FRANCHISE FRIDAY: METAL GEAR (SOLID)
It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a...NEW YEAR!? AND A FRIDAY!? Well, that can only mean one thing...
It's FRANCHISE FRIDAY and it's time for a big hitter, coz up steps Solid Snake & Co. for Hideo Kojima's METAL GEAR!
With the release of a little game by one Hideo Kojima for the MSX2 platform back in '87 known simply as Metal Gear, little did Konami know that such a beast would be unleashed. A video game series acclaimed for it's cinematic-tinged action-adventure stealth-style swagger, it gave birth to a gaming icon in Solid Snake and in its wake pioneered the stealth genre of gaming, which has since grown into a popular form of its own lending inspiration to the likes of Splinter Cell, etc. The Metal Gear franchise is as huge as its intricate and on-going story...
Snake first snuck into peoples homes with the original Metal Gear on MSX2, but it was its watered down NES port (and unofficial sequel to said port) that let the rest of the world into the MG universe. Yet, it wasn't until 1998 that the ball really got rolling, with the release of Metal Gear Solid on the Sony PlayStation, which quickly became one of the most commercial and critically successful video games of the era and an absolute swoop for Sony's 32-bit console in terms of exclusivity. It is of course the Solid subseries that has gained the more widespread fanbase due to the easier access (in terms of general retail availability); with the numbered versions until the fifth entry continuing on as PlayStation brand exclusives with MGS2: Sons of Liberty and MGS3: Snake Eater on PS2.
Of course - as with every big franchise - Metal Gear also went portable, not just with the mobile phone ports of the original. The Game Boy Color received it's own Metal Gear Solid, known as Ghost Babel in Japan, which served as an alternate sequel to the OG Metal Gear. The PSP gained the MGS3 follow-up known as Portable Ops and eventually in 2010 a sequel came in the form of Peace Walker and also Metal Gear AC!D 1&2. The ill-fated N-Gage even got a look-in with Metal Gear Solid Mobile.
Almost every game in the franchise has also had some form of 'expanded version', remake or re-release...It's like Kojima and Konami just can't help themselves on that front. The PS3 also saw MGS4 and for the new consoles MGS5 is on the horizon, following its prologue game. There has also been radio drama adaptations, novels, comics, a whole host of CD's (from OST's and more), a crap tonne of figures, etc. and of course a film adaptation that has been in developmental hell since 2006.
Nobody is a true fortune teller, but we at RGG predict that the legend of Solid Snake will only continue to grow, as the Metal Gear franchise at large grows with it. The future of Kojima's series is as bright now as ever. No matter your opinions, retrobates - one really must doth their cap to the legacy of, as the intro put; a true big hitter. Yet, that said...What are your opinions on the franchise? Love it, hate it, m'eh it? Perhaps you'd just rather watch Escape From New York or whack in one of Metal Gear's stealth rivals such as the aforementioned Splinter Cell?
Get up on it and DISCUSS this weeks FRANCHISE FRIDAY via our FORUM and/or our other Social Media platforms:
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RetroGameGeeks
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PS: Don't forget to check out the website right now and hit up the forum while your there, coz we got an all new RGG Game Of The Month for January 2015 - and it's a good'un! Resident Evil: Code Veronica! So, go get to it!!
