Thirty five years ago in 1987, Hideo Kojima’s blockbuster franchise was born to humble beginnings. Now, the series has reached its 35th anniversary, so we wrote up a retrospective on its legacy.
Metal Gear released on the MSX2 Home Computer in Japan and Europe. The game was so large at the time, that the developers had to cut corners in order to fit as much as they could into the game.
The Japanese version was written completely in katakana with characters names appearing in romanji. The European release was written entirely in capital letters and had to cut much of the dialogue and codex messages from the game.
The Famicom version of the game would be the first time that Metal Gear would reach the shores of the United States. While the Famicom version released in Japan in December of 1987, it came to the United States in June of 1988.
Metal Gear is considered by many to be the godfather of stealth games, being one of the first to bring the genre into the limelight with impressive graphics and presentation.
Many of the iconic aspects of the later Metal Gear Solid games would appear in the original game and its two sequels. Important people and organizations were also first introduced in Metal Gear such as FOXHOUND, Big Boss, Gray Fox, and, of course, series mainstay Solid Snake.
Despite being one of Hideo Kojima‘s first major steps into the industry, he was not always the director of the project, instead he was given the position by another member of Konami. Originally, Metal Gear was supposed to be an action game with more of a focus on the combat, but the MSX2 struggled to handle the number of enemies and bullets on screen.
Kojima, always the film buff, looked towards cinema for inspiration. He saw John Sturges’ film adaptation of The Great Escape as what the game should become: a stealth titled focused on avoiding confrontation rather than engaging in it.
The legacy left behind by Metal Gear cannot be overstated. As a series the games were before many of our time but would lead to the Metal Gear Solid series on the Playstation in 1998.
The Metal Gear Solid games will always be remembered as lightning in a bottle, a game that was both insane but serious when it needed to be. It remains one of the most political franchises in gaming, while never feel like it was preaching to the audience or telling you how to think.
Not to mention the series would lead to Kojima’s infamous predictions for the future in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, which have all mostly come to pass. The man sn a visionary and it all started with Metal Gear on MSX2 in 1987.
Happy Birthday Solid Snake!
