Konami



"UP, UP, DOWN, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT, B, A"

Konami is a popular Tokyo-based maker of video games, toys and trading cards, founded in 1969 as a jukebox rental and repair business in Osaka, Japan. Konami was one of the leading third-party developers during the NES era, with such best-selling games as Gradius, Contra and Metal Gear. It is currently the fourth-largest game company in Japan, behind Nintendo, Sega Sammy and Namco Bandai.

Due to Nintendo's restrictions on third-party licensing during that era, Konami could release only five games per year for the NES. Konami found a way around this by creating a quasi-independent subsidiary known as "Ultra Games", which published the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game, Skate or Die, Metal Gear, and an expanded version of Gyruss, among others. (They made a similar move in Europe with Palcom Software Ltd.) After Nintendo relaxed its standards, Konami closed Ultra in 1992 and absorbed its remaining employees into its American branch. Some of the other Konami staff left that same year to create Treasure Co. Ltd., a company well known for its fast-paced shooters (Gunstar Heroes, Radiant Silvergun, Ikaruga, etc.) Konami also owns a majority stake in Hudson Soft (recently Hudson became a wholly owned subsidiary), though the latter still operates more or less independently.

In the mid-80s, Konami became famous by one of their Classic Cheat Codes, dubbed the "Konami Code". First appearing to US players in the 1986 NES port of Gradius and made popular in the 1988 NES port of Contra, it provided the players of the notoriously-difficult game with 30 lives, rather than the original 3. Due to the game's popularity, the Konami Code now enjoys a pop-culture status on par with the famous 'XYZZY' keyword from Colossal Cave Adventure -- mention the 'Konami Code', and it's a sure bet than any console gamer worth his eyeteeth will know exactly which code you mean.

Fast forward to 2012, Konami's reputation nose dives into a shockingly low state. While the company avoided the DLC/online pass related ire that's become all too common in modern gaming, they made up for it with their abysmal publishing decisions throughout 2011-2012, which can be summed up as Konami not giving a damn to hilariously awful levels. The highlights include releasing the Metal Gear Solid HD collection the same day as mega hit Modern Warfare 3, releasing three separate Silent Hill games within a mere three week span, several games around this time not having enough copies during launch day, the company not advertising games from new franchises at all, switching release dates for games unannounced, and releasing deeply flawed "remasters" of the three main Silent Hill games, despite being aware of the ports' dubious quality prior to release.

In 2015, the company announced they were ceasing their console gaming involvement to concentrate on their mobile games and their non-video gaming ventures, like slot machines and pachinko. That's after Silent Hills was cancelled and Hideo Kojima left Konami.

In no way related to the Konata/Kagami pairing of Lucky Star, or to a certain character named Konami, or to any kind of "economy".

Konami is responsible for the following video game franchises:

 * Amidar
 * Antarctic Adventure
 * Azure Dreams
 * Badlands
 * The Bemani games:
 * Dance Dance Revolution, until recently, the only one of the series ever released outside of Japan.
 * Dance Masters Dance Masters/Dance Evolution
 * Beatmania
 * Para Para Paradise
 * Pop'n Music
 * Keyboardmania
 * Guitar Freaks & Drummania
 * Boktai
 * Castlevania
 * Contra
 * Crime Fighters
 * Crypt Killer
 * Elebits
 * Frogger
 * Ganbare Goemon
 * Gradius
 * Parodius which is the same series, but parodied as a Cute'Em Up.
 * Otomedius, a combination of Gradius plot elements and Parodius sense of humor. Lots of girls, too.
 * Gungage
 * Gyruss
 * Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu
 * MLB Power Pros
 * Konami Krazy Racers
 * Lightning Legend Daigo no Daibouken
 * Lost in Blue (known as Survival Kids in Japan)
 * Love Plus
 * Maze of Galious
 * Meine Liebe
 * Metal Gear
 * Metamorphic Force
 * Mitsumete Knight (made in cooperation with RED Company, the creators of Sakura Taisen)
 * Mystic Warriors
 * Never Dead
 * Policenauts
 * Pro Evolution Soccer/Winning Eleven
 * Project Overkill
 * Rocket Knight Adventures
 * Rumble Roses
 * Rush N Attack
 * Scramble
 * Shadow of Destiny
 * Silent Hill
 * Snatcher
 * Suikoden
 * Sunday VS Magazine Shuuketsu Choujou Daikessen
 * Sunset Riders
 * Thunder Cross
 * Time Pilot
 * Tokimeki Memorial
 * Track and Field
 * Tutankham
 * Twinbee
 * Vandal Hearts
 * Violent Storm
 * Yie Ar Kung-Fu
 * Zone of the Enders

