Metal Gear (video game)
Metal Gear is an overhead military action-adventure stealth video game originally released in 1987 by Konami for the MSX2 computer in Japan and parts of Europe. Considered to be the progenitor of the stealth game genre, it was the first video game to be fully developed by Hideo Kojima, who would go on to direct most of its sequels. A reworked port of the game was released for the Famicom a few months later, which later saw release in international markets for the NES over the following two years; this version was developed without Kojima's involvement and features drastically altered level designs, among other changes. A more faithful port of the MSX2 version was later included in ' for the PlayStation 2, as well as in the ' of the same game released for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PlayStation Vita, with these newer ports featuring a revised translation and additional gameplay features.
The game revolves around Solid Snake, an operative of the special forces unit FOXHOUND, who goes on a solo infiltration mission into the fortified state of Outer Heaven to destroy "Metal Gear", a bipedal walking tank capable of launching nuclear missiles from anywhere in the world, as well as rescue a number of fellow agents who have been captured by the enemy. The game was a major international success, with the NES version selling 1million units in the United States.
Gameplay
The player controls a military operative codenamed Solid Snake, whose objective is to infiltrate the enemy's base while avoiding visual contact and direct confrontation with patrolling guards. If the player is seen, the game enters the "Alert Mode." In this situation, Snake must escape from enemy's sight in order to resume infiltration. The method of escaping varies depending on the circumstances behind discovery:- If Snake is seen and only a single exclamation mark appears over an enemy's head, only the enemies in the player's present screen will attack and Snake can escape by simply moving to an adjacent screen.
- However, if two exclamation marks appear over the enemy, reinforcements from off-screen will appear as well. Snake can only escape by eliminating all incoming enemies, going outdoors, entering an elevator, or entering a boss battle.
The enemy base consists of three different buildings, with multiple floors within them. The player uses key cards and other items to unlock doors and explore new areas. Each door will only opened with a corresponding key card. Information can be obtained by rescuing hostages being held within the buildings. After rescuing five hostages, the player's rank will increase by one star, allowing for increased carrying capacity and maximum health. However, if a hostage is killed, the player will be demoted to the previous rank.
A transceiver is available for Snake to keep in touch with his commanding officer, Big Boss, or one of the resistance members operating covertly near Outer Heaven. Each of Snake's allies specializes in a specific subject and will usually provide information or advice based on the player's current area, although a reply is not always guaranteed. The player must keep track of each character's frequency number in order to remain in contact with them throughout the game.
The MSX2 version requires the use of a tape drive in order to save and load game progress from checkpoints. A Game Master II cartridge can also be used to enable save states via floppy disks at any point. Versions on later platforms eliminated these complicated requirements thanks to standardized storage devices such as memory cards and internal disk drives.
Plot
Characters
The player's character is Solid Snake, a rookie member of the special forces group FOXHOUND sent on his first mission. He is assisted via radio by his commanding officer Big Boss, who offers information about mission objectives and items; as well as a local Resistance movement composed of leader Schneider, a former architect who guides Snake through the layout of the fortress and knows the locations of key items; Diane, a former positive punk vocalist who provides information on the enemy forces from her home; and Jennifer, who infiltrated Outer Heaven's medical staff to find her missing brother and assists Snake as an inside agent. Among the prisoners Snake rescues includes Grey Fox, a FOXHOUND agent who was captured during a previous mission; Dr. Pettrovich, a robotic engineer who is working for Outer Heaven against his will; and the doctor's daughter, Elen, who was kidnapped by the enemy to coerce her father into developing Metal Gear.The bosses include Shoot Gunner, a former Spetsnaz agent specializing in the riot gun; Machinegun Kid, a former SAS operative armed with a machine gun; Fire Trooper, a former GSG 9 operative who uses a flamethrower; Coward Duck, a boomerang throwing terrorist who shields himself with hostages; Arnold, two TX-11 class androids designed by Dr. Pettrovich; and the legendary mercenary who founded Outer Heaven, whose true identity is unknown until the end.
Story
Near the end of the 20th century, the West discovers that a weapon of mass destruction is being constructed inside Outer Heaven, a fortified state founded by a "legendary mercenary" 200 km north of Galzburg, South Africa. The special forces unit FOXHOUND sends top agent Gray Fox to infiltrate the fortress, assess the situation and neutralize the threat. FOXHOUND loses contact with Gray Fox a few days later, with his last transmission being "METAL GEAR..." To discover what happened to Gray Fox, FOXHOUND commander Big Boss sends his newest recruit, Solid Snake, into the area in an operation codenamed Intrude N313.Upon insertion into Outer Heaven, Snake makes contact with local resistance members Schneider, Diane, and Jennifer. Using all of his skills and the equipment he procures on site, he manages to rescue Fox. Fox explains that Metal Gear is the codename of a nuclear-equipped bipedal walking tank, which can engage in all forms of combat and launch nuclear weapons from any location. Outer Heaven plans to use Metal Gear to impose itself as the new world superpower.
