Metal Gear
Bored of gaming's all-too itchy trigger finger, game designer Hideo Kojima's first released title introduced the idea of avoiding bullet-based altercations, instead encouraging an altogether more stealthy approach. The game was, of course, Metal Gear and it made its debut on the MSX2 home computer way back in 1987. The story gave birth to one of gaming's most famous characters - special forces operative, Solid Snake - as he embarked on a covert mission to destroy the nuclear missile launching mech, Metal Gear. This important piece of gaming heritage most recently popped up in Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, where the full game was included as a nice extra.
When did the series goice cold?
The sequel - Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake - was released exclusively in Japan for the MSX2 in 1990. The story goes that Kojima was never planning a follow-up, but changed his mind when he discovered that publisher Konami was creating a spin-off sequel, Snake's Revenge (which was released for NES in Europe and America). Kojima's true, second part of the Metal Gear series introduced a host of new features - Snake could now crawl and hide under objects, while enemies could detect noises, were given greater fields of view and a third state of alert (alert-evasion-infiltration).Metal Gear 2 also focused much more on the game's characters and storyline, introducing cut-scenes to develop the unfolding plot.
A new king is born!
Kojima's vision of stealth gameplay had - somehow - remained largely unexplored by other developers and when Konami released Metal Gear Solid for PlayStation in 1998 it caused an absolute storm of excitement with its trademark "Tactical Espionage Action." Despite most of the gameplay elements from Metal Gear 2 reappearing, the game felt fresh and quite unlike anything that preceded it. Critics across the board loved it, the game shipped over 6 million copies worldwide and it's still considered by many to be one of the greatest, most important videogames of all time.
Does it live on?
Since its resurrection the Metal Gear series has taken centre stage on Sony's consoles. PS2 sequels Sons of Liberty and Snake Eater have both been massive hits (selling somewhere in the region of 12 million copies worldwide between them), while various remakes and special editions have ensured that interest in Kojima's trailblazing series remains vertiginously high. Right now, though, all eyes are covertly fixed on Solid Snake's PS3 excursion - Guns of the Patriots - which, we hope, will be with us by the end of the year.
