Friday, 17 October 2008
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Of codecs, five-five-sixers and pineapples...
When the original Metal Gear Solid fell into my lap nearly ten years ago, it wasn't quite love at first sight. True, it was unlike any game I'd ever played before, but that made it a little bit -- how shall I put this -- frightening. It wasn't a run-and-gun. It wasn't a space shooter. It wasn't a platform game. In fact, it was redefining the very meaning of "video game" right there in front of my eyes, even if I was too busy staring at the pretty graphics to pay attention.The opening scenario might seem rather mundane now but at the time, it was positively mind-blowing. Sneak past (not kill!) a trio of armed guards. Watch out for a wall-mounted security camera. Crawl into a tiny ventilation duct. And work your way deep into an enemy fortress, without being seen or caught. It was new, it was unique, and it felt absolutely real, from the way your footprints traced their way through the snow to the rats scurrying along beside you.
Granted, many of the core gameplay mechanics found in Metal Gear Solid could be traced back to the series' first appearance on the MSX2 home computer (and later the NES.) Evading enemies, sneaking into enemy territory, and communicating with team members via radio were all part of the original Metal Gear back in 1987. But this was different. This wasn't 8-bit anymore; this was 3D! It had voice acting, and a dynamic soundtrack, and melodrama! Oodles and oodles of melodrama! In other words, it won me over in a big way.
And so too, I suspect, will Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes.
A Gamecube-exclusive remake of Metal Gear Solid, Twin Snakes is a wet dream of mine come true. Taking all that made the original so damn satisfying -- the fantastic gameplay, the boss battles, the codec dialogue, the cinematics -- and ramping it up from 32 to 128 bits, this gem saw release in 2004 and turned an entire league of Nintendo fans into Kojima fans virtually overnight. Sure, the N crowd never got any of the sequels (the fantastic Sons of Liberty or so-so Snake Eater), but they did get one of the defining games of our generation remastered and repackaged, with all-new cinematics and gameplay mechanics, in glorious 480p high definition.
In other words, it's like hooking up with an old girlfriend you really loved who's just gotten a great boob job.
The end.
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Comments (3)
I hear MGS Twin Snakes failed to capture the same feel that the original PSX version had. That's just what I hear though.
I still need to get the original Metal Gear for the NES
That was the most Recent game I got for the original Playstation