During an impromptu interview held in a hotel bathroom, mecha fans’ hopes for a new game in the Zone of the Enders series were dashed as Hideo Kojima explained that the project currently receiving his direct attention wasn’t Zone of the Enders 3. He is already supervising the development of the new 3D Castlevania, “Castlevania: Lords of Shadow”, and Metal Gear Solid Rising, so Kojima has his fingers in too many pies to do a ZoE sequel justice.

While Mecha Damashii’s response to the ZoE games has been ambivalent at times, the franchise itself has much more potential than was ever realized in the actual games, and we’d love to get our grubby mitts on a third installment. While some of the franchise’s mechanics are in serious need of a tune-up, the background story and narrative of the games have always lived up to the promise of having Hideo Kojima’s name associated with them, and I don’t doubt that Konami, if they gave a third ZoE game their full attention, could get the functional issues out of the way.

Unlike, say, From Software, Konami doesn’t have the distinct advantage of being a mecha games-centric company, and it takes time and hard work to develop a team capable of delivering something on the level of Armored Core, and I don’t think any company or game designer could perform that feat without giving the project their fullest attention. It’s worth noting the games reviewed well (despite selling poorly), so a spruced-up ZoE could be absolutely killer.

Let’s just hope we see the Vic Viper from Gradius again, seeing as how the venerable shmup spaceship has been inexplicably replaced with, uh, teenage girls.