B3yond the Special: Metal Gear Flashback - A Look at the Metal Gear Franchise

Posted by Mark Salmela on 05.14.2008

How many people do you know that can say they’ve defeated a walking nuclear tank? Well Solid Snake has, and in part 1 of a 5 part series, 411’s Mark Salmela takes a look back at the games that started a cultural phenomenon. This week find out about the original Metal Gear 1 and Metal Gear 2.



Here's a little pop quiz. You notice something crawling inside of a box, what do you think of? If you said anything other than Metal Gear Solid, you're not a true fan. The Metal Gear Solid franchise is one of the most beloved and celebrated video game franchises of all time. So many of us grew up with Solid Snake, that it's hard for us to grasp the concept that on June 12, 2008 Solid Snake will embark on his final mission. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots will be the final entry in the Metal Gear Solid franchise; at least as far as creator Hideo Kojima is concerned. It is with this news that I am honored to be writing this feature for 411, counting down the time until MGS4's release by looking back at its predecessors.

I am going to write this feature in a 5 part series. This week fill focus on Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2, the original titles in the franchise. I will then focus on Metal Gear Solid for part 2, MGS2 for part 3, MGS3 for part 4, and finally my thoughts and opinions on MGS4 for part 5, which will go up on June 11, the day before MGS4 comes out. While there are other Metal Gear titles, these are the only ones that I plan on writing about. I might include little blurbs about the other titles with the MGS4 piece if I run out of interesting things to talk about *much of MGS4 is still under wraps you know*. Anyways; sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.


Metal Gear (1987)



The original Metal Gear title was released on July 12, 1987 in Japan on the MSX Home computer machines. Developed by Hideo Kojima and published by Konami, Metal Gear was a big departure from the 2-D side scrolling shooters people were accustomed to. Until this point most shooters were all about run-n-gun gameplay, with titles like Contra *also by Konami* focusing on how many soldiers one can blast away with their weapon. But Metal Gear was different, and dared to revolutionize the genre. Taking the focus off of run-n-gun, Metal Gear was all about stealth action gameplay, or Tactical Espionage Action as the series has self-adopted.



Metal Gear saw an operative named Solid Snake infiltrate an enemy island named Outer Heaven. You see, Outer Heaven was home to a special bi-pedal walking nuclear tank named Metal Gear that could launch a nuclear offensive anywhere in the world without notice. I think you could understand why people would want to take this behemoth out before it was too late. Solid Snake was the rookie recruit of the elite Special Forces unit named FOXHOUND. At the time the leader of the FOXHOUND unit was Big Boss, who played as Solid Snake's commanding officer in the game. Big Boss would provide Snake with mission objectives, and would lead Snake on his mission through radio telecommunications.

In the original Metal Gear players take control of Solid Snake as they sneak around Outer Heaven looking for Metal Gear, as well as Gray Fox, another member of FOXHOUND. The key to the gameplay was the use of stealth. Instead of taking the most powerful weapon you could find and blasting through waves of enemies Metal Gear was all about sneaking around enemies in the most non-violent way possible. If players were spotted a series trademark exclamation point (!) would appear above their head and Snake would either have to fight the said enemy or retreat until the warning level had deceased. If two exclamation points (!!) appears above an enemies head then reinforcements would be called in, and let's just say players did not want to run into these types of situations very often.

Solid Snake does not originally start out with a weapon, but does pick up certain guns and other weapons as the game progresses, although as I stated unless players play up the stealth element they will be annihilated. The game consisted of 3 main bases, each with several floors as well as basements full of enemies and objects. Players would have to collect items such as food and keycards if they wanted to advance, and would use certain objects such as guns and knives to blast through certain obstacles such as electric fences. While boss fights do occur through the game, they aren't as legendary as some of the boss fights of the later Metal Gear Solid games. Players also can rescue hostages inside of the buildings, who will give them key information, and the players rank will increase or decrease depending on whether or not the hostages survive.



As the game progresses the plot really starts to shine as one of the biggest turns in video games at that time occurs. You see, to defeat Metal Gear, Solid Snake teams up with the lead engineer of Metal Gear, Dr. Drago Pettrovich Madnar, and his daughter, Ellen. With their help, Snake learns the key weaknesses of Metal Gear and sets out to destroy Metal Gear. But as the game progresses Snake starts to learn that the traps being set for him are too well planned out, almost as if someone was watching his every move. Also, while in Outer Heaven, the key resistance fighter helping Solid Snake, Kyle Schneider, is murdered without any notice. It is at that point and with the help of rescuing the final hostage that it is revealed that Big Boss has swerved Snake, and is secretly the leader of Outer Heaven.

After defeating Metal Gear before it is fully operational, a final battle between Solid Snake and Big Boss occurs, as the two battled for control of Outer Heaven and the fate of the world. In a final act of desperation, Big Boss sets the island to explode and promises to take Snake with him. Despite being severely injured in the process, Snake manages to fight off Big Boss and escape the island before destruction. Big Boss appeared to be killed in the explosion as Snake escapes to safety, or so we thought. It is here that the original Metal Gear concludes, and a sequel would not be released until July 19, 1990, over 3 years later.