To destroy Metal Gear and topple the Outer Heaven mercenaries, Snake rescues lead Metal Gear engineer Dr. Pettrovich and his daughter Elen. The scientist explains how Metal Gear can be destroyed, and Snake takes on Outer Heaven's troops. However, he begins to notice that the traps put in his way are too precise and wonders how information on his activities are being tracked. Big Boss begins to act strangely, giving misleading advice that leads Snake into several traps, and eventually ordering him to abort the mission. Moreover, Schneider is ambushed by hostiles and is presumed dead after losing contact with Snake.
Snake penetrates Outer Heaven's main base and takes out Metal Gear before it reaches completion. As he safely escapes the compound's basement, he is confronted by the mercenary leader of Outer Heaven, who turns out to be Big Boss. The corrupt leader reveals that he had been using his connections to steal military intelligence, establish his own mercenary force, and fund his activities. It was his aim to have Outer Heaven become the world's greatest superpower, able to bring even the West to its knees. He had the rookie Snake sent in, hoping to have him captured and feed misinformation to authorities but had quite obviously underestimated Snake's capabilities.
Having lost Metal Gear and much of his force, Big Boss seemingly starts the self-destruct sequence for the compound, and promises he will not die alone; Snake will join him. Snake defeats Big Boss in the last battle and escapes the Outer Heaven compound as it crumbles in flames behind him. After the end credits, a message from Big Boss is displayed saying that he will meet Solid Snake again.
Development
Kojima was asked to take over a project from a senior associate. Metal Gear was intended to be an action game that featured modern military combat. However, the MSX2's hardware limited the number of on-screen bullets and enemies, which Kojima felt impeded the combat aspect. Inspired by The Great Escape, he reversed the focus of the gameplay from shooting down the enemy to avoiding capture. The game was titled Intruder during the early planning stages.The packaging illustration used for the retail releases of the game, which depicts the protagonist Solid Snake holding a gun, was traced over a publicity still of Michael Biehn posing as his character Kyle Reese from the 1984 film The Terminator. Kojima, who was still newly employed at Konami at the time, had no involvement with the production of this illustration.
Releases
MSX2
Metal Gear was originally released on the MSX2 home computer in Japan on July 13, 1987, with an English version released in Europe during the same year. Due to memory constraints, the Japanese version was written entirely in katakana, while the English version is written entirely in uppercase, has numerous instances of erroneous grammar and misspellings, and features fewer radio calls than the Japanese version and shortened messages.On August 18, 2004, Konami released a port of the MSX2 Metal Gear for feature phones through their Konami Net DX service in Japan as a promotional tie-in for . This updated port served as the basis for the version included on the second disc of Subsistence for the PlayStation 2 released in 2005, and later in the HD Edition released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2011 and for PlayStation Vita in 2012.
The MSX2 Metal Gear would be released as a Virtual Console download for the Wii in Japan on December 8, 2009. The ROM used for this emulated re-release has been modified to bring it more in-line with the later versions of the game released for other platforms.
Famicom / NES
A port of Metal Gear for the Family Computer was released in Japan on December 22, 1987. This was followed by an English localization for the Nintendo Entertainment System released in North America in June 1988 and in Europe and Australia sometime in 1989. This was the first version of Metal Gear that was released in North America, since the MSX2 platform was never released in that market.According to Kojima's account, the port was developed by another Konami division at Tokyo which was given the source code from the MSX2 version without the consent of the original team. Many changes were made during the porting process that later led to this version being publicly disowned by Kojima himself years after its release. Masahiro Ueno, who worked as a programmer for the NES version, has stated that the staff who worked on the port were given a three-month deadline and were ordered to make the port as different as possible from the MSX2 version. Due to hardware limitations with the mapper used, the Metal Gear boss ended up being replaced by a Supercomputer guarded by four enemy soldiers.
Another big change made to the game was in the level designs. Instead of the underwater infiltration from the MSX2 version, the NES version starts the game with Solid Snake parachuting into the middle of a jungle alongside three other soldiers. After landing in the jungle, the player must reach a transport truck at the end that will take Snake to the entrance of the first building. The player can also use other transport trucks to reach the entrances of the other buildings quicker, since they travel in a cyclical pattern. The basement floors of Building 1 and 2 in the MSX2 version were made into separate buildings, Building 4 and 5 respectively, which are only reachable by going through one of two jungle mazes located in the outdoor areas between the other three buildings. The correct path to take in the jungle maze is never revealed in the game. In addition to the removal of the Metal Gear tank, the Hind D boss on the rooftop of Building 1 was also replaced by a pair of armed turret gunners called "Twin Shot". The NES version also lacks the higher alert phase from the MSX2 version and the jetpack-wearing soldiers on the rooftops of Building 1 and 2 lost their ability to fly. On the other hand, enemies no longer drop ammo nor rations when punched to death. Much like the MSX2 version, the English localization of the NES versions contains numerous instances of erroneous grammar, such as "Contact missing our Grey Fox", "Uh-Oh! The truck have started to move!", and "I feel asleep!!"