Licensed Games:

 * Alien S (arcade game)
 * Animaniacs
 * Asterix (arcade game)
 * Batman Returns (NES and SNES games)
 * Batman the Animated Series (Game Boy game)
 * The Adventures of Batman & Robin (SNES game)
 * Ben 10 Alien Force: The Rise of Hex
 * Biker Mice From Mars
 * Bucky O'Hare
 * Cabbage Patch Kids: Adventures in the Park
 * Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix
 * Dragon Booster
 * ''G.I.Joe (Arcade game)
 * The Goonies
 * The Grinch
 * Hellboy: The Science of Evil
 * Hi no Tori (Famicom and MSX games)
 * King Kong 2 (Famicom and MSX games)
 * Monster in My Pocket (NES game)
 * The Mummy
 * Plan 9 from Outer Space
 * The Simpsons
 * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)
 * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the Arcade Game (Arcade and NES)
 * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Turtles in Time (Arcade and SNES)
 * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the Manhattan Project (NES)
 * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters (NES, Genesis and SNES)
 * Tiny Toon Adventures
 * Top Gun (NES and Game Boy games)
 * X-Men
 * The Yu-Gi-Oh! video games and Trading Card Game
 * Yu-Gi-Oh Reshef of Destruction

Anime series produced/sponsored by Konami:

 * Best Student Council
 * Bomberman Jetters
 * Dragonaut the Resonance
 * Saint October
 * Sky Girls
 * Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
 * Tokimeki Memorial ~ Only Love

Names associated with Konami:

 * Koji Igarashi (co-designer of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and current producer of the Castlevania series since 2001's Castlevania Chronicles, as well as Tokimeki Memorial 1's scenario writer, and programmer of the PC-Engine ports of Gradius II and Detana!! Twinbee)
 * Ayami Kojima (artist of various Castlevania artwork, though she's done some non-Castlevania stuff as well. No relation to...)
 * Hideo Kojima (lead designer for the Metal Gear series, as well as Snatcher and Policenauts. Also the producer of the Zone of the Enders series and the Boktai series, and the drama director of Tokimeki Memorial Drama Series 1 : Nijiiro no Seishun)
 * Yoshiki Okamoto (designer of the classic arcade games Time Pilot and Gyruss, before his firing; he would later join Capcom)
 * Naoki Maeda (sound director for the Dance Dance Revolution series and the producer of a majority of Konami original songs that debuted in DDR)
 * Takayuki Ishikawa (aka dj Taka; he is to Beatmania IIDX as Naoki is to DDR)
 * Mikio Saito (aka Metal Yuhki ; composer of Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, and composer and music producer of the Tokimeki Memorial series)
 * Shingo Takatsuka (nickname "Seabass"; head designer and producer for the Pro Evolution Soccer series)
 * Michiru Yamane (composer for many Castlevania soundtracks)
 * Akira Yamaoka (the father of Silent Hill)


 * Arc Number: The number 573 appears in many of Konami's games in some way.
 * Classic Cheat Code: Guess.
 * Easter Egg: A lot of Konami's games have these, usually referencing a different game.
 * Eenie Meenie Miny Moai
 * Everything's Better with Penguins: Pentarou, their mascot in the 80s and 90s.
 * Iconic Logo: Well, at least the logo on the page image.
 * Konami Code
 * Stock Sound Effects: Konami's pause jingle that plays in most of the company's 8- and 16-bit games.