Konami swallows gaming industry

Konami last night revealed its "massive video game line-up" for the next year. We would have reported on this news earlier, but we've only just finished reading the press release, which puts War & Peace to shame. The condensed version is that they will be publishing a plethora of games over the next twelve months, varying from the excitement of Silent Hill 3 and a new Contra game to three new Yu-Gi-Oh games and a spate of extreme sports titles, both with and without the benefit of Disney characters. Heading up the list is Castlevania : Harmony of Dissonance, which has sadly been pushed back to a September release in Europe from its original July 5th slot. The follow-up to the addictive but incredibly dim GBA launch title Circle of the Moon will apparently feature enhanced graphics, which hopefully means that we'll be able to see what's going on without sitting under a lamp this time. Silent Scope dominates November, with the series making its debut on the GameBoy Advance while Silent Scope 3 arrives on the PlayStation 2. The latest installment in the popular sniping series will offer new areas, 3D sound and a story mode in addition to the 14 missions from the arcade hit Silent Scope EX. Also coming in November are new Frogger games for the GameBoy Advance, GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox, but we somehow doubt these will raise quite the same level of anticipation. January 2003 should be home to the Contra franchise. Contra Advance brings the gameplay of the SNES version of Contra to Nintendo's new handheld, with a two player co-operative mode included for the ultimate in side-scrolling action. Meanwhile on the PlayStation 2 we have Contra : Shattered Soldier, a new "run and gun" action game with multiple endings, hidden levels and, again, a two player co-operative mode. Looking further ahead there's a lot of extreme sports tripe and of course the awful sounding Disney cash-ins (do we really need to see Donald Duck skateboarding?), but amongst the dross are a few gems. For starters there's Silent Hill 3 for the PlayStation 2, adding "yet another eerie chapter to the growing legacy of the Silent Hill franchise". Really though, we're sure it will be worth a look. Zone Of The Enders is also getting a sequel, with players once again finding themselves in the middle of an interplanetary crisis, this time with "the fate of Jupiter and Mars held in the balance". And then there's this little game called Metal Gear Solid 2 : Substance, starring some guy called Solid Snake. Debuting on the Xbox for a change, it's due out early next year, with PC and PlayStation 2 versions to follow. As well as adding a large number of new stand-alone episodes and VR missions to the game, which can be played with several different characters and costumes, it will apparently also include some frankly bizarre bonus features, such as the ability to take Snake skateboarding. The mind boggles. A full run-down on Konami's line-up can be found in the epic press release, with a seperate slightly shorter announcement dedicated to the Disney Sports titles, for those of you with a strange Mickey Mouse fetish. As always you can find a full list of all the games on their way to Europe in our UK release dates list. Related Feature - Konami takes the Mickey