Metal Gear (video game)

Metal Gear
The cover illustration depicts the protagonist Solid Snake prominently, with the eponymous mecha below him. The illustration is in fact a reproduction of a picture of the character Kyle Reese from the 1984 film The Terminator, played by actor Michael Biehn.
Japanese MSX2 box art
Developer(s)Konami
Publisher(s)Konami
Director(s)Hideo Kojima
Designer(s)Hideo Kojima
Programmer(s)
  • Hiroyuki Fukui
  • Tomonori Otsuka
  • Koji Toyohara
Artist(s)
  • Masami Tabata
  • Azusa Fujimoto
Writer(s)Hideo Kojima
Composer(s)
  • MSX version
  • Iku Mizutani
  • Shigehiro Takenouchi
  • Motoaki Furukawa
  • NES version
  • Kazuki Muraoka
SeriesMetal Gear
Platform(s)
Release
July 13, 1987
  • MSX2
    Famicom/NES
    • JP: December 22, 1987
    • NA: June 1988
    • PAL: 1989
    Commodore 64
    MS-DOS
    • NA: August 30, 1990
    • EU: 1990
    Mobile phones
    • JP: August 18, 2004
    • NA: 2008
    Windows
    • WW: September 25, 2020
Genre(s)Action-adventure, stealth
Mode(s)Single-player

Metal Gear[a] is an action-adventure stealth video game developed and published by Konami for the MSX2. It was released for the system in Japan and parts of Europe in 1987. Considered to have popularized the stealth game genre, it was the first video game to be fully developed by Hideo Kojima, who would go on to direct most of the games that followed in the Metal Gear series.[2] A reworked port of the game was released for the Famicom a few months later, which later saw release in international markets for the NES over the following two years; this version was developed without Kojima's involvement and features drastically altered level designs, among other changes.[3]

Players control Solid Snake, an operative of the special forces unit FOXHOUND, who goes on a solo infiltration mission into the fortified state of Outer Heaven to destroy Metal Gear, a bipedal walking tank capable of launching nuclear missiles from anywhere in the world, as well as rescue a number of fellow agents who have been captured by the enemy. The game was a major international success, with the NES version selling 1 million units in the United States. Metal Gear is recognized as the first mainstream stealth game,[4] and is credited as a pioneer in stealth mechanics[5] as well as storytelling via a portable radio transceiver.[6]

An emulated Famicom version came with the special edition of Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes on GameCube. A more faithful port of the MSX2 version was later included in Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence for the PlayStation 2, as well as in the HD Edition of the same game released for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PlayStation Vita, with these newer ports featuring a revised translation and additional gameplay features. The MSX version was also released for Wii Virtual Console and PC.[7] Both the MSX and NES versions of Metal Gear were re-released as part of the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 compilation for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S.

  1. ^ "METAL GEAR 25th ANNIVERSARY 「メタルギアソリッドの真実」" (in Japanese). Konami Digital Entertainment. Archived from the original on 2020-12-08. Retrieved 2016-07-13.
  2. ^ Jeremy Parish, "Metal Gear," Electronic Gaming Monthly 225 (January 2008): 93.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference gamerstoday was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference gamesradar was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference eurogamer was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference MSN was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ "METAL GEAR on GOG.com". GOG.com. Archived from the original on 29 September 2020. Retrieved 26 September 2020.


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