Having a Castlevania from the Gameboy on there instead of Simon's Quest is just...weird. I never played the GameBoy Castlevania 2 and Simon's Quest is no gem itself, but the GameBoy wasn't known for having great games outside of Pokemon & Tetris so it's probably garbage just like the rest of the handheld's lineup.
I'm hoping the other 4 games (if we're staying on a 2D theme) include some of the GBA games, Rondo of Blood, and Bloodlines since Bloodlines has NEVER been re-released.
Based on the line "The first Konami Castlevania Collection is designed to be a complete collection around the origins of the historic franchise" I'm guessing the Castlevania collection is going to include the classic-style games and there will be a later collection for the Metroidvania ones. So the other four will probably be stuff like Dracula X and Bloodlines, and maybe The Adventure ReBirth? Then a second collection later on will have Symphony of the Night and the following games from GBA and DS. I guess Simon's Quest could also make an appearance here since it was closer to that style.