HEY! LISTEN! Before I rant about my love for this game and series, I just wanted to call some attention to the nice little Instagram button over on the left side there. You see it? Right next to the Twitter bird… thing. We have a new Instagram! Give us a follow if you want to see screenshots and box art of the games we talk about here on the show. Check out my Twitter, too. It’s not really tied into Video Game of the Day specifically but I do pretty much exclusively talk about pop culture. Films, TV shows, video games, etc. Whatever I happen to be nerding out about at the time. I’m not one of those angry people on Twitter who just rants about politics day-in, day-out. At least, I’m not one of those people anymore. đŸ˜‰
When I was young, I missed out on the 32/64 bit generation. I had a Sega Genesis and didn’t get another console until the Sega Dreamcast. I’m not complaining here, I had a lot of great games at my disposal, it just meant that when I finally started working and found a love for retro games, I had a lot of gaps to fill.
Metal Gear Solid was high on my list. Fortunately, one day when I was at my local EB Games, they had two collections in stock that blew my mind. One of these was Metal Gear Solid: The Essential Collection and the other was Devil May Cry 5th Anniversary Collection. Both were used for less than 20 bucks a piece.
I ran home and immediately started playing Metal Gear Solid so I could catch up on the series everyone had such a deep love for. It’s the first time in my life I can recall playing through so many games in a series, back-to-back. I couldn’t get enough. I absorbed everything in MGS, went straight on to 2 and then 3. I then downloaded copies of Metal Gear and Snakes Revenge (both of which I hated but played through anyway). Then, I ran out and got Portable Ops, Metal Gear Acid 1 and 2 before finally getting a PS3 so I could play MGS 4. I was in college at the time so this was all followed up by crippling debt but hey, that’s another story!
Point is, I loved each and every one of those games (except the NES ones) but none of them ever surpassed Metal Gear Solid for me. I know, that’s unusual. Most people love MGS 3 the most and it had some great moments to be sure, but it just couldn’t beat the simplicity and ever-moving storyline of Metal Gear Solid. Along with the fact that it made the most sense of any of the stories, it just resonated with me on a deep level. To this day, Metal Gear Solid and my trek through Shadow Moses remains one of my favorite gaming experiences out there. And I didn’t even play the game until about 11 years after its release.
2/25 – Metal Gear Solid
Hello and welcome. My name is Katosepe and I’ll be your host for today’s video game of the day.
Today’s game is the stealth game classic, Metal Gear Solid, developed by Konami and released on the Sony Playstation in 1998.
Metal Gear Solid is either the third or fourth game in the franchise, depending on if gamers consider Snakes Revenge as canon, despite not being made by Hideo Kojima. Regardless, Metal Gear Solid’s canon does not acknowledge that game and instead, takes place six years after Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. The game begins with a genetically-enhanced rogue force known as FOXHOUND taking over a remote Alaskan military base, Shadow Moses.
The group has taken control of Metal Gear REX, a nuclear-capable mech, and is threatening to launch nuclear weapons on the US if they do not return the remains of Big Boss, the antagonist of Metal Gear 2. Solid Snake is then brought in to stop FOXHOUND.
Players take control of Solid Snake, a special operative, and must sneak their way through Shadow Moses in order to take down FOXHOUND. Players can use sound to manipulate enemies throughout the game by throwing objects or hitting walls. There are also a number of weapons provided, along with melee combat and takedown moves which allow players a variety of ways to either kill or stun opponents.
While Metal Gear Solid’s gameplay was revolutionary for its time and helped popularize the burgeoning stealth genre on consoles, it is perhaps best remembered for its strong story elements. Creator Hideo Kojima was inspired by Hollywood films and wanted gaming to be a medium for storytelling. Thus Metal Gear Solid had a large number of cutscenes and spent a significant amount of time fleshing out the world and lore of the characters. This was very unusual at the time and was sometimes criticised by players not expecting them.
Despite this, Metal Gear Solid was still very well received by critics and fans with many now considering it an important element to the birth of stealth games. Metal Gear Solid won a number of gaming awards including several Game of the Year awards. As a rebirth of the series, Metal Gear Solid would go on to spawn 4 numbered sequels and a number of spin-off series such as Metal Gear Acid and Metal Gear Rising. Solid Snake has also appeared in the Super Smash Brothers series since Super Smash Brothers Brawl. Series creator, Hideo Kojima, has also gathered a strong following based in large part off of his work on Metal Gear Solid, winning a number of lifetime achievement awards for his contributions to gaming.
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