News: JP GBA CVs go greatest hits

November 01, 2005, 12:10 AM

by tim, via konami -
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The new Famitsu comes out tomorrow, Wednesday, instead of the usual Friday, because Thursday is Culture Day. And what better way to celebrate Culture Day than by reading Famitsu the day before, spotting this giant two-page Konami ad, and screaming, "OH MY GOD I CAN BUY THE JAPANESE VERSION OF ARIA OF SORROW FOR JUST 2,600 YEN, STARTING TOMORROW!!" Not only Aria of Sorrow -- also Harmony of Dissonance and Circle of the Moon. insertcredit.com readers might recall that Aria of Sorrow was our most reviewed (and unreviewed!) game ever. (Two of those reviews were even called the "Worst Game Review Ever" by several major news services, including Chris Kohler, who's a major news service in and of himself.)

All kidding and elbow-jabbing aside, it's interesting that Konami would re-issue Castlevania in Japan; I'm not saying it's inconceivable -- it's interesting. There has been much movement on Nintendo's portables lately (aside: I really, honestly saw a woman in her sixties playing "Brain Training" last night on the Ginza Line), and the audience is expanding at a morbid and exciting rate. This means maximum exposure for simple games. Castlevania's producer, Koji Igarashi, has always been insistent on creating, first and foremost, games that can be "picked up and played," and though no respectable critic would doubt that, the sales numbers show that Japanese people just don't "get" Castlevania. Dawn of Sorrow recently sold something like 11,000 copies, beaten out many times over by Mushiking, a Gameboy Advance game where the player pounds the A button and watches his on-screen beetle glow and gain statistics.

The Castlevania series, originally called "Akumajou Dracula," re-named "Castlevania," and eventually changed back to "Akumajou Dracula" has been in something of a perfect hybrid of a renaissance and a rut since (and just before!) Koji Igarashi took over. Simple and playable, the three GBA games were nonetheless also risky experiments when it came to their attitudes and package designs, and not one of them sold well at all in Japan. Their being made available under the "Konami Best" label is a welcome surprise, about as much so as the news that the more interesting two are being readied on a two-in-one cartridge for American release in January. Sadly, Konami, being a Japanese company, won't put more than one game on a cartridge for sale in Japan, because they love money. Still, it's fresh to see all these cheap-o GBA games flying around in Japan these days - they normally cost 5,000 or 6,000 yen. It's equally refreshing to think that, lately, when Japanese game companies pick titles for their "best" collections, they sometimes pick them based on their actual entertainment value. Go Japan!!

Also, I do reckon Castlevania: Curse of Darkness comes out today in the States. The Japanese version will ship on November 24th. There will be no Xbox version in Japan.