Konami 2010 Gamer’s Night opened with quite a bang. An overwhelming amount of information flowed forth, exciting the crowd, and many of our nostalgic gaming memories were tantalized.

Kicking off the event was a new Silent Hill game teaser trailer. It has been more than two years since we’ve seen any movement with this franchise, and what we saw kept perfectly in line with the Silent Hill roots we know and love. The low-lighting echoed the mood of Silent Hill environments as a lone figure of a man escaped the gnashing of enemies on a quiet and eerie alley. The trailer wrapped up with “The Silence Ends,” and the crowd cheered.

Continuing in the horror theme, we watched another teaser of Saw 2. The opening sequence showed the son of the previous game’s protagonist. His head is wrapped in a rusted bear trap. The teaser was incredibly over-the-top, showing more ridiculous torture devices, extremely gory set pieces and tons of mini-puzzles. Much of Saw 2 seemed to center on exploration and solving the puzzles through the environment. Though the first Saw game was just released last fall, we should see the next iteration this coming fall.

The third game we were treated to was Rush’N Attack Ex-Patriot. This game will be available on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network this fall. Just like the original, you wander through the game picking up new weapons. You’re dispatched as a soldier to Russia with nothing but a silent knife. One interesting twist is Konami’s new stealth mechanic built into the game. This stealth mechanic will lead to much stabbing from behind, giving players a choice between blazing guns and sneaky espionage.

This brings us to one of the bigger announcements of the evening. While I’m not a wrestling fan, I couldn’t help but be excited by the antics of Lucha Libre AAA Heroes of the Ring. To the crowd’s enjoyment, Konami brought on stage a sweaty, oily, muscle-bound wrestler who actually threw down with the presenter. Of course, the wrestler ended up mingling with the crowd the rest of the night as we previewed playable versions of many of the titles. Lucha Libre presents an incredibly customizable system. The game implements a skill-based system whereby you custom create moves based on your playstyle. Moreover, you can outfit and design almost every aspect of your wrestler, including costuming and the crowd’s slogans/signs. Much of the game is centered on exciting the crowd as you perform ridiculous moves. Very entertaining.

Following Lucha Libre was the F.E.A.R. 3 debut trailer. The trailer opens to what looks like surgeons operating, but something goes terribly wrong, and a voiceover states: “Mother is expecting again.” It then moves to a pregnant woman on the streets screaming in birthing pains as a lone gunman takes out multiple soldiers as a second voiceover states: “Brother is killing again.” Very dark and visceral images continue to flash, demonic spirits can be seen and supernatural powers are on display. Expect a lot more details to emerge at E3; this teaser was only wetting our appetites.

Now to my personal favorite of the night: Ninety-Nine Nights 2. I was a huge fan of the very overlooked original, which featured waves of hundreds (if not thousands) of enemies that flooded the screen while epic and powerful medieval fantasy characters wiped them out. It looks like the sequel provides more of the same with an added twist. The playable level provided by Konami showed incredibly huge bosses that threw attacks at you while you took on waves of enemies. Once you cleared the enemies. you then engaged in the epic-style bosses. The battles truly felt epic on every level. Again, we saw quite a diversity of playable characters with even bigger power attacks than before. I did get the sense that the enemies on screen were fewer in number than the previous game, but the bosses on the battlefield added quite a bit more danger. Unlike the previous title in which the player felt like a god on screen, in this sequel, you actually get hurt. A lot. This makes for a much higher level of battle tactics necessary to survive.

This brings us to another AAA title with high expectations: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. This game brought about some of the biggest cheers from the crowd. Many leaks online lead to high expectations, and what we saw completely delivered on every front and more. Konami wanted to keep the fans of the original excited while attracting a new/younger player base. Truth be told, those who have loved this franchise for 25 years were skeptical of the approach, but after watching the trailer, our fears were put to rest. While no specific references to the original Castlevania timeline were inferred, many of the original’s characters/themes and music were seen. Full-on 3-D goodness and beautiful art, an intriguing sad and melancholy storyline (a man looking to bring back his murdered wife), and kick-ass action were on display. Heavy platforming elements and exploration themes were implemented. This reboot maintained the grappling hook/combat Cross, and the tool/weapon can be used to climb as well as battle the enemies. Castlevania also implemented epic monsters called Titans. These massively epic boss battles were incredibly HUGE. It was quite fun to see these unexpectedly in the gameplay footage. Moreover, amazing voice talent, including PATRICK STEWART, has been added to the game. These voice actors bring about a true emotional element that can’t be denied.

One of the truly unique titles to be displayed was Lost in Shadow. This game conjured images in our minds reminiscent of recent games that push game-design boundaries like Braid or Flower. This platformer has you exploring puzzle-esque set pieces while using shadows as an alternate route to discover new paths for solving these puzzles. The story follows a shadow who was severed from its owner and cast off the side of a tall floating castle. You must make your way back up the castle to find your trapped owner and free him. You can swing the view of an entire level to reveal the shadow the platform is casting. You then can move about on the shadows as though they were real physical objects. Keep your eye on this one; game designers will be referencing it in many upcoming game designs. A truly unique experience to say the least. invalid item ID specified in tag

Finally, this brings us to the last of the AAA titles revealed at the show: Def Jam Rapstar. This title is along the same lines as other next-gen rhythm-based games. Konami has partnered with Def Jam to create Rapstar. Unlike previous music games, Rapstar uses real rap videos with a karaoke-style implementation. Rap fanatics will be enthused to hear that big names such as Dr. Dre and Kanye are on board for this project. Many of the videos are brought from our fondest memories of the Dr. Dre/Snoop Dogg 1990s era. Gamers will rap to lyrics as the float across the screen, battling it out with their friends. It was difficult to tell, but it seemed much of the scoring was based on the timing of the rap delivery. A fun experience overall, with great hype and raptastic fanfare.

Some of the games presented at Konami Gamer’s Day but not touched on in this review were primarily downloadable games, such as Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D Decade Duels, Rocket Knight, The Cages: Pro Style Batting Practice, Oops Prank Party, Frogger Returns, Deca Sports 3 and Ben 10 Alien Force: The Rise of Hex.