Metal Gear originally sold very well, and because of this Konami decided to port Metal Gear to the NES. It is on the NES that Western gamers would finally get their hands on Metal Gear; where the title would go on to sell over 1 million copies. Because of the success of Metal Gear in North America Konami would produce a sequel titled Snake's Revenge, without the help of series creator Hideo Kojima. This title was released in the European and American markets, and isn't considered part of the official storyline. A couple of months later Hideo Kojima created the official sequel, titled Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, which would serve as the official sequel to Metal Gear. Metal Gear was released on the MSX, the NES, the PC, the Commodore 64, the mobile phone, and on the PS2 as part of Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence.

In a couple interesting notes Solid Snake was designed after American action heroes. For example, on the original cover of Metal Gear Solid Snake resembles Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese in The Terminator. In Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake he closely resembles Mel Gibson from the Lethal Weapon movies. Solid Snake was even named after Snake Plissken, Kurt Russell's character in Escape from New York. Future versions of Solid Snake would be based off of Plissken, and Kojima even admitted that Escape from New York is his favorite movie.


Oh yeah, I think that's a valid comparison.



Here's the final battle with Big Boss in Metal Gear.



Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (1990)



The official sequel to Metal Gear, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake was released on July 19, 1990 exclusively in Japan on the MSX2 computer. The game was produced by Hideo Kojima and was published by Konami. A different title called Snake's Revenge was produced before this title by a different Konami team and was made for Western audiences. That's why you may remember a game called Snake's Revenge but not Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Kojima was a fan of Snake's Revenge, but it is a non-cannon title.

In Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake players must retake the role of Solid Snake as he comes out of retirement to once again save the world. You see, in Metal Gear 2 the world was running dangerously low on oil reserves *kind of like today*. To fix such matters, a scientist named Dr. Kio Marv successfully created a new species of algae named OILIX that could produce petroleum-grade hydrocarbons with little expense and effort. But on his way to present his creation, Marv is kidnapped by soldiers from Zanzibar Land. These soldiers had now kidnapped Marv and would control the world's supply of oil, and would soon raid a test site for nuclear missiles. With these nuclear missiles, work would begin on Metal Gear D, another version of the walking nuclear tank Snake had to stop in the first title.



It is soon discovered that Big Boss, the evil leader of Outer Heaven from the first Metal Gear title, had survived the first battle with Solid Snake and was now in control of Zanzibar Land. Dr. Drago Pettrovich Madnar, the Metal Gear inventor whom Snake rescued in the original Metal Gear title, had also been re-captured and was forced to work on Metal Gear D as well as a smaller set of non-nuclear Metal Gears. Snake would come to Zanzibar Land and free both Dr. Madnar as well as Dr. Marv. Although just as things were finally looking up for Solid Snake it turns out that Gray Fox had not only returned but also betrayed Solid Snake and was working for Big Boss. Dr. Marv would then be tortured and eventually killed after being captured by Gray Fox once again, as Solid Snake would eventually discover his corpse. Then after rescuing Dr. Madnar again, Solid Snake would discover that Dr. Madnar had not been recaptured, but that he voluntarily offered to continue work on Metal Gear D. Snake would then defeat Dr. Madnar in battle, and then would confront Gray Fox in Metal Gear D.

After defeating Metal Gear D and killing Gray Fox, Snake would set his sites towards Big Boss. Solid Snake would retrieve the OILIX formula, and ruin all of Big Boss' plans. As Big Boss tried to escape from Zanzibar Land, he would be confronted by Solid Snake. Solid Snake, who improvised by making a flamethrower made of a lighter and an aerosol can, torched Big Boss and finally killed his arch nemesis. It is at this point that Snake returned home safely with the OILIX formula. The plots for Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2 would be summarized in "Previous Operations" in Metal Gear Solid.



Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake took the stealth action genera even further. In the original Metal Gear, the enemy could often only see in a straight line. In Metal Gear 2 however, enemies could now see in 45 degree cones and could now turn their heads, making stealth even harder for Solid Snake. In the first title promotions are received through rescuing hostages, whereas promotions are automatically received in Metal Gear 2 for defeating bosses. Metal Gear 2 was also the first time actual cut scenes were used, and has since become a series staple. Besides these minor differences Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake played a lot like the original Metal Gear. It also had a lot of similarities to Metal Gear Solid story wise, which has lead some fans to call Metal Gear Solid a 3D version of Metal Gear 2. For example both games feature Snake coming out of retirement, featured a chase scene going up a staircase, featured a battle with a Hind D chopper using stinger missiles, and featured an ambush by 4 attackers taking place in an elevator. Also, in Metal Gear 2 a hand-to-hand battle was had with Gray Fox after defeating Metal Gear, while MGS had a hand-to-hand fight with Liquid Snake after defeating Metal Gear. Big Boss also used the line "It's not over yet, Snake" at the end of Metal Gear 2, while the same line was used by Liquid Snake near the end of MGS.

Metal Gear 2: Snake's Revenge did not receive a port to another console for over 14 years until Konami released it for mobile phones and then as a part of Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence along with the original Metal Gear. Why it took so long for it to receive a port is beyond me.



Here's a video of the fight between Gray Fox and Snake.



Well that is all for the first part of the 5 part series looking back at the Metal Gear franchise as we count down the weeks until Metal Gear Solid 4 is released on June 12, 2008 for the PS3. I hope you've enjoyed the feature so far, feel free to leave me feedback. I'll be back next Wednesday with part 2: A look at Metal Gear Solid.


A true legend.



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