This series of posts is an idea that I have that I am thinking of turning into a book. A Documentary. I haven't written a whole lot. Writing is something that I have just recently gained interest in. I figure, why not set my goals high and just write something really long form and just go from there. If you have any comments or criticisms on my work, I would love to hear them that I may grow and start to realize what, YOU, my audience would like to read.
This series is going to be about Metal Gear. A series that I fell in love with after playing Metal Gear Solid for the Sony Playstation. On and on through the years the series the games and their stories have just gotten better and better. It wasn't until Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater that I even knew that there was more to the series than the three games I had just played. From then on I have been playing all of the games yearly and researching the development and storylines to get a better understanding of just what is going on in the world of Metal Gear and what I have found is just amazing! So, I have now decided to write a documentary book outlining what I have learned about Metal Gear and it's creator Hideo Kojima.
Please let me know what you think of my writings, if you would read something like this, and if you think that you might want a nice copy of a book like this on your book shelf or coffee table. Or if I'm just crazy for even attempting this.
Thank you,
Kelly
Introduction
Metal gear... A nuclear equipped, walking, Battle Tank. This is the usual language used throughout Hideo Kojima's, Metal Gear, video game series. The games are all about this titanic mech, that has taken many derivative forms throughout this series of games. Metal Gear, and a super soldier codenamed Snake. Metal Gear, was released in 1987 for the Japanese MSX 2 home computer. The goal of young game developer, the forementioned Hideo Kojima, was to make something different. The ideas featured in the game were a mixture of a fixation on views gathered from growing up in an age of nuclear panic, a love of film, and the idea of making a game more akin to hide and seek, rather than another shooter.
Metal Gear opens with the player in control of rookie Fox Hound Special forces unit Agent Solid Snake. Solid Snake is ordered, by Fox Hound Commander Big Boss, to infiltrate offshore terrorist base, Outer Heaven, and put Metal Gear out of commission by any means neccessary. The big twist of the story of Metal Gear comes when it comes to be known this mission is all an elaborate ruse, set up by Big Boss, to eliminate Solid Snake. It's a long, convoluted, crazy story as to why Big Boss is doing this to Solid Snake, who you will come to find is actually a clone, and in a way a son, of Big Boss himself.
!
What? His own son? Like I said, it's crazy. It is a very interesting story that Kojima has woven through the Metal Gear Series. From 1987s Metal Gear to 2015s Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. This is my recap and interpretation of the masterpiece of a collection of stories told by Hideo Kojima. Metal Gear: Who are the Patriots? We will get to that. Spoilers incoming! You have been warned.
Chapter 1
Hideo Kojima
Konami, Metal Gear, and standing out from the crowd
Kojima was born in Tokyo, Japan on August 24, 1963. Kojima's father passed away when he was only 13 years old. This forced Kojima to often have to take care of himself and the household, as his mother would now have to work harder to keep her family afloat. Kojima has noted that he has had problems dealing with loneliness because of this.
"[whenever] I travel and stay at a hotel I put the TV on as soon as I enter the room, just to deal with the feeling of loneliness."
-Hideo Kojima
Early in life, and to this day, Hideo Kojima was fascinated with film. He said that he and his friends would often spend time making small films with an 8mm camera. He even had ambitions later on in becoming a film director. later, while in college he developed an interest in video game design. Hideo first started playing games in arcades and on Nintendo's Family Computer Entertainment System, or Famicom. He says that he was inspired Nintendo's Shigero Miamoto and his smash hit game Super Mario Bros. and Portopia Serial Murder Case by Yuji Horii. A playable game ROM of Portopia has even been found in Kojima's latest, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
Being very interested in arts Kojima was often discouraged by Japanese societal norms, which always encouraged youths to pursue safe, stable, financially secure endeavors. The infantile video games industry was especially discouraged by friends, family and educators. Except for Hideo's mother, who always supported Kojima to follow his dreams and to do what made him happy.
Kojima's mother even played Metal Gear Solid 3 to completion. Further emotionally supporting her son in his works.
"It took her an entire year to complete Metal Gear Solid 3. She would get her friends to help her. When she defeated The End, [a character the player faces off during the game] she called me up and said: 'It is finished'."
-Hideo Kojima
Kojima began selling game design ideas around to any developer who would listen. He was rejected many times at first and with much persistence, ended up landing a job with Konami designing games for the MSX Home Computer games division in 1986. In his first year with Konami, Kojima worked hard to sell his superiors on many game design ideas. One of which Lost Warld, a platformer, was finished but rejected and never released. He contemplated leaving Konami and starting over until he was tasked to take over on a game in progress called Metal Gear that was running into problems with memory constraints and combat systems. Kojima decided to shift focus of the gameplay from combat altogether, and instead making a game where the player's objective is to avoid confrontation and instead sneak around opposition. Kojima had found his niche. He had found that design idea that would help him stand out from the crowd.
Inspired by 1963 American film, John Sturges' The Great Escape. Kojima based the gameplay mechanics of Metal Gear on the idea of a prisoner escaping. You start with no weapons, no chance of survival in a fight, and no map or reference of your surroundings. You must use your wits to sneak past guards, find Metal Gear, and destroy it. Metal Gear was released in 1987 for the MSX2 in Japan and some European regions. A version of the game was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System (hereafter referred to as the NES) in America. Of which Kojima was not involved with and has often criticized for poor translation and the removal of the final confrontation with Metal Gear itself. There was also a sequel to this version of the game called Snake's Revenge. Kojima did not have a hand in this title either.
His next project was was a point and click adventure game called Snatcher. Released for the NEC PC-8801 and MSX2 computers in Japan in 1988. Snatcher, like Metal Gear, was very well received and has been subsequently been released for many different platforms including Sony's Playstation. Influenced by Science Fiction films like Blade Runner and The Terminator, Snatcher is set in a post-apocalyptic world where an amnesiac detective must face a group of cyborgs that kill, and assume the likeness of their victims. Snatcher was praised for having a very complex story line full of cinematic cutscenes and mature themes that were not seen much at the time in the industry. Because of this the game did not sell as well in the climate it was released, but nonetheless is regarded as one of the best video games ever.
In 1990 Kojima started work on a sequel to Metal Gear, titled Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake after a conversation with a friend and fellow Konami employee who had worked on the NES's unofficial sequel; Snake's Revenge. In Metal Gear 2 Kojima evolved the stealth gameplay of the original by giving snake new abilities like a radar that tracks detected guards' movement and field of vision, crouching and crawling, and knocking on surfaces to distract guards, who gained their own new abilities. The guards in Metal Gear 2 now had a 45 degree field of sight, the ability to go from screen to screen and a three phase alarm state. One particularly neat sequence in the game has you identifying and tailing a guard through a confusing jungle maze to another area of the base, without alerting the guard to the fact that you are following him of course. Radio conversation dialogue, sound design, graphical presentation, and overall story and plot were expanded as well. Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake is an overall more robust, more engaging experience.
