Konami Classics Series: Arcade Hits
Konami Classics Series: Arcade Hits, released as Konami Arcade Collection in Japan and Konami Arcade Classics in Europe and Oceania, is a collection of 15 classic arcade games by Konami for the Nintendo DS.
Lineup
The compilation features the following games:| Title | Release | Original title |
| Scramble | 1981 | |
| Tutankham | 1982 | Horror Maze |
| Pooyan | 1982 | |
| Time Pilot | 1982 | |
| Track and Field | 1983 | Hyper Olympic ; Track and Field |
| Roc 'N Rope | 1983 | |
| Super Basketball | 1984 | Basketball |
| Circus Charlie | 1984 | |
| Road Fighter | 1984 | |
| TwinBee | 1985 | RainbowBell |
| Yie Ar Kung-Fu | 1985 | |
| Shao-Lin's Road | 1985 | Kicker |
| Gradius | 1985 | Nemesis |
| Rush'n Attack | 1985 | Green Beret |
| Contra | 1987 | Gryzor |
When Tutankham and Super Basketball were released in the U.S., they originally kept their original names. Horror Maze and Basketball are names exclusive to this collection. It is unknown why the games' names were changed. This compilation also marks the first North American appearance of the original TwinBee arcade game in any form.
Other features
- The compilations also includes extensive historical information and options for each game. Additionally, if the system's language is set to Japanese, all the games will run in their Japanese versions, although even then, Tutankham, Hyper Olympic, Super Basketball, TwinBee, and Green Beret still use the Horror Maze, Track and Field, Basketball, RainbowBell, and Rush 'n Attack names respectively in the Western version. Menus and text will also be changed to Japanese. In addition, while the differences between the Japanese and international versions of most of the games are minimal, Gradius is the most notable exception. When the DS is set to any language other than Japanese, the European version is seen, which features a different title screen, higher difficulty, lacks the separate "START" screen, and with "Option" renamed "Multiple".
- The "Morning Music" can be heard during the intro. The "Morning Music" is the boot-up music for Konami's Bubble System, which was a hardware Konami used for their arcade games in 1985. Gradius and TwinBee are the two games in this collection that originally ran on the Bubble System.
- While the original arcade version of Track and Field featured "Chariots of Fire" by Vangelis, in this version, the theme is retained, but has been altered into a non-copyright infringing rendition presumably due to licensing issues. Additionally some music from Rush'n Attack has also been altered.
Reception
Reception for Konami Classics Series: Arcade Hits has been slightly positive, garnering an average score of 76% on Game Rankings. Complaints have revolved around either some of the included games simply "aren't really worth playing" or the visuals being "squashed" or "jittery". 1UP was even more critical of the included game library, considering it dated and lame. Furthermore, some sites such as IGN or VGRC lamented the lack of Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection support.