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Metal Gear Rising demo included with Zone of the Enders HD Collection

If you've been twitching in anticipation of slash-happy spin-off Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance then you should pay close attention to the impending launch of Konami's Zone of the Enders HD Collection. That retro bundle will come with the first playable demo of the game, which sees Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima handing control of his baby over to Bayonetta developer Platinum Games.

The result is an action game centred around Metal Gear Solid supporting character Raiden, now reborn as a cybernetically enhanced ninja. You'll slice your way through dozens of enemies, using an innovative new control scheme that allows you to direct every single slash of Raiden's sword using the analogue control sticks.

Not that you should need much of an excuse to pick up Zone of the Enders. Another Kojima creation, it's a frantic mech combat shooter with an emphasis on epic space battles. The first game, released in 2001 for the PlayStation 2, came with a demo of the then-upcoming Metal Gear Solid 2. See? It all fits together beautifully.

The Zone of the Enders HD Collection remasters both the original games in the series, with the second game appearing in its European special edition form. That means you get lots of extra stuff, such as new mechs, scenarios and game modes.

Zone of the Enders HD Collection should be released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 - the first time the games will have appeared on the Xbox platform - later this year. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is due in February 2013. A long overdue new Zone of the Enders game is in development, Kojima has confirmed. Whether it will beat the recently announced open world Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes to the shelves has yet to be confirmed.