Metal Gear Collection: © Nekura_Hoka 2004, 2005 ______________________________________________________________________________ These are all the 'Metal Gear' games. They are listed in order of their release and whether I have them or not. Included also is various bits of information about the game, mostly the premises, and some interesting things I've noted while playing them. There is some degree of story spoiling, so read at your own risk. There is quite a bit of theory in here, but this is here merely for the purposes of conjecture and is easily separable from the facts also presented here. Have Don't Have \/ \/ 1. Metal Gear (1987 - Konami) MSX2 1995 - Snake is sent by Big Boss to infiltrate Outer Heaven (a fortress located 200 km north of Garzburg in Central Africa [some sites and FAQs have mutated Garzburg into Salzburg which is a city in Austria, not africa]), rescue Grey Fox, and destroy the first Metal Gear. This Metal Gear was designed by Dr. Pettrovich Madnar under coersion by the shadowy commander of Outer Heaven. It should also be noted that in the game the city is called 'Galzburg' (this is likely a mispronuncation due to the differing 'L' and 'R' syllables Japanese pronounce in contrast to the english way) I've read from the NES manual that Snake was given the code name for his "ability to strike quickly, quietly and with deadly accuracy." However, the NES manual is rife with misinformation that was invented by developers at Ultra Games for their port. So, take that as worth a grain of salt. 2. Metal Gear (1988 - Konami, Ultra Games) NES Port to NES, map changes, dumbed down and removed bosses, and no final fight with Metal Gear itself. A dead give-away example would be that there is no fight with a Hind-D helicopter in this version, which is a battle present in every genuine Metal Gear game starring Solid Snake from the beginning. The graphics pallete, in addition, is absolutely criminal by comparison to the original MSX. This game, while very similar to the original MSX2 Metal Gear in terms of overall plot, is reportedly not considered by Kojima to be part of the series. This game was ported with many changes in terms of bosses and story from the UK version of Metal Gear on MSX2. That game in turn had large amounts of text taken out of it in order to do the translation and yet keep the program size small enough to fit in a 128KB cartridge. So, obviously this is a loose copy of a copy. 3. Snake's Revenge (1990 - Konami, Ultra Games) NES Officially not part of the Metal Gear Series. This is an actionized rambo-fied Metal Gear-ish game, developed by someone other than Kojima at Konami. Note also that 'Metal Gear' is not actually in the title of the game, the manual, or the box. The name 'Metal Gear 2' does, however, appear in the ROM footer (the footer is an embedded code information that identifies uniquely what game it is). From the iMDB: "The designer of this game (who also worked on Castlevania II and III) was working on this without Hideo Kojima's (the series creator) knowledge or consent until he and Kojima met at a subway station. He told Kojima that he was "working on a Snake game, but knew that it wasn't the true Snake", so he requested to Kojima that he should be making a Metal Gear sequel himself, which led to the development of Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (1990)." 4. Metal Gear 2 - Solid Snake (1990 - Konami) MSX2 1999 - Snake infiltrates Zanzibar Land to destroy Metal Gear D. Another twisted plot awaits Snake as he endeavors to stop the newly formed Zanzibar government and learns the twisted international goals of its leader. This game introduced almost every element of current MG gameplay, including the radar, crawling, and more. This is also the first appearance of a cyborg ninja, "Black Color", formerly Kyle Schneider of the Outer Heaven resistance movement. I wonder if Dr. Clark is responsible for this cyborg as well... "Whoever wins, the battle will not end. The loser shall be freed from the battlefield... But the winner stays. He'll be a warrior until his death." -Big Boss 5. Metal Gear Solid (1998 - Konami) PSX, PC (2000 - Konami, Microsoft) 2005 - Snake infiltrates Shadow Moses Island to face Liquid Snake and Metal Gear Rex. Snake learns his true origins in regards to Big Boss, the man who raised, trained, and sent him into war. Les Enfants Terribles. The project occurred in the 1970's. Isn't it strange that the project's name is french? To my knowledge France is not a known leader in biotechnology and the project was presumably american in origin. Perhaps a french scientist headed the project? Or, maybe France has more legal leeway when it comes to cloning. 