We’ve got Metal Gear Solid in December’s STEALTH Loot Gaming Crate and I, a huge fan of the series, could not be more excited. It got me thinking about my two favorites and one that I’d love to throw into the sea forever and that’s when I thought we’d talk Metal Gear Solid games!
Now, granted, I’ve played every Metal Gear game that has existed and while it would be hard to really dig deep and determine what games are the best out there, I’ve got some favorites. With all of that said, I won’t be bringing spin-offs like Metal Gear Rising into this because there’s not a hint of Snake and that’s what truly makes Metal Gear, well, Metal Gear. Now that we have that all sorted out, let’s head into what I think deserves the best, the second best and what I’d rather see just not exist at all. I’ll leave it to Michael Huber back in his GameTrailer days to explain the timeline ’till Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
Infiltrate: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake-Eater
This is, by far, my absolute favorite of the Metal Gear Solid titles. Sure, there are now two titles that are intensely bigger in scale and far prettier to look at, but Snake-Eater had such an absolute James Bond feel yet Solid Snake that I can’t help but want to love it forever and tell everyone else to take a crack at it too. Taking place back in the 60’s, Snake is dealing with the mission that kind of set forth the entire drama that we know and love. Within this chaos, he meets a sexy spy and he deals with larger than life villains all before facing off against the nemesis that helped create him.
Each boss in this game had my mind reeling with how Hideo Kojima and his writers did everything they could to make us believe someone could easily summon and send bees after us, harness the power of ghosts and well, that’s just two of them. The ending battle is one of the most iconic fights you’ll ever encounter in games and, even as the credits roll, you can’t help but wonder if what just happened actually happened. It’s incredible. Make sure, if you can, you grab the HD remaster and really give it a shot. It holds up like you wouldn’t believe.
Marry: Metal Gear Solid: Tactical Espionage Action
The fascinating part about Metal Gear Solid’s first release on PlayStation is that none of us knew what kind of shenanigans Hideo Kojima had in store for the system and its heft of game space. This wasn’t a Nintendo Family Computer situation here and Kojima could really let the game fly free. With this, we find out about the situation with Shadow Moses post fall of Zanzibarland and it appears absolute nonsense is going down with the sons of Big Boss. It’s strange when I look back at this game, even though I’ve played Integral and I’ve played the remake for GameCube titled The Twin Snakes and yet I still fall back to the PlayStation original release. The game has not held up, mind you, but I can overlook some blemishes when the game loves me like it does. You know?
Kill: Metal Gear Acid 1 & 2
Listen, I could show you the trailer for Metal Gear Acid 2 as well as the first one, but the trailers are nearly the same and it’s pointless. The PlayStation Portable title infused a card-game system with its gameplay, the problem being that it just didn’t fit for me. I love card-based games to an insane degree, but Metal Gear Solid felt wholly unfitting for this kind of infusion! Not to mention, with the PSP having the world’s shortest battery life for the kind of processing it put out for games of this degree, I always felt like I had gotten nothing done before I had to scramble to charge it.
Metal Gear Acid would’ve been a more fitting mobile game would it have waited for that generation of phones with higher processing capabilities and better graphics but as it stands, Acid was just painful in every way imaginable. I would’ve rather have struggled through the slow-down of The Twin Snakes on GameCube in an endless loop than sit through Metal Gear Acid 1 and/or 2 ever again. I mean it. Don’t even go near this game. Sit and play the VR Missions while wearing a helmet full of angry hornets and you’ll still have a more entertaining time. I bet you’re asking yourself “Hey, Candice? Why do you think this game did so poorly? I don’t get it. You loved the others so much.” and I’d say because Hideo Kojima didn’t direct it and thus, as only the producer (He was working on the console MGS titles at the time) that he left it to Shinta Nojiri to direct it and he did not do the series justice. End of.
(Konami)
