Getting generally positive acclaim for their last game; Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, MercurySteam had just plastered their homepage with a new image of their next project, showing a man casually sitting in a cockpit of some form of device and likely piloting it. The homepage also displays a snippet into what the game will be about: “Status: Exploring new worlds, fighting strange creatures, discovering new heroes. Expect news soon.”
Eagle eye onlookers and astute diggers have noted that the attire that the man is outfitted with seems reminiscent of the old Contra uniforms. Furthermore, when clicking on the “I+D+I” link below the twitter handle, you’ll be presented with some spanish that reads:
“With funding from the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism within the National Plan fr Scientific Research, Development and Technological Innovation 2003-2016
- Record TSI – 100900 – 2014 – 080: Multi-genre game development for new platforms: Aleph
- Record TSI – 100900 – 2014 – 058: Naked
Upon looking at the document from the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism of Spain it definitely shows Aleph and Naked with more than 4 million (euro) and 3 million (euro) loaned respectively. What this links to is Dave Cox, a former head of MercurySteam, the Spain-based company, musing about his interests in doing another Contra. Upon parting ways with the company, he tweeted out a tease about the secret project and how unbelievable it is.
Not much else to go on; however, a Contra will be amazing to see again after so long and it’ll at least give Konami that boost in reputation after the mess it’s landed itself in for the last few months.