In a newly unearthed interview, Hideo Kojima shared that he faced near universal resistance against his idea for Metal Gear until he pointed out the iconic exclamation point that lets players know they've been spotted by the enemy. (Try not to hear the sound challenge, go!)
Talking to Nice Games way back in 1999 (available now due to the great work over at Shmuplations), Kojima explained how the kernel that would eventually become Metal Gear was Konami's desire to make a "war game." Kojima said that a team of veteran Konami developers had an idea for a war game and then scrapped it, and then came up with another, and scrapped that, and so and, so forth. Eventually the project fell into Kojima's hands, and he put forth an idea for an "escape game" inspired by the 1963 movie The Great Escape, but was told "'There's no games like that'."
"I was still a new planner at Konami, so I guess no one was inclined to listen to what I had to say… there was just zero motivation from the start," Kojima said. "It was like, what do I have to do here, do I have to start beating people up? (laughs)"
- 26 years on, developers discuss the massive impact Metal Gear Solid had on the industry: "This was going much further than all previous action games. And that was totally inspiring"
- Metal Gear Solid's former art director once said he spends "a lot of time fussing over the details of the characters' backside since that's the side the player sees most in-game"
Kojima said he was so frustrated with the situation that he was considering leaving Konami entirely, but another veteran employee gathered a meeting and presented Kojima's vision, and sure enough "the people around me started to change their attitude."
"Of course everyone still had their doubts about the basic premise," Kojima said. "They were all asking, 'will an escape game really be fun…?' But once we got a working build running, and they saw that exclamation mark pop up when the enemy gets surprised, that sold them on the concept. They all changed their tune then: 'This is gonna work!'"
Long story short, thank goodness for that effin' exclamation point. To think that the absence of such a relatively minor feature could've meant no Metal Gear forever is mind-boggling, and it makes you wonder what beloved series exist in other universes but not ours simply because whoever pitched it in our universe didn't show off the exclamation point. I'm gonna go lie down.
❗ What do you mean Metal Gear isn't on our list of the best NES games?❗
