Konami takes DS back in time with its Arcade Hits

With almost every major publisher boasting a back catalogue releasing a collection of remastered retro hits for PSP, it was only a matter of time before they decided DS ought to be similarly swamped get its own batch of retro goodness.

Kicking things off today is Konami, which to be fair released a similar collection for the Game Boy Advance back in 2002, including classics such as Frogger and Scramble.

For the DS incarnation, Konami Classics Series: Arcade Hits, eight of the 12 titles have been announced: Circus Charlie, Contra, Gradius, Roc'n Rope, Rush'N Attack, Time Pilot, Track and Field and Yie-Ar Kung Fu.

Well, four out of eight isn't so bad, considering the rose-tinted spectacles with which many elderly games view Contra, Gradius, Yie-Ar Kung Fu and Track and Field. You'd probably have your work cut out finding any expectant fans of Circus Charlie though.

Nevertheless Konami is promising some contemporary fizz. The games will be available in both dualscreen format and their original configuration, which means you'll play them just using the DS's topscreen rotated through 90 degrees to provide the correct aspect ratio, at least for the likes of Contra, which was a vertical scrolling game in its original incarnation.

And where appropriate, wi-fi multiplayer modes are promised, as well as high score uploads, replays and the ability to check out the history of each game with artwork and the like.

Konami has yet to say when its Classics Series: Arcade Hits will be out, but let's face it, if you've been waiting twenty years, another six months won't make much difference, will it?