New video: ‘Metal Gear’ (1987)

Hideo Kojima’s first work as a solo director and the first installment of the famous saga is an important step in the development and maturity of stealth games, although its political content is more moderate than in later installments, here are revealed some of the strongest points of Kojima as a designer. 35 years later, we return to a game that remains as fresh as the first day.

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TRANSCRIPTION:

Today we talk about the origin of a conflict. Of the beginnings of a soldier and of the first but timid steps of a man called Hideo Kojima.

THE DEVELOPMENT

When Hideo Kojima came to work at Konami having lied on his resume, he dreamed of being able to make arcade and Famicom games. However, the company put him to work in the division that dealt with MSX, Microsoft’s personal computer. Kojima was disillusioned by the development limitations offered by MSX. In addition, Konami had placed him as Ryouhei Shogaki’s assistant, designing the sequel to “Antartic Adventure”, titled “Penguin Adventure”.

“Penguin Adventure” included more elaborate elements than its predecessor. From mini-games to final bosses, power-ups that could be purchased as we progressed, RPG elements and alternate endings.
Kojima tried to push forward a project titled “Lost Warld”. “Warld” was an acronym mixing the words “World” with “War” and was apparently going to star a female version of Indiana Jones named Jaime, nicknamed “Masked Fighter,” who celebrates her honeymoon with her husband Frederick aboard the Titanic. But, instead of the famous iceberg, the ship would hit a lost continent and Frederick would be kidnapped by a man named Mr. Cloudman.

After six months of work, Konami completely rejected the idea with a very advanced design document and put Kojima to work on another project that was having trouble: an action game in the style of SNK’s “Ikari Warriors” or Capcom’s “Commando”. Codename: “Project N312”.

From the idea of “Lost Warld”, Jaime’s name would reappear in the ex-wife of the protagonist of “Snatcher”, both characters inspired by “The Bionic Woman” actress Lindsay Wagner, with whom Kojima would end up working on “Death Stranding”.

The MSX did not allow to keep many enemies and bullets at the same time on the same screen, in addition to lacking image scrolling which meant having to separate each area into small screens. Taking the movie “The Great Evasion” as a reference, Kojima then thought of reformulating the game to avoid confrontation and try to sneak through the guards, hiding as we progressed through a military base full of prisoners of war to rescue. As the game’s design evolved with Kojima’s ideas, it went from being called “Project N312” to “Metal Gear”, which led to a private joke of calling the in-game mission “Intrude N313”.

Instead of constant attacks, the enemies were by default in specific positions, following patrol routines and switched to harassing the protagonist once he was discovered, following a logic similar to the ghosts in “Pac-Man”. The game also had a notable antecedent in another MSX release, “Super Rambo Special”.

The concept also failed to convince Konami executives who felt that such a slow and methodical game would be boring. Kojima then resigned but was convinced to stay and at least try to finish this game.

And the rest is history.

THE STORY

The year is 1995. 200 kilometers north of Galzburg, South Africa, lies Outer Heaven Fortress, a state of its own founded by a mercenary in the late 1980s. Believing the small army of mercenaries commanding the fortress may be a future threat, FOXHOUND Special Forces, commanded by the legendary Big Boss, have sent their best agent, Gray Fox, as an infiltrator. However, Gray Fox has been discovered and captured. His last transmission ended with two mysterious words, “Metal… Gear…..”
To rescue Gray Fox and discover the meaning of his strange message, Big Boss sends a rookie soldier, codenamed Solid Snake. What he discovers there will change the world forever. Thus begins operation “Intrude N313”, what history will remember as the Outer Heaven Uprising.

Solid Snake infiltrates Outer Heaven through an underwater passage. He has arrived with no other object in his possession than a few cigarettes. As soon as he steps on the surface, Big Boss contacts him with his transceiver and informs him of his mission objective: to rescue Gray Fox.

