It’s Tokyo Game Show time, but if you’re like me and can’t make the trip out to Japan, many of the big game publishers attending are putting their catalogs on sale to celebrate. Konami is one such publisher currently hosting a Steam sale, and looking through its library of discounted games has revealed what a weird publisher it’s always been. Sure, Konami’s got Metal Gear Solid, but it’s also got a lot else, most of it weird and off-kilter or retro as all hell, and it kind of rules.
Let’s start with the big ticket items: a bunch of Metal Gear Solid games are on sale. For example, Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 is currently available for $48 on Steam and Xbox, though it’s even cheaper on PlayStation at $42 for the next couple of days. At those discounted prices, you’re getting a lot more than the packaging lets on, including Metal Gear Solid, MGS2, and MGS3, as well as the original Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Each game also comes with a screenplay and explainer “Master” book, and on Steam and Xbox at least, the mainline MGS games are being sold for $16 apiece. If you’ve wanted to get into the legendary stealth series, this is as good a deal as any, and it’s a journey well worth taking.
Should you decide that you want to keep going, some of the later entries in the franchise, especially some spinoffs, are also on sale. Metal Gear Solid 5: The Definitive Experience, which bundles both the prologue Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain, is going for $18 on Steam and Xbox. My opinion of them is mixed, but most folks hold them up as standard bearers for open-world stealth games. The increasingly popular cult classic Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a completely different type of game, following the cyborg ninja Raiden as he hacks enemies to pieces in exceptionally bloody fashion, and you can also get it for $18 on Steam or for $12 on Xbox via backwards compatibility. If you’ve come this far, you might even be interested in checking out the widely panned zombie-themed Metal Gear Survive for $18, though most people would probably say you’re better off saving that money. I’m not your parent though, just your friendly neighborhood writer.
Outside of the Metal Gear games, Konami’s catalog isa little all over the place, but that’s kind of great in a way—it means that the publisher has a little something for everyone. For example, Silent Hill: Homecoming—no one’s favorite Silent Hill game—is on sale on Steam for $8 in case you’re looking for a horror game to pick up ahead of the scary season. A pair of Yu-Gi-Oh games—Legacy of the Duelist and its updated version Link Evolution—are on sale for $5 and $10, respectively, and I’ve learned that this franchise’s video games are quietly popular, so go nuts picking them up and all their discounted DLCs.
Elsewhere, Konami publishes a lot of retro collections and modern games that are deliberate throwbacks to the early days of video games. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection, for example, is currently $15 on Steam and Xbox, and Rocket Knight Adventures: Re-Sparked Collection can be picked up for $21. Even the most recent Contra title, a remake of the 1987 original, is on sale, as well as a collection of previous games in the series.
There’s also a number of bundles on offer, but the most significant one is the Castlevania Collections Bundle, which packages pretty close to 20 Castlevania games from the series’ decades-long history for $58.47. You get it, there’s a lot here and there’s miraculously even more:
- CYGNI: All Guns Blazing – $23.99 (was $29.99)
- Contra: Operation Galuga – $23.99 (was $29.99)
- Super Bomberman R 2 – $29.99 (was $49.99)
- GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon – $14.99 (was $24.99)
- Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection – $3.99 (was $19.99)
- Contra Anniversary Collection – $3.99 (was $19.99)
So regardless of whether or not you’re in the mood for a stealth game, a 2D beat ‘em up, a bloody good hack ‘n’ slash, or one of the foundational series to gaming’s favorite made up genre (Metroidvania), Konami’s sale might have something that’ll interest you.