With remakes being a hot commodity and Konami finally showing some signs of life with Silent Hill 2 remake apparently in the works, I wanted to explore this little another gem that’s begging to be remade.
Why a remake?
Hot on the heels of the Resident Evil (actually close to 3 years later), came genius Hideo Kojima and dropped a bomb. Of course, I’m talking about Metal Gear Solid. Before this time, it was all about the companies for me: Capcom, Konami, Square Soft, Nintendo. This is the first instance that I can remember actually saying “Hideo Kojima developed this game.” He became a rock star. Game developers, like movie directors, now carried weight in their respective fields. Let’s explore why this game is primed for a remake.
What made Metal Gear Solid such a success? For starters, it brought stealth games to the mainstream. Tenchu had a fairly decent showing but failed to capture as much attention as Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid. Along with the stealth gameplay, we also got Hollywood-style writing. The story and characters were all so well fleshed out in such a short time! The game runs around 12 hours. The voice acting is superb.
The characters:
The protagonist, Solid Snake, is a seasoned soldier. Let me rephrase, he’s a badass soldier. He’s pitted against a diverse lineup of equally great soldiers. The first that comes to mind is Psycho Mantis. This fight had a never-before-seen mechanic. He could read your mind!
He could only be beaten by connecting and playing the game through the second player controller. A fun and clever gimmick. To this day, whenever I remember Sniper Wolf, I almost shed a tear. Grey Fox is a cybernetic super soldier. Or the series’ staple Revolver Ocelot. He can ricochet bullets off walls to hit his target (in Hollywood fashion). Those are just a few of the characters you’ll encounter here.
The story:
Kojima stories are super convoluted and pretty hard to follow as he progressed with the series. Though not all plot holes are addressed here, Metal Gear Solid does a very good job at guiding you through the plotline. Solid Snake is tasked with infiltrating Shadow Moses to rescue a couple of hostages. And stop the mercenary group FOXHOUND. Along the way, it’s learned that he’s been injected with a bioweapon named FOXDIE, designed to kill off certain genetic signatures. He finishes his mission, but will FOXDIE claim his life too?
I haven’t replayed this game in 20+ years, and all of this is still pretty fresh in my mind. That’s how great the writing is for this game. If you haven’t played it, I urge you to. It’s a game that still holds up with solid (see what I did there?) gameplay mechanics and a story you’ll be able to tell your grandchildren. Let’s just hope Konami game division isn’t completely dead, and we see a Resident Evil-style remake of Metal Gear Solid.
Let’s print some money!
Stop the presses! Hey, you! Yes, I’m talking to you. With the great adaptation of The Last of Us by HBO, imagine getting a Metal Gear Solid series! Let’s get on that. Start a petition. Write your governor. Where’s the Kickstarter?! Come on, come on, let’s have some action!
