Last week, the Australian Classification website had rated something referred to as the Castlevania Anniversary Collection. We all had our fingers crossed that it was indeed true, and it is!
Konami has officially announced not one but three digital-only collections as part of their Konami 50th Anniversary Collection, each of which comes will an eBook that includes a bunch of goodies exclusive to each collection. The collections will be available on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.
The first collection, Anniversary Collection: Arcade Classics is due out first on April 18 for $19.99USD, and consists of eight arcade masterpieces of the 80s:
- Haunted Castle (1998)
- Typhoon (A-JAX) (1987)
- Nemesis (Gradius) (1985)
- Vulcan Venture (Gradius II) (1988)
- Life Force (Salamander) (1986)
- Thunder Cross (1988)
- Scramble (1981)
- TwinBee (1985, Japan-exclusive)
- eBook packed with new information about the titles, including interviews with the development staff, behind-the-scenes insights, and sketches and design documents never before revealed to the public!
The second collection that you’ve been waiting for, the Castlevania Anniversary Collection, comes this summer. Sadly, it will not contain all of the classic Castlevania titles (only eight games?!), but instead will be “designed to be a completed collection around the origins of the historic franchise.” The rest of the games will be announced at a later date.
- Castlevania (1987, NES)
- Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse (1990, NES)
- Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge (1991, Game Boy)
- Super Castlevania IV (SNES, 1991)
- bonus eBook
Lastly, there’s the Contra Anniversary Collection, which is also due this summer. Again, it seems that this eight-game collection will only gather the most important entries in the series. Again, the rest of the games will be announced in the future.
- Contra(1987, Arcade)
- Super Contra (1988, Arcade)
- Super C (1990, NES)
- Contra III: The Alien Wars (1992, SNES)
- bonus eBook