Snake enters the courtyard of the first of the three buildings that make up Outer Heaven. Here, avoiding any confrontation, he approaches a series of parked trucks, where he gets rations, binoculars (which allow him to see what the following screens look like in four directions) and the Key Card Number 1. Thanks to this card he can sneak into a warehouse where a guard is sleeping and get the gas mask. On the way, in another truck, he finds the pistol, although still without ammunition, and he can also stock up on explosive mines. Well equipped, he only needs to wait for the guards at the main gate to change shifts to use Card Number 1 and enter the first building.

Avoiding detection by the cameras and guards making their rounds, Snake again uses Card Number 1 on a door where he gets his first ammunition for the pistol. In the next room he finds the first of the 22 prisoners from Outer Heaven. When he decides to continue through another door, he is surprised by a room full of gas that begins to damage his health. At that moment, Big Boss contacts him to tell him that he forgot to mention that the gas-filled rooms require a gas mask to get through them without taking damage. Snake quickly equips his mask and proceeds forward through the complex.

The next prisoner we rescue warns us that another FOXHOUND member infiltrated a few days ago, but that’s all he can tell us. It is, without a doubt, Grey Fox. In a room with a dangerous roller, Snake finds plastic explosives that will be of great help to him in the future. Continuing with the infiltration, Snake manages to get hold of Card Number 2 which opens new doors, including one where he adds a new weapon to his arsenal: homing missiles.

In a room with an electrified floor, Snake uses the guided missiles to destroy a control panel and move forward. The third prisoner we freed gives us the transmission code 120.33 to talk to field agent Diane, who is also the lead singer of the positive punk band Thin Wall. Diane has information on the main enemies on the base, but if Snake contacts her as soon as he receives her frequency, her brother Steve tells us she’s out shopping.

Unlocking doors with Card Number 2, Snake comes across a cardboard box that allows him to go unnoticed by guards and cameras as long as he stands still when he enters their range of vision, easily the most useful item of his adventure. Upon entering another of the base’s rooms, Snake is surprised by four soldiers waiting for him. With no choice but to defeat them, the last of them leaves at our disposal a silencer, which, fitted to our pistol, makes us totally lethal without fear of triggering alarms. In addition, in the same instance you will find a Grenade Launcher. After rescuing another prisoner, Snake infiltrates another elevator with which he can access the second floor of the first building.

This floor contains a network of lasers that warn of our presence. Cigarette smoke isn’t going to get Snake out of this one but, luckily, the lasers are static and, knowing the pattern, he can sneak between them.
With the fifth prisoner rescued, Snake moves up in rank, allowing him to carry more ammunition, rations and have higher life levels, although in the event that he shoots a prisoner, Snake would be demoted and, likely, unable to move up and complete his mission.

The sixth prisoner tells Snake about Gray Fox, captured in a secret cell, where can he be found? While exploring, Snake gets his hands on a machine gun. The seventh prisoner further clarifies how to get to Gray Fox: Snake must allow himself to be captured. Proceeding down a dead end path, Snake is imprisoned, stripped of all his weapons and items and taken to a dark cell.

Big Boss contacts us again. We must check the cell walls with our fists, looking for a suspicious sound. By knocking down a false wall, Snake finds himself in Grey Fox’s cell. In his rescue, he solves the great mystery: Metal Gear is an armed tank capable of launching nuclear warheads. Its designer, Dr. Drago Pettrovich Madnar, is imprisoned in Outer Heaven and is the only one who knows how to destroy the mechanical spawn. Snake leaves the cell to find himself in the basement on the second floor, but is soon surprised by…

… “Shoot Gunner” or “Shoot Maker”. The first of the Outer Heaven bosses. Unarmed, Snake is no match for this trigger-happy soldier, so hit one of the doors to find his items there and, in addition, Card Number 3. Armed again, defeating this boss is a piece of cake for Snake.

If Snake doesn’t check his inventory, you will see that now all the soldiers in the base detect him instantly. This is because, when he retrieved his inventory, a transmitter that alerts his position was included. After getting rid of it, Snake explores the labyrinthine basement full of guard dogs from which he cannot hide. Remembering the false wall of his cell, Snake probes the walls of the area and uses plastic explosives to knock down walls. He finds a heavy Bomb Suit and an enemy uniform, which, however, is no good with most of the soldiers who instantly recognize him as an intruder.

