Castlevania studio Mercury Steam wants to work on Contra revival
Mercury Steam hopes to halt work on Castlevania after Lords of Shadow, says franchise could "decline"
The team behind the latest Castlevania titles has voiced concern over being bogged down by too much Castlevania. Mercury Steam, who has worked on both Mirror of Fate and Lords of Shadow 2, hopes to move into new territory to avoid being known as 'The Castlevania Team.'
Speaking to VG247, Konami EU head of development Dave Cox teased the idea of working on a new Contra, regardless of how well the newest Castlevania does. "I don't want to be in charge of a series that perhaps over a certain time is going to decline. I'd rather go out with a bang and leave that as our legacy in the Castlevania universe."
"We've always felt that when we were given the Castlevania torch, so to speak, that it was never ours to keep. Luckily we got the chance to do our thing, but we were surprised by the success of our game and weren't sure that we were going to get the chance to do another one. That's why there's the epilogue in the first. However, now that we've got the chance to finish the story we really want to do it justice and do something really special."
Cox and his team want to avoid that association, enough to where they can just put this title behind them. "I don't want to be known as Mr. Castlevania," said Cox. "We don't want the team to be known as the Castlevania team. Working in a creative industry, you've got other projects and other ideas you want to work on. And that's something that we and Mercury Steam want to do. We want to work on other projects. We've got other ideas."
That idea seems to be another franchise in the Konami universe, Contra. Cox and his team at Mercury Steam are hoping to revive Contra, which was teased by the publisher in 2011.
"Like I said, I know there's going to be pressure on us to do another Castlevania game, but I don't want to rise to that pressure. I want to do something else.
"I love Contra. I'd love to do Contra. At Mercury Steam we've got an original idea that I think is really awesome. We'd love to bring that idea to market and I'm hoping that the success of Lords of Shadow 2 will allow us to do that," he remarked.