6. Metal Gear Solid Integral (1999 - Konami) PSX (J), PC (J?) Special Edition of MGS. 300 VR Missions, easter eggs, and special modes. 7. Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions (1999 - Konami) PSX VR Missions from MGSI with minor changes for the US. 8. Metal Gear Solid: Ghost Babel (2000 - Konami) GBC 2002 - Solid Snake infiltrates Outer Heaven once again to eliminate the mercenary group Black Chamber and a dictator in control of Metal Gear in a small country in Cent. Africa called Gindra. Complete the special missions to get a message giving congratulations to 'Jack'. It certainly implies that the special missions in the game are VR simulation for Raiden (Jack). This could very easily carry over to the main story of the game and explain the historical inconsistencies like Mei Ling and Snake supposedly meeting in this game before Metal Gear Solid. Could this be the real reason for the title 'Ghost Babel', as in an ethereal (false, non-existant) structure? Still, there is a great degree of disagreement and confusion as to this game's place in the Metal Gear series, if any. Contrary to popular understanding this game was canonized in MGS2 by five of the many random sayings of the Colonel Campbell simulation. Below are five exact quotes taken from MGS2 at various points during the malfunction of the Campbell simulation. Each of these quotes are *exactly* mirrored by Campbell's Codec transmissions in Ghost Babel. There may be more but I haven't found 'em. This quote references the mission briefing Campbell gives prior to the mission to Gindra in Ghost Babel: "Your mission is to infiltrate the fortress Galuade, rescue the hostages and neutralize Metal Gear before its assembly is complete." This Colonel simulation quote is from a hint Campbell gives Snake in Ghost Babel's barracks levels: "Snake, there's a fork in the conveyor belt. The machine is automatically sorting cargo according to some system. Take a good look at the device." This refers to a Campbell message instructing Snake to take out the power plant to prevent Metal Gear from using its rail gun and can be received in MSS2 by messaging Campbell repeatedly while Raiden is naked: "Snake, destroy the power plant's main turbine. It's located in the B1 floor of the plant. Break into the B1 floor." "Snake, take the power plant out. Set C4 explosives on four key points to destroy the structure." This one is a bit more obscure. This quote is issued by the simulation Campbell again, but refers to a secret Codec story that can be found in the Japanese and European versions of Ghost Babel, and it seems to (but doesnt actually) reference a very popular old game of Kojima's called Snatcher from the MSX2: "Communicator Entertainment Program Idea Spy 2.5 (Two-point-five) Episode 1 New York. Here in the city where dreams come true and desires rule, something is being bought, sold and thrown away, even as we speak. But behind the scenes of business as usual, the nefarious J.E. (Junker Expensive) Corporation lines its already bloated coffers with profits from worthless products. As J.E. swindles yet another innocent into purchasing high-priced junk......the FBI mobilizes a top-secret task force to put a stop to the menace. Now, the city's best-kept secret spy is out there, briefed and ready to protect the people from J.E., the catalogue of conspiracy -- just call him 2.5 (Two-point-five)." There it all is, five exact quotes, accurate to both games. As I understand it Kojima has never personally addressed the issue of Ghost Babel's place in the series. Many would-be internet experts claim that he has disavowed it, however there are no quotes or even news reports I've seen support this. It's rather difficult to explain the specificity of the crazy simulation's sayings if Ghost Babel doesn't exist within the Metal Gear storyline in some form, whether it be 'real' or VR. 9. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001 - Konami) PS2 2007/2009 - Play as Raiden, would-be successor to the Big Boss line to eliminate Solidus Snake, Metal Gear Ray, and Arsenal Gear. It is said that the structure of this game is designed to mimic the Shadow Moses Island mission. In actuallity it mimics the Outer Heaven incident moreso than the 2005 operation. Hrm... Outer Heaven Shadow Moses Ghost Babel Similarity here? First name part seems to be a synonym for an elusive thing and the second part a judaeic reference. Kojima's mind at work again it seems. 10. Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance (2002 - Konami) XBOX, PS2, PC Special Edition of MGS2: SOL. Includes new modes and features. XBOX version is reportedly choppy and poorly runs the game, although this may not be the case. I had this game for PS2, didnt finish it, and had to sell it. I've repurchased this for PC. It's damn choppy in CPU intensive areas (possibly just my comp, but this is reportedly the issue the XBOX as well). This is probably to be expected since PC's generally only have 2 main processors (CPU and GPU) to PS2's 3 (1 CPU and 2 VPU's) [both PC's and PS2 have more processors than this technically, but I'm talking the main processing sources] and the conversion would likely have some wierd effects depending on how the designers utilized the original processor array. After finally playing the game all the way through, I think that if anything this mission mimics Solid Snake's first mission not the Shadow Moses Island one as the Patriots intended it to. Solid Snake's presence here is analgous to Grey Fox's in the first Metal Gear. Solid Snake shows Raiden 'the ropes' like Grey Fox is said by Solid to have done for him. Certainly, the plan of the Patriots was to mimic a Shadow Moses Island scenario for study by their new adjunct GW, but the universe always conspires against predictability it seems. The Colonel is nothing short of pissed off that Solid Snake appears to be affecting the outcome of the mission and this is clearly why. Also, perhaps GW is using the text of the original Shadow Moses outcome as a Control Group in the experiment for comparison to the Study Group that involves Raiden as 'Guinea Pig' in the scenario. 11. The Document of Metal Gear Solid 2 (2002? - Konami) PS2 Special Edition of the game including extras. Most notable is the inclusion of the annotated script for MGS2. 12. Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (2004 - Konami) GCN Metal Gear Solid (PSX) updated with new graphics and features for Gamecube. Voices redone and features same actors as those used for MGS2 and the previous version of MGS. However, these new voice recordings lack the accents of Mei Ling and other characters which is quite lame. 13. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (2004 - Konami) PS2 1964 - Naked Snake (a.k.a. Big Boss, later) infiltrates the Granin Research Facility to face off against Volgin (Thunderbolt), The Boss, the Cobras, and the Shagohod (Metal Gear). A damn good game. In terms of story, the best in the series easily. Unfortunately, we are given only a suggestion as to the reasons why Big Boss adopts the goal of global unending war, like the Patriots. The suggestion presented is probably enough really, but it would be nice to have a game to play with a detailed circumstantial explanation of the transition. My thinking is that Big Boss remains a patriot of freedom. Like Solidus he eventually sets out against the Patriots to form a rogue nation outside of their control. "Outer Heaven" Still not sure about the global unending war thing though. (If, indeed there is anything beyond his own explanation to Solid in MG2) 14. Metal Gear AC!D (2005 - Konami) PSP Card-based strategy game based on Metal Gear. Not a canonized part of the main series' story. This story has to do with an acid-based weapon system rather than our standard Metal Gear. 15. Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (2005? - Konami) PS2 MGS3 a'la Integral and Substance. New features like the pseudo-first-person third-person camera which, according to Kojima, is a feature that will be utilized in MGS4. 16. Metal Gear Solid 4: ??? (???? = Konami) PS3 The future - Reported stars in the upcoming game include: Vamp, Meryl, Raiden (possibly his or Olga's baby), Ocelot, Solid Snake, Otacon, whatever's left of Big Boss (possible rejuvenation here?), and Naomi Hunter. Kojima says it's in the future with a new situation. (many have read that as a new environment, but I've seen only "situation") He's stated that the nifty first-personesque third-person cam in MGS3: Subsistence will be a feature. So, was Big Boss cyborgized after the Outer Heaven incident? According to George Kessler's rumor, he was. Notice the metallic footsteps and sparks coming from ole BB's limbs on impact in the original teaser trailer? 'What?', you ask. 'Big Boss, where?' He's the only Snake that smokes cigars... Perhaps the sons of Big Boss weren't enough. Liquid's survival within a dead arm on Revolver Ocelot could portend to the unnatural future awaiting BB's crispy remains. 17. Metal Gear AC!D 2 (???? - Konami) PSP Second verse, same as the first. ______________________________________________________________________________