With nothing else to do, Snake takes the elevator back to the second floor. With Card Number 3, Snake can get his hands on infrared goggles. With them, he can only see in black and white except for the lasers, allowing him to move around more quietly. He is now able to free another prisoner who explains that Dr. Pettrovich is locked in an isolation cell in the courtyard.

On his way to the courtyard, Snake encounters the second boss of the base: “Machine Gun Kid”. Hiding behind some shelves, Snake uses his homing missiles to not even break a sweat against this enemy. After the victory, a new item: the parachute.

To descend to the courtyard he must parachute from the roof, so he takes the elevator. However, the wind on the roof is too strong as Big Boss alert in a transmission. Luckily, the Explosive Suit he picked up earlier is heavy enough that he doesn’t fear the gale. The wind also moves two small bridges that cross the rooftop from side to side, so you have to tread carefully.

As soon as Snake crosses the bridges, he is spotted by a soldier in a flying backpack, with no way to hide. In a hurry, he uses homing missiles to disable an electrified floor and goes inside to pick up a Mine Detector. Unable to outrun the soldiers, Snake runs across the roof until he encounters…

… The Hind D. A dangerous attack helicopter. Or, at least, an intimidating helicopter because, well positioned and armed with a grenade launcher, the Hind D barely touches Snake.

With the Hind D destroyed, Snake accesses a balcony from which he can parachute. The landing in the courtyard is successful, albeit surrounded by guard dogs. Here there are two trucks surrounded by buried mines, so the mine finder helps Snake dodge them. One of the trucks contains a Key Card Number 4 but the other one moves as soon as Snake gets in and moves him to the entrance of the base, forcing him to go all the way around the first building again.

Trying to find Dr. Pettrovich in the courtyard, Snake finds another prisoner in his place, who explains that the doctor has been moved to the second building, ten kilometers north, for security reasons.

With Card 4, Snake leaves the first building and begins his first trek through the desert. The ground is full of mines and as soon as Snake moves north, shells start falling from the sky. That’s because there is a tank on the defensive wall of the second building. Finally, a difficult enemy to fight. The only thing that damages it is to take advantage of the moments where it retreats to place mines under its tracked wheels. At least 11 mines are necessary and Snake has to make use of his rations to avoid falling into a tough resistance fight.

The tank is destroyed and Snake enters the compound. There are three guards posted at the door of the second building and one of them alerts the two of a possible FOX HOUND infiltrator. Big Boss explains to Snake that he can only progress if he wears an enemy uniform which, luckily, he got in the basement where he was locked up. He also informs us that his new frequency is 120.13 because someone seems to be sabotaging the transmissions. Thanks to the uniform, the guards open the door for us without any suspicion.

The interior of the second floor of the second building is formed by a water channel. Snake can use it to move in areas that are not fully covered or his lungs are damaged, but it is also possible that a guard can see him from there. Opening a door to get out of the water channel, Snake finds himself face to face with the Excavator.

The Excavator is not easy. If Snake does not react very quickly, it will be the end of him. It is necessary to use the grenade launcher and hit at least eight times so that the Excavator does not run him over. Turning back is not an option.

Using the infrared goggles, Snake crosses to the next elevator. The second building has the particularity that its two elevators only work in one direction: that is to say, going up in this elevator prevents us from going back down. Arriving at the roof, Snake is again hopelessly detected. In his escape, he rescues another prisoner of war who confirms that Dr. Pettrovich is imprisoned in the basement of the building. He also finds Card Number Five.

Rushing across the rooftop, Snake reaches the second elevator where he can finally descend through the building. In the basement he confronts more dogs, goes through more gas-filled rooms and finally reaches the cell where the doctor is being held. But, as he approaches, the prisoner reveals that he is an imposter and opens a trap door under his own feet in the hope of trapping Snake as well. Luckily, he manages to dodge him in time and get hold of Card Number Six, but one wonders where the real Dr. Pettrovich is.

