-text c-gray-1″ >Konami is celebrating its 50th birthday with three new compilations based on Castlevania, Contra and its early hatenablog.com/entry/2019/07/19/203320″>arcade game games, each available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC (via Steam).

The first collection, Arcade Classics, comprises a bumper pack of Konami’s 1980s hits, including Haunted Castle, A-Jax, Gradius, Gradius 2, Life Force, Thunder Cross, Scramble and TwinBee. This one goes on digital sale on April 18 for the reasonable price of $20.

Next up, and arriving in “early summer,” is the Castlevania: Anniversary Collection. This will also include eight titles, four of which have been confirmed: Castlevania (NES), Castlevania 2: Belmont’s Revenge (Game Boy), Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse (NES) and Super Castlevania 4 (Super NES). Most of these have been accessible before in some shape or form, but having them on Switch and other contemporary platforms is a nice addition to the Konami catalogue.

The Contra: Anniversary Collection will also arrive in early summer, again an eight-title collection, with confirmed games including Contra (arcade game), Super Contra (arcade), Super C (NES), and Contra 3: The Alien Wars (Super NES) — a great pickup for retro enthusiasts.

Konami says that each collection will come with a digital book that features behind-the-scenes notes, never-before seen design sketches and interviews with development staff. While it’s not yet clear which other titles will round out the Castlevania and Contra collections, Konami certainly has a decent catalogue to choose from. It would be great to see Vampire Killer for the MSX2 on a modern platform, for example.