Living in the past....

Hey folks,

As I wait for almost another week to get my hands on Metal Gear Solid 4, I decided to spend last weekend getting caught up with the earlier chapters of the series. It only made sense to start at the beginning, so I decided to reacquaint myself with the original Metal Gear. What you see below is my review....

Original Metal Gear:

Old school gaming is extremely hit or miss, with the latter mostly being the case. Usually, trying to play an old game just does not work-the graphics are choppy and crude, and the gameplay’s static and becomes repetitive too quickly.

Companies in the past have tried to revive our longing memories of our favorite old school games by including them in recent versions of the series. Three years ago, Madden football celebrated it’s 15^th anniversary, by releasing a “Collector’s Edition” that included two “classic” versions of the series-one from the Super Nintendo/Genesis era, and one from the PS1 era. Unfortunately, when compared to their digital descendants, these games simply didn’t hold up for the reasons I mentioned earlier. Most gamers played the classic games for a few minutes, remembered their fond memories of playing the older games when they originally came out, but eventually switched discs, and went back to playing the 2005 version.

Which brings us to Metal Gear. A year after the release of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, the game creators at Konami decided to re-release MGS3 in an updated format, renaming it Metal Gear Solid: Subsistance. The game was all the better for it, with an improved camera view, and additional content for the player, including bonus games, and more online content. Along with those additions, though, were included the MSX (Japan’s Nintendo) versions of the first two Metal Gear games.

Unlike EA’s attempt at reveling in gaming past, Konami’s effort was a huge success.

Personally, playing Metal Gear surprised me. I was impressed at how well the gameplay manages to hold up, despite being in existence for 21 years. 21 years! Despite its age, playing the original Metal Gear reminds us that sometimes games are called “classics” for a reason.

Story-wise, the game still has an intrigue to it. Playing the game, I was still interested in the story around these nuclear weapons that are called Metal Gear. For fans of the series, the original game allows them to fully appreciate everybody’s favorite covert operative, Snake. From his lowly 8-bit origins, to the upcoming 3-d visual masterpiece that will be Metal Gear Solid 4, Snake’s first adventure continues to keep players pressing away on their controllers.

The gameplay also manages to keep the player more than satisfied. With menus galore, and the now famous com-link transmitter, players will still enjoy the original game, and still get a kick out of using all of the available weapons, and trying to sneak around unsuspecting guards.

The game that started the “stealth” craze in video games continues to maintain a strong “fun factor” that’ll make players forget the game’s age very quickly.

This might be your father’s “Metal Gear”, but most gamers won’t mind, as they relive Snake’s first battle against the weapon that we’ve all come to know, love and fear: Metal Gear.