10 Konami Games That Need a Good Revival

Remember that time when Konami's name was synonymous with nearly everything awesome about the 8 and 16-bit eras?

From stellar classics like Contra to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time, Konami stood alongside giants like Capcom and Nintendo with an arsenal of memorable games. Fast forward to today and now the publisher feels like a machine that endlessly churns out sequels upon sequels to Castlevania, Pro Evolution Soccer and Metal Gear Solid.

I’m not even kidding about that last part. The only things one could do at Konami’s E3 booth this year was get into a closed doors, hands-off gameplay preview of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain or peer into a sealed-off VIP area that had demo stations for Pro Evolution Soccer 2015. It’s not the kind of showing I would have expected out of a publisher with such an impressive repertoire of games.

What happened to all those varied and interesting beat-em-ups, shoot-em-ups and RPGs that made Konami (and its shell corporation Ultra Games) such a revered name in the 80s and 90s?

That's exactly what we're about to reminisce. Here we have ten Konami series that could use a good jolt from everybody's favorite ten-button input code.