Passcodes are used in this version to save progress. When Snake is killed by the enemy, the player is given a choice to continue the game from the last checkpoint or quit and resume later with the given passcode. The passcode keeps track of Snake's rank, inventory, hostages rescued, bosses defeated and certain event flags. One particular passcode featured in the Japanese and North American version, in which the player types the expletive "fuck me" and fills the remaining spaces with "1", will transport the player to the final battle with no equipment. This resulted in the passcode system being altered for the European versions of the game, with all of the vowels being removed.
Because the MSX2 version was not released in North America at the time, the NES version was the one that served as the basis for a couple of home computer ports released by Ultra Games in 1990 for the MS-DOS and Commodore 64. An emulated port of the Famicom version was also included in a bonus disc packaged alongside in a limited edition GameCube console bundle released exclusively in Japan.
Reception
The MSX2 version of Metal Gear was ranked on MSX Magazines top 20 best selling MSX games in Japan for five months, debuting at no. 4 on the October 1987 issue and peaking at no. 3 the following month. The Games Machine gave a positive review of this version, giving the game a 79% global note. They praised the graphics and the size of the game area, underlining the fact that it ensured "that the action and suspense never wanes". They also wrote that the game was rapidly addictive, and that "the urge to get further into the game is quite strong". They concluded positively on the quality of the game, saying that "If this standard of Konami software is maintained then maybe more people will think hard about joining the other 200,000 MSX owners".Computer Gaming World called the NES version's graphics "acceptable", but criticized the control system and the player's great vulnerability when unarmed at the start of the game. It nonetheless stated that Metal Gear "shows great promise for future Ultra Games entries. It attempts to move beyond the standard run/jump/shoot format" of most NES games, and concluded that the game was "a potential super-hit that, unfortunately, is sabotaged by its own weaknesses".
The NES version of Metal Gear was ranked the 104th best game made on a Nintendo System in Nintendo Power Top 200 Games list. GamesRadar ranked it the sixth-best NES game ever made, and the staff felt that it popularized its genre. In 1997 Electronic Gaming Monthly named the NES version the 35th best console video game of all time, citing "how you have to think like a spy to win, which means you don't always have to fight."
The NES version was a major international success, selling 1million units in the United States.
Its success led to the creation of two separately produced sequels; the first one, Snake's Revenge, was produced specifically for the NES in North America and Europe in 1990 and the other, ', was the sequel developed by Hideo Kojima and released in Japan for the MSX2 during the same year as a response to the former's creation. The latter was followed by Metal Gear Solid for the PlayStation in 1998, which was in turn followed by numerous sequels and spinoffs.
The intro theme, main theme and game over theme from the MSX2 version were reused for the VR Training theme in Metal Gear Solid, which in turn was reused in ' and '. "Theme of Tara" is one of the tunes that can be heard in the "Shadow Moses Island" stage in Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii, the music for the beginning section of the Battleship Halberd Interior stage of the Adventure mode, where Snake officially enters the storyline, and can also be selected as music with an iPod item in '.
Related media
In 1988, Konami published a gamebook adaptation of Metal Gear in Japan as the second installment in their Konami Gamebook Series. The gamebook is set two years after the events of the game, in which Solid Snake is called back into action after FOXHOUND receives intelligence on a terrorist group who have obtained the plans for Metal Gear and are now mass-producing the mech. The book portrays Solid Snake as an unsuccessful illustrator in his personal life outside his job as a FOXHOUND agent.In 1990, a novelization of Metal Gear was published in the U.S. by Scholastic Books as part of their Worlds of Power series of novelizations based on third-party NES games. The Metal Gear book was written by Alexander Frost under the pen name F.X. Nine, the same pen name used for all the authors in the Worlds of Power series. This book adheres much more closely to the localized version of the backstory as presented in the North American packaging and manual, as opposed to the actual in-game plot which was not changed to reflect this difference. Big Boss is not featured in the book, but instead, two different characters, Commander South and Colonel Vermon CaTaffy, serve as Solid Snake's commanding officer and Outer Heaven's leader respectively. The book also gives Solid Snake the identity of Justin Halley and changes the name of his organization from FOX HOUND to the Snake Men. Because the book was targeted at young kids, the cover illustration was altered, with Snake's handgun being airbrushed out.