While trying to get out of the basement, Snake is accosted by the sixth boss of Outer Heaven: “Fire Trooper”. The poor boss doesn’t stand a chance.
Snake returns to the second floor and the water channel to get hold of a flashlight and an antenna. The latter allows him to reset his transceiver after Big Boss alerts that someone is jamming communications. Upon rescuing another prisoner, he clues us in that following the channel leads to the third building, but we’ll need a Number Seven Card to open the door.
On the second floor, Snake manages to elude guards to a room with two cyborgs: the Arnolds, or Bloody Brads. They will not alert the enemy and will not attack unless Snake gets in their line of sight. With no weapon in his arsenal that can hurt them, Snake tries to free more prisoners on this floor. One of those freed hands Snake Jennifer’s frequency, 120.48, but warns that he will not answer any calls from anyone with less than four-star rank. Fortunately, Snake’s actions in freeing 20 prisoners so far have led him to achieve that rank.

Exploring more of the floor, Snake finds the real Dr. Pettrovich. He confesses his involvement in the design of Metal Gear and the need to destroy it, but will not provide us with the method of destruction until he knows that his daughter Ellen, also a prisoner, is safe. Also available on the same floor is a scorpion venom antidote that Snake keeps just in case.
Calling Jennifer in front of the door of an empty room, the agent grants us a rocket launcher. With this weapon, the cyborgs fall without trouble and leave behind the coveted Card Number Seven. Jennifer is again helpful by opening a door where a compass is found for orientation.

In the basement, Snake receives a call from his contact, Kyle Schneider. Schneider could provide information about certain weapons during the mission, but here he alerts his partner to the gas in the basement. In another back room, with no light at all, Diane calls to ask Snake to watch out for traps and make use of his flashlight. At the end of this journey, Snake finds himself back in the basement of the first building.

Entering an empty cell, it appears that Ellen is not there until Snake hears a faint cry for help. Tapping on a wall, Snake reveals the secret cell where Dr. Pettrovich’s daughter was being held. Before leaving the basement of this building, Snake gets hold of a bulletproof vest that strengthens his chances against enemies.

Back in Dr. Pettrovich’s cell in the second building, the doctor explains that Metal Gear is hidden in the 100th basement of the third building. The only way to destroy the dangerous weapon is with a sequence of plastic explosives at the machine’s feet. There are 16 directions but the doctor has forgotten the last one so it will be up to Snake to figure out if it’s the left or right leg.

Crossing the water channel, Snake leaves the second building and heads for the third. To do so, he must cross the most dangerous part of the desert: full of scorpions and easy to get lost. Fortunately, the antidote, the rations and the compass allow him to continue, even if he is not unharmed.

At the entrance of the third building several soldiers are waiting for him. It’s an ambush! Big Boss calls to ask Snake to hide in the central truck on the right, but it’s a trap. Instead, Snake enters the building. Inside are more soldiers and Big Boss asks Snake to hide in the room to the left, but there Snake barely dodges another trap. There is no doubt that, with all his forgetfulness and directions, Big Boss is sabotaging the mission.
Using a plastic explosive on the wall and dodging a multitude of traps, Snake makes it to the elevator to the basement. The descent of the 100 floors is a long one….

Once there, there is little Snake can do: he doesn’t have the last Access Key, Number 8. However, Jennifer calls to warn that, behind another false wall, is a diving system. Snake now has a plan and decides to return to the second building.

Using the diving system to traverse the deepest part of the water channel, Snake reaches a new area. There Schneider calls to say that he has discovered who the leader of Outer Heaven is only to have his call cut off at that instant. Snake continues exploring until he finds the hideout of…
“Coward Duck”, the eighth boss of Outer Heaven. True to his name, this boomerang-throwing soldier uses three prisoners as human shields. Jennifer calls us, worried, because one of the soldiers turns out to be her brother. With several very precise shots, Snake defeats Coward Duck, acquires Key Number 8 and unties the prisoners. Jennifer’s brother advises her, when the time comes, to take the staircase on the left to leave Outer Heaven.

It’s time for the final showdown. Well stocked with ammunition. Snake heads to the third building, descends the 100 floors by elevator and dodges the cameras that shoot laser beams. In one room, Snake finds the last prisoner who reveals that behind Outer Heaven is… Big Boss! (dun dun duuun!). But why?

