What’s this twenty-five year anniversary post doing here? Yes, this past Saturday, July 7, one of the longest-running franchises in gaming, Metal Gear Solid, turned the big two-five, celebrating a quarter-century of extended monologues and exclamation marks.
Debuting way back in 1987, Hideo Kojima’s tale of a cloned super-spy spans multiple console generations and has a legacy that has left an impact on a generation of gamers world-wide. Every Metal Gear game redefines the series and adds new gameplay conventions that make for some of the most unique gaming experiences available.
My first brush with Metal Gear Solid came back when the Snake Eater rerelease Subsistence dropped, allowing me to use a 3D camera, a la Splinter Cell. While this isn’t the way MGS had been played traditionally, it gave me a way to try out the series and that game quickly found a solid place in my top-ten games of all time.
While the MGS games can sometimes border on goofy and outright ridiculous, I still love them all the same and wouldn’t change a thing. What about you guys? How has Metal Gear affected you gaming history? What was your favorite title or moment from the series?
My fave game of the series was probably 4. It had its problems (ie. virtually all of Act 3) but it had amazingly good replayability value and some top notch sections to play through. That and MGO was my go-to for multiplayer for a while. I really loved that game.
My fave moment also lies in 4. Just the culmination of all of these events I’d followed throughout childhood into my mid teens was an incredible experience.
i relly loved MGS4 i nearly cried returning to shadow moses and seeing all the parts form MGS1 that i loved so much, especially the sniper wolf alleyway. but i thought MGO was a waste of time because i couldnt never keep up with the updates for it.
I played them all, and MGS3 is just slightly better than MGS1 in my opinion. I actually went out and bought the HD collection for the PS3 specifically to be able to play it a big screen. The HD upgrade isn’t great, but it does make it bearable to view on a HDTV. MGS4 has a lot of great nostaglic moments, especially the MGS1 moments when you…. well I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone who hasn’t played it…. even though it has been a few years since it’s been out. I’m looking forward to more MGS games in the near future…hopefully!
My first experience was with the original double-disc Metal Gear Solid for PlayStation, which I still own. My favourite memory would be a point shortly into the game where you’re told to contact someone. To do so you must “find the frequency on the back of the jewel case.”
I searched through my inventory and ran back and forth all over area and had NO idea what they were talking about. This was back before I even had internet, so no FAQ or Walkthrough after frustration set in. I finally was reading through the instruction manual (Yeah, they used to print those) trying ANYTHING when I literally looked on the back of the game case and there was the frequency you needed to use to progress in the game.
I was so proud of myself. And I was blown away. Much like the Psycho Mantis ‘trick’, interesting breaks in the 4th wall made this game and MGS 2 a couple of my favourite games ever.
Unfortunately for me, I shortly after moved to PC gaming, and have never played Snake Eater or 4. But I’m mostly okay with that. MGS gave me some of my earliest “hardcore” gaming moments, and they were beautiful. At that young age, it surely had a large part to do with solidifying me as a gamer.