Konami announces new PS2 and PSP titles

Konami's stand at E3 this year is, by the sounds of it, quite a noisy one. Possibly quite a sweaty one as well; the Japanese company is showcasing crazy dancing titles like Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME and Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix 2, and anyone who's had to stand near one of those machines for a while knows that the smell of jiggling nerd flesh can be quite overpowering after a while. I wonder if Konami are planning to sell own-brand deodorant as well?

In between the twinkle-toed masses and the crooning joys of Karaoke Revolution Volume 2, however, our pals at Konami have found time to announce a few new games which will be winging their way to Sony's PSP and PS2 platforms in the coming year.

First up is Metal Gear Acid, the official title of the Metal Gear game on the PlayStation which Hideo Kojima is currently beavering away on (when he's not working on MGS3: Snake Eater and his new Boktai title, Solar Boy Django, presumably). We don't know very much about Acid yet, except that it's apparently going to "redefine handheld action gaming" - which is nice.

The title immediately puts us in mind of some form of Apocalypse Now epilogue to Snake Eater where the central characters get together and do some hallucinogenic drugs - actually, given Kojima, that's not entirely improbable, is it? We'll know for certain when the game launches next year.

Next up is Phantom Crash 2050, a robot battling game for the PS2 which is set in, er, 2071 (we can only assume that someone on the development team is slightly numerically challenged) and allows you to bash other mechs around in online arenas which support up to eight players, although only four of them can actually fight head to head at any time.

Phantom Crash 2050 expands on the Tokyo location from the Xbox Phantom Crash title and lets you fight in 2070s versions of Las Vegas, New York, and London, and you'll be able to start smashing things up in it in February 2005.

RPG fans will be interested to hear that Konami is bringing a Ys game to the English-speaking world for the first time in 13 years; Ys: The Ark of Napishtim is due to arrive on PS2 and PSP in early 2005. The classic series will become one of the first titles to be launched on both handheld and home console format simultaneously - with both versions expected to be almost identical, although we don't know if there'll be any interoperability between them.

Speaking of swords and sorcery, Konami has also been handed the task of developing a videogame based on forthcoming summer blockbuster King Arthur, starring Clive Owen as the most improbably-accented Arthur we've ever heard, which is set to be released on PS2, Xbox and Cube.