This month marks the 30
th anniversary of a gaming benchmark: The original Metal Gear. In July 1987, creator Hideo Kojima decided to flip the script on the approach to gaming- instead of killing everything that moves on screen, what would happen if instead, you had to
avoid your enemies? Effectively, the stealth genre was born. But Metal Gear’s legacy goes beyond that. With the introduction of Metal Gear Solid just over a decade later, came storytelling and production value that this medium had never seen before. In the years since, every game with a stealth or a cinematic element (and between those two, that’s almost all of them) owes a little something to Metal Gear.
So, to celebrate, I’ve revisited that first game, and as someone who’s always wanted
Metal Gear to get the full remake treatment, I’ve decided to look at some of the ways that could work. Interestingly, a lot of aspects of this game have been refined in later Metal Gears, so a remake isn’t
really necessary. But I still think there are two franchise traits that, if fleshed out, could make updating this title worth it:
The story, and
the bosses. Pulling not only from other Metal Gear titles, but other great modern games as well, I want to pitch some ways to pull it off. Unfortunately, as of this writing, Hideo Kojima and publisher Konami have parted ways, so this will likely never happen, but a guy can dream...
The story of the original Metal Gear is pretty barebones. Of course, all the basics are there: Big Boss sends you to Outer Heaven. Rescue Grey Fox. Stop Metal Gear. But that’s about as far as it goes. Considering the limitations of games during that era, it’s no surprise, but this would be a great opportunity to expand on some of those original ideas. The MGS lore is known for being some of the most complex (and convoluted) in gaming, but a remake of the very first title, actually has the rare opportunity of clearing some things up, or putting a finer point on a lot of the larger themes that have come and gone over the course of the series.
I would like to see that done when it comes to The Patriots and Big Boss’ dream, which have been teased with since
Peace Walker and
The Phantom Pain. Big Boss becomes a War Monger, Diamond Dogs is dissolved, there’s still a lot of filling in the blanks when it comes to the gap between MGSV and MG1, and the fact of the matter is, we’ve still yet to see this man as a full-on villain. Besides, the fact that the “Big Boss” killed at the end of this game is really the Big Boss stand-in ‘Venom Snake’, it would help make the twist at the end of MGS 5 a lot more palatable.
It would also be great to see more material that shows Grey Fox and Solid Snake’s relationship. More Grey Fox in general is basically what I’d love here. Awesome character. Historically, he took in a child after killing her parents- a key character that would grow up to become Dr. Naomi Hunter. Scenes with young Naomi and then Frank Jaeger could be some nice flashbacks. The game could even open with Jaeger on the investigative mission, watching him in all his glory as Fox Hound’s best agent, before he gets captured, and utters that fateful, cryptic last message that starts this whole franchise: “Metal…Gear…”
Pre-Ninja Grey Fox deserves some fleshing out.
Additionally, it often goes forgotten, but there’s almost something of a subplot involving the people you make contact with throughout the campaign. Dr. Madnar, the scientist who created Metal Gear, won’t help you unless you rescue his daughter Ellen first. Resistance members serve as support, giving you valuable intel when it comes to finding equipment or fighting bosses, but at one point, resistance member Jennifer has a brother held hostage by one of the mercenaries. And in the sequel game, Kyle Schnieder, the leader of the resistance here, actually becomes disillusioned with NATO after their strike on Outer Heaven killed innocents. This would all be great to expand on.
The non-canon “Snake’s Revenge” did
some interesting things with Jennifer.
Shotmaker Machine Gun Kid Fire Trooper Dirty Duck Bloody Brad
But even more than a deeper revision of the story, the biggest appeal for a Metal Gear remake would be the boss fights. With so few in the last couple of games, a motley crew of baddies to take down would be a welcome return. Funnily, though, The Outer Heaven Uprising had a set of mercenaries that were as simplistic as can be.
For starters: The Machine Gun Kid. It doesn’t get more clear and concise than that. But I think there’s enough here to add flair to this character. Not unlike the cocky Revolver Ocelot, Machine Gun Kid can show-off his skills with dual automatics, seen in all sorts of flashy action movies these days. Think about the athletics and marksmanship of Zephyr in
Resonance of Fate. Hell, I’m even open to the idea of MGK being a girl, as there is always at least one female boss in every Metal Gear Solid game.