As Snake heads to the hangar where the Metal Gear is located, Big Boss calls and asks to abort the mission, even asking him to turn off the MSX. But there’s no other way: this has to end right now. After dodging traps, gas chambers and mines, Snake reaches an electrified floor with no control panel. Jennifer calls to tell him that the only way through is to take damage. And in the aftermath, he finds…

“Metal Gear.” Immobile and menacing, but guarded by two relentless cameras. Placing the plastic explosives at his feet in the right order is an exercise in maximum tension and risk. Especially since Snake does not know the last position. Trying to guess, Snake places the last charge on the right leg. Luck is on his side.

But the destruction of Metal Gear has triggered the self-destruction of Outer Heaven. It’s time to leave this place. Only one last unpleasant surprise remains, the final obstacle: Big Boss.

The traitorous boss explains that the goal had always been to send Snake to receive false information, but he didn’t expect someone so novice to get this far and really mess up his plans. Now, he plans to hold him there until the base is destroyed. Diane calls one last time and awkwardly tries to confess her feelings for Snake. She has no advice for us on how to defeat Big Boss: he’s a perfect soldier. But even the most perfect soldier can be vulnerable to several rockets all over his face.

With Big Boss defeated, there is little time left to run away. However, Snake calms his nerves, smokes a cigarette and remembers what Jennifer’s brother had told him: take the staircase on the left. The other stairs would have led him to dead ends and he would have lost too much time to evacuate.

Snake runs for the outside, but the base does not self-destruct: NATO itself launches a bombing raid to make sure no one survives the incident. Snake calls his headquarters and reports the destruction of Metal Gear. Operation Intrude N313 has been a success. South African broadcaster KNK reports the bombing as if it had been a simple earthquake in Galzburg. Some more peacetime has been gained today.

But the voice of Big Boss, the REAL Big Boss and not the impostor who has died here, announces that this is not over. He and Snake will meet again four years later in Zanzibar Land to settle their differences… but that… is another story.

THE GAMEPLAY

As always, deciding which version to play before analyzing it in one of these videos is a task I don’t take lightly. The original MSX version has translation problems and many modern emulators require setting up an older keyboard model than the current standard. The Nintendo version is practically another different game, which I’ll talk about in detail in another section of this video. In the West, the best version available for a while was the one included in “Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence”. After much meditation, I opted for a PC version available from Good Old Games that, although it lacks a CTR filter and uses a more modern typography that clashes with the pixelated graphics, contains a much more accurate translation and allows saving at any time.

That save system is external to the game itself, opening a separate window. Instead of saving at a time and place determined, as would make an emulator, the PC version saves the progress we have made: if we have collected some object, weapon or rescued some of the prisoners, the game keeps that progress but not the place where we find ourselves, causing us to load, to load starting, let us get generally from the transition screens as the promoters.

This produces a curious exploit: we can pick up some ammunition, save the game, reload it and the ammunition remains in place, adding to the ammunition we already had. It is true that the MSX version allowed rations or ammunition for the gun to reappear when we left its corresponding screen, but the PC version expands and facilitates it with this saving system.

It also causes other drawbacks. Because we have to save at least 15 prisoners to get the four-star rank and be able to progress in the game, it can result in the rescued prisoner disappearing when loading game but the rank not being maintained.

I played this PC version until the seventh boss of the game: the cyborgs known as Arnolds. For reasons that escape me, it was impossible to contact Jennifer and unlock the rocket launcher. Therefore, I could not defeat the cyborgs and get the seventh card that opens access to the last building of the game. After a desperate search for ways to fix it and consultations in several places on the internet, without a clear answer, I gave up that I could finish this video …

… luckily, I managed to configure the blueMSX emulator and I only had to restart the game from the beginning. From here, thanks to Jorge Fuentes for his help and patience. Go subscribe to his Twitter and Twitch channel.
The first thing that stands out in “Metal Gear” is the unprecedented use of stealth. While games like “Castle Wolfenstein” had used the same resources, there the defense with weapons was something relatively simple. Until Snake gets the silencer, the gun is practically useless, as it alerts the soldiers and soon overwhelms the player.

