Take a trip into the world of digital graphic novels as Konami brings two of its biggest franchises to the small screen.
When you think about it, it's pretty impressive what PSP can do. Able to play games, watch movies, store photos, play music and surf the web, PSP seemingly has a finger in every multimedia pie. It hasn't gone unnoticed by publishers either, and now games publisher Konami is looking to explore the limits of the UMD format and create a true multimedia experience for PSP in their new offerings, The Silent Hill Experience and the Metal Gear Solid Digital Graphic Novel.
These discs seek to take you deeper into the worlds of two of Konami's, and PlayStation's, most successful gaming franchises, through the use of music, illustration and in-depth storytelling. Kudos to Konami for trying a new direction, but has it worked?
The Silent Hill Experience isn't a game, more of an interactive media presentation, taking you deeper into the world of Silent Hill. Based in the Midwich Elementary School of the games, TSHE allows you to explore the various ruined rooms within, each of which has some audio or visual horrors for you to digest.
The main focus of the UMD is the digital graphic novels you can find, of which there are six, each exploring some aspect of the darker side of human nature. Serial killers, mental patients, cannibals and monsters all rub shoulders in the various stories, which are certainly not for the faint of heart, containing liberal lashings of robust language, as well as blood by the bucketload.
The stories unfold in the typical graphic novel style, but as there are no pages to turn, the images proceed through cool animated transitions, accompanied by sound effects and music from the games. The comics do a great job of capturing the feel of the games; the various art styles are disjointed and bleak, and the stories have the reader constantly questioning the nature of reality.
As well as the comics there are a host of other spooky Silent Hill goodies, including a collection of music from all the games in the series, as well as trailers, images from the games, and interviews with the composer Akira Yamaoka and director of the Silent Hill feature film, Christophe Gans.
Next on Konami's interactive media menu is the Metal Gear Solid Digital Graphic Novel. Much more of a straightforward graphic novel than the Silent Hill Experience, MGS: TDGN is an action-packed retelling of the events from the first Metal Gear Solid game, complete with animated transitions and classic sound effects, like the instantly recognizable Codec bleep.
The storyline to MGS makes for a perfect graphic novel, with espionage, double-crossing and pulse-pounding action at every turn, and the digital graphic novel recreates the series' iconic art style fantastically well.
When viewing the comic, you can also press the Square button to open a Memory Search mode that allows you to scan the comic panels for characters and items. Anything you find gets added to your visual database and you can wirelessly trade this information with friends.
Rather than being just tarted-up comic books, these digital graphic novels take comics into a new and interesting space where the unique aspects of PSP can create a more immersive environment. Traditional graphic novel art and stories are lent an extra dimension by these multimedia additions that will hopefully pave the way for lots more to come in the future. More please!
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