With Dirty Duck, (Or Coward Duck, if you will), it’s hard to make boomerangs seem threatening. For a deadlier approach, creators will often make them bladed, as most recently seen with Flash villain Captain Boomerang from the Arrowverse.
Metal Gear Solid: Ghost Babel even gave the boomerang enemy a second go with Slasher Hawk. But that was on a handheld game comparable to the 2D Metal Gear. For a more modern game, I like the tri-bladed Glaive seen in
Dark Sector. If Duck is slinging these at Snake, it will be a great use of the 3D environment. Along with holding Jennifer’s brother hostage, this is a fight that is a little more dynamic than some of the others in the game.
Shotmaker might be the hardest to crack. He’s got a shotgun and when you face him in-game, it’s at a point where you are unarmed. The challenge is dodging the spread of the blast and moving in close enough to take him out. Since what’s happening in Outer Heaven is an uprising, and there is a resistance, I do like the idea of some sort of riot control. For added difficulty, I think a riot shield to keep your attacks focused on getting around Shotmaker would be cool for strategy. It works well enough in other MGS games, but you’re pretty much screwed without a weapon. Up close, enemies in
Tomb Raider take a melee swing at you, and I think for Shotmaker, that would work really well for creating openings.
As I mentioned earlier, later Metal Gear games circled back to a lot of ideas brought forth here, and fully realized them. Using cigarettes to see infrared lasers, remote control missiles to take out electrical panels, and the like.
Metal Gear 2’s Night Fright and Jungle Evil used camouflage and ambush tactics in the same way The Fear and The End do in MGS3. Even Running Man plays out similarly to the speedy Fatman fight in
Sons of Liberty. So it goes with Fire Trooper, who is literally just
Snake Eater's The Fury, or any of the flame-throwing soldiers found in the mountain section of MGS3. Compared to the other Outer Heaven bosses, it’s hard to deny the repetition here, but at the same time, you can’t go wrong with fire-based enemies. Adding arc to his his flame attacks to circumvent Snakes’s cover (like the Pyro Troopers in
Killzone) would be a nice touch.
Lastly is Bloody Brad, which is actually two cyber-droids created by Dr. Petrovich. As
Metal Gear goes, these androids are probably the most ‘out-there’ concept in the whole game. People joke about the franchise being nonsensically, crazy, but the first one is actually pretty grounded. The inspiration here was obviously Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator, and while that might be a little cliché by today’s standards
, Metal Gear Rising’s own Senator Armstrong fits the bill close enough as unstoppable pure muscle. Now just imagine fighting two of him!
With all that said, I’d be fine with replacing any one of these villains for a good old-fashioned sniper battle. Challenging the player, and testing the limits of the gameplay, a sniper battle has become something of a tradition in Metal Gear titles. I’d love to see that here, and it’s not like Metal Gear hasn’t had a boss swap before. In the Western port, the Hind D fight was replaced with Turret gunners called Twin Shots.
Speaking of the Hind D, Snake got a better confrontation in
Metal Gear Solid, anyway. In fact, players have faced all manner of military vehicles across the series. But I would still like to keep the tank, bulldozer, and chopper fights in this game, mainly because of the variety they added. I think a good way to change them up would be to look at what the
Uncharted series does with them. In those games, it is as much about destroying the environment as it is about destroying you, and that really helps to make you feel desperate and outmatched. For all that Metal Gear games do well, facing tanks and choppers rarely feels as deadly or as epic as some of those Uncharted set pieces do, and I think that would really take
Metal Gear to the next level.
And what about that final boss? One of the more humorous things about the NES version versus the MSX original, was that you had to bomb a super computer instead of actually fighting the Metal Gear! It would be a cheeky bit of humor for a remake to have you do both. If you only get one shot at this, why not see what you can mix in to this game from
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake? Like those war orphans that are running around. You could even set up young Raiden with that, or the psychos who grow up to be the Beauty & Beast Corps in
Guns of the Patriots, who would also be children at the time. I’m sure other fans have so many more ideas too. This article is all pretty crazy, I know, but the beauty of remaking Metal Gear is all the things that can be added or refined. Hope it can happen some day.
Thanks for reading.