In theory we can articulate the game as something in the metroidvania category, in that progress is blocked by specific utensils but generally the order in which we move through the various sections is up to the player. I followed a line of events when explaining the game’s story, but some of those events can take place in a different order: we can rescue Ellen Pettrovich before her father asks us to or not destroy the cyborgs before rescuing the doctor, just like accessing certain later areas.

In addition, the reliance on the rank system is another way to block progress so that the player cannot advance to the most dangerous areas until he has explored well. Each time we rescue five prisoners we move up in rank, up to a total of four stars. Shooting a prisoner means losing a rank and, with only 22 prisoners in total, it is easy for this to lead to a softlock in the game, preventing us from accessing Jennifer and her rocket launcher or compass, and therefore forcing us to start over.

What’s most surprising is how incredibly accessible it is even today. Many of the games from this era that we’ve reviewed on the channel tend to be overly cryptic. In contrast, almost everything in Metal Gear is preceded by some clue. One of the few aspects that can be criticized are the false walls that, while they obligatorily teach us of their existence, also means that, once we know they are there, we are going to try every wall we come across, which is not always a reward but, in cases such as the enemy uniform, they are obligatory. Worse is the case of having to contact Jennifer to get rocket launchers with which to destroy the cyborgs and get hold of the timely Key 7, which is so specific and lacks any clue that it is probably the point where most players hopelessly abandon.

Where those cryptic elements do work is in the use of the transceiver: we can experiment not only with the frequencies of our four contacts at different points in the game, with some surprise dialogue as a reward, but also frequencies like Schneider’s are never officially given to us and instead we must search for them ourselves and contact at certain points to receive help. Most players will miss it, but as a reward for those who want to try this mechanic it is a find and a very satisfying level of detail within the limitations of its age.

But that age also means that the game lends itself to its particular exploits: using the cardboard box, facing towards an enemy and removing the box while pressing fire means killing them before they detect us. It takes some patience to learn this little trick but it makes screens with larger numbers of soldiers a breeze.

As for the enemies’ ability to detect us, it’s never entirely unfair but relatively inconsistent. Sometimes they can perceive us from the other side of the screen and others, even stuck to them, if we are not perfectly aligned with the direction in which they look, we can go unnoticed.

If one arrives here with the prejudice of having been introduced to the saga with the first “Metal Gear Solid”, we soon see that, although the similarities are enough to consider this a covert remake, many mechanics are not yet as explored. For example, the smoke from the cigarettes does not allow us to see the laser detectors.

Being the big problem of the game’s development the use of action, it is not surprising that a weak point is the confrontations with the final bosses. Those that are represented as simple soldiers are excessively easy and others, such as vehicles, require a specific type of trickery and a lot of precision since we usually get to them with the ammunition quite tight and with no possibility of mistakes.

The confrontation with Metal Gear is somewhat disappointing with the order of explosive charges and the cumbersomeness of the cameras. I didn’t discover until some time after passing it that the cardboard box is very handy here for dodging laser beams if you’re quick enough with the inventory menu.

THE NES VERSION

The NES version should have been Kojima’s dream, as he had always wanted to develop games for the Famicom as the most powerful console at the time, but, without his collaboration, the port turned into a real mess and so it came to the West.

As if they wanted to present a totally different game, the story does not begin with Snake infiltrating Outer Heaven through the water but descending by parachute along with three other soldiers who are never mentioned. We land in a jungle that we must traverse several screens before, this time yes, we get into a truck and reach the outside of the first building in Outer Heaven. These first screens of the jungle are quite poorly designed because they do not leave place for stealth.

Since the NES conversion involves less memory, there is the strange paradox where this version has fewer enemies than the original while it respawns the ones already there even if you have killed them, relatively often. The main consequence is that it becomes a much less stealth-oriented game, which is what characterized it, and more dependent on your reflexes to shoot enemies, as if the Mega Drive’s “Rambo III” was even more boring.

