Solid Snake likes Solid Games.
PLAYERS: 1
PUBLISHER: Ultra
DEVELOPER: Konami
GENRE: Action/adventure
RELEASE DATE: June 1988
There’s no way to mention the words “Metal Gear” around a dedicated gamer without them busting out their best, over-enunciated Solid Snake impersonation. But before Metal Gear had a Solid attached and before there was voice-acting in games, there was just the original Metal Gear for your Nintendo (actually, Metal Gear for the NES is an inferior port of the original MSX game, but since I’m not reviewing MSX games or going into the history of the series, I suggest you read up on it yourselves).
And it definitely feels like a Metal Gear game for the NES. There’s an emphasis on sneaking around instead of killing everything that moves, a convoluted story, recognizable names and characters, but if you were weaned on the Solid name, as I was, there’s a good chance this game won’t do it for you. Part of the appeal of the Solid series is the banter between the characters, both in the Codec and in the cutscenes, but there’s very little of that here, as one would expect in a limited 8-bit game. When you take away one of the essentials of the “Metal Gear” brand name, you’re left with sneaking around, collecting weapons and items, and killing the occasional guard. This is enjoyable at first, but quickly grows monotonous. The areas you explore may differ, but the gameplay – sneak, collect item/rescue POW, fight boss – is the same old sneak (snake?) and dance. Perhaps my biggest annoyance with this game, though, is that no matter how far you get, you only have one life, and when you die, you always have to start at the very beginning of the game. Yes, you’ll have all the items and weapons and key cards you’ve collected thus far, but still. There’s no reason for such a design choice, and it only increases the amount of time you need to play this long and tedious game. And, let’s face it, you’ll need that extra time perfecting the ultimate gravelly Snake voice! Metal Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaarrrrrrrrggghhh! But even if you don’t want to do that, Metal Gear still isn’t fun.
C
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9 replies on “#411 – Metal Gear”
Fair review. This game was dated by 1990. Now it’s enough to make one feel asleep.
This may be a mediocre entry in a long running series, but “I FEEL ASLEEP!” is one of the greatest bits of Engrish ever.
A cardboard box is the awesomest espionage item ever!
Ah, Metal Gear… I remember renting this when it first came out, and really – it just didn’t set well with me at the time. I was bored. I didn’t know what I was doing. But then a buddy bought it, played it and insisted I give it another shot.
On the 2nd playthrough, I held up much better. I was able to appreciate certain things like the line of sight, that I didn’t really notice the first time around. It still wasn’t a favorite game of mine by any means, but I did beat it that 2nd time, and was glad I did.
Granted, I have not played this game in ages, but I was a little surprised to read you had to start from the beginning upon death. I seem to remember it having a password feature. What else in my life is now a lie???
I really enjoyed this game a lot, but that was also back when it came out. I can see how it may not hold up for all you young pups 🙂
-j
Ted Danson? I thought everyone knew that was Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese.
You don’t always start at the beginning of the game. It depends I think on your ranking by saving POWs which determines where you start, if I’m not mistaken.
“Ted Danson is Solid Snake”? What are you talking about? It’s Michael Biehn!
http://ow.ly/pvUkR
The Ted Danson thing was a joke. At the time of this writing, I didn’t know who Michael Biehn was. Now I do, and I still think he vaguely resembles Ted Danson.