Even the manual seems to want to invent a different game, by stating that the founder and great villain behind Outer Heaven is a mercenary named Vermon CaTaffy, a gratuitous reference to Muammar Gaddafi. There is not even a mention of Big Boss.

Something that becomes apparent from the very beginning of the adventure is that accessing the inventory menu means that the screen we are on resets its values. This means that the enemies we’ve killed are back on their feet, and, in the case of screens with final bosses, all the damage we’ve done disappears, forcing us to start our attack all over again. A problem if you don’t have enough ammo to spare.

Instead of three main buildings, this version has up to 5, which is the way they found to avoid the verticality that involved different floors. So the fourth building corresponds to the basement of the first building. Also, the third, fourth and fifth floors are interconnected making things even more confusing.

To access between the last buildings we have to traverse a new section of jungle again. Finding the right path here is a matter of trial and error as we are not given the right direction. It’s somewhat reminiscent of the Lost Forest from “The Legend of Zelda” but while there the game was focused on that kind of exploration, here it’s a drag.

In the MSX version, at least two trucks were traps that returned us to the courtyard where we started the adventure. In principle it is a nuisance to have to walk the way back but it is not a major problem. Everything changes in the NES version where these trucks are more abundant and some, like the one that allows us to access the interior of the second floor, are necessary to activate them in a mandatory way. In essence, they work like shortcuts or teleporters but with nothing to indicate it which requires a lot of trial and error.

The combat helicopter on the rooftop is replaced on the NES by “Twin Gunners”, two soldiers with turrets and a rather odd hitbox, but which the player can ignore and open the door behind them.

One positive change is that here, the fake Dr. Petrovich is located in the place where we found the original, since it is easier to access this building earlier than in the MSX version. Having played them back-to-back, this little surprise seemed like a way to vary the game for those who knew the original.

But the most absurd change in this version of “Metal Gear” is that you never actually get to face “Metal Gear”. Instead, you have to defeat a computer that, to top it off, doesn’t require the order of bombs that the dreaded weapon that gives the saga its name did. Since we don’t need to know the order, we shouldn’t need to rescue Dr. Pettrovich and his daughter either, but, in fact, if we get this far without having done so, the supercomputer is invulnerable and stays that way until we free them, for no specific reason in the story.

After we get rid of this supercomputer, everything continues the same: Big Boss is revealed as the villain but instead of escaping by stairs we escape by elevator. If we choose the wrong elevator, they keep moving to infinity with no time to get out of Outer Heaven.

Instead of a cinematic to say goodbye, we hear the final radio transmission. Little else. So much for Solid Snake’s first mission.

THE LEGACY

The NES version sold over a million copies, which encouraged Konami to develop a sequel as soon as possible. With Kojima distracted by the development of “SD Snatcher”, an RPG remake of his previous adventure game, the company didn’t even bother to let him know about it. Marketed as “Snake’s Revenge” in the West but never released in Japan, the game included some of the mechanics from the MSX original that had not been implemented in the previous NES release. In addition, some ideas such as the possibility of using truth serum on enemies, side-scrolling sections or a limited use of radar that would not make its full presence felt until “Metal Gear 2”. The transceiver was not as complex as the original, with frequencies memorized from the start as “Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance” would do. It’s a rather limited and unpolished game but one that shows a certain ambition to try to move in the same direction in which it had been pushed by necessity.

Three years after the original mission, Solid Snake is called in to infiltrate, along with his partners John Turner and Nick Maier, a small Middle Eastern nation that has gotten its hands on weapons of mass destruction (nudge, nudge, say no more). Jennifer is also on hand as the team’s aide-de-camp, but soon Operation 747 is upended with the betrayal of one of the members and the appearance of a Big Boss-turned-cyborg. It’s certainly not the most original plot, and it misses the anti-belicist, sincere but pulp and shameless style with which Kojima presents his later works.

Kojima discovered that Konami had made a sequel when another employee told him on the train to Tokyo. The employee, whose name has not been released, believed that it should be Kojima himself who would make the sequel, even though he had never intended to continue the story. On that same train ride, Kojima thought of an idea that he could present to Konami and get the approval of his bosses who had dispensed with him. “Metal Gear 2” is a total improvement on what was already a well-established game, with greater depth in the mechanics and betting on more systemic and immersive elements that would become the mainstay of modern stealth games. The radar system now allowed soldiers to perform routines between multiple screens, which was more challenging and gave the feeling of a more lively game.

This installment presents us with a 1999 where nuclear disarmament is taken for granted, with the next conflict revolving around fossil fuels and peak oil. The kidnapping of Dr. Kio Marv, a bioengineer who has developed an algae capable of generating hydrocarbons at low cost, leads Snake to spend the Christmas of the end of the millennium infiltrating the Central Asian country of Zanzibar Land and encountering, this time, the real Big Boss. Gray Fox also returns, this time explicitly on the enemy side.
Kojima would begin to become obsessed with having a game as realistic as possible, documenting the most specific details of military culture and turning this into one of his main hobbies that would mark his later career. The game, however, would not be released outside of Japan, leaving “Snake’s Revenge” as the supposed official sequel in the eyes of the West and the saga practically forgotten until the “Metal Gear Solid” demo at the 1996 Tokyo Game Show became the phenomenon we all know.

“Metal Gear: Ghost Babel” (or “Metal Gear Solid” in Europe), is a very curious case. It is not a version of the original “Metal Gear Solid” for Game Boy Color but rather an alternate third installment, which continues the events of “Metal Gear” and “Metal Gear 2” but contradicts everything that happened in “Metal Gear Solid” with details such as Mei-Ling and Solid Snake meeting for the first time. It is the first 2D “Metal Gear” I was able to play and the experience was very positive.

“Ghost Babel” had its own development problems, not only because of technological limitations but also for maintaining an all-ages rating while retaining the rougher themes such as violence and political themes. Kojima and Yomokazu Fukushima wrote and planned the story specifically for the Konami Europe market, which had asked them for this game seeing the huge reception of “Metal Gear Solid” on the continent.

It takes place 7 years after the original, which places us around the year 2002. The eight-directional movement and screen scrolling are improvements over “Metal Gear 2” but the mechanics are essentially the same. Long conversations can not be missed as a fifteen-minute introduction that, despite the very limited graphics, shows the technological advances of a portable console. Its most particular element is its linearity: it is divided into different self-conclusive levels without the possibility of going back once advanced to the next level. In the story, Colonel Roy Campbell goes with FOX HOUND operatives to find Solid Snake at his retreat in Alaska and forces him to participate in an infiltration mission in the small African country of Gindra, currently in Civil War. The Liberation Front led by a mercenary named Augustine Eguabon, have gotten their hands on a Metal Gear by hijacking a plane bound for South America. Galuade, Eguabon’s stronghold, is actually the former Outer Heaven that exploded seven years ago, leading Snake to accept the mission and bring closure once and for all to his past. This opening bringing Snake out of retirement almost against his will recaptures the legacy of both “Rambo III” and “1997: New York Rescue.” Although the status in the canon of this game is highly disputed, later games have made mentions of the Galuade Incident.

Outside of Konami, we have direct homages such as “Unmetal”. This Spanish game already made an appearance in my GOTY OF THE YEAR 2021 video, though I didn’t spend as much time on it as I should have. While it’s a much more linear experience than the other games mentioned here, it takes the franchise’s enormous interactivity and verb variety and articulates it as a parody, often making use of those tropes to subvert them, which is the most respectful way to maintain Kojima’s inventive ability to challenge the player. Definitely check it out if you can.

Any of these other games could very well have their own video, so I encourage you to leave a comment below this video mentioning which one you’d be most interested in hearing me talk about.

Although it was not the first sigil games, the sequel would deepen much more in this genre and the franchise would not be popular until a decade later, it is an impeccable game even today, easy access and very interesting. Kojima would have shown here that, with all that he is often unfairly accused of, he is a great designer of mechanics and levels. “Snatcher” would prove his authorial skills and “Metal Gear 2” his ability to take the reins completely, but everything he is today and what he has done for this industry was born here, in this humble and limited game that, however, could not be more fun.