A NEXT METAL GEAR COULD BE…
All of this over a fucking touch-shooting game.Editorial by Ravi Singh, Posted on March 1, 2009
2008 –What a year. We witnessed the fall of a peculiar PR agent, the release of what should be the last Metal Gear title by Hideo Kojima, a couple of expansions for it's online counterpart, and now already Kojima Productions used their typical cryptic bullshit to suggest that A NEXT METAL GEAR will be on iPhone/iPod Touch and can be summarized by a simple equation of ¡ + ! = (!). Of course, it makes perfect sense!
Despite what would be ideal–ending the series–the reality is that there will be a Metal Gear game until people stop giving their money for them, which has yet to occur. What the next title, aside from the iPod touch-shooting game, will be like is anybody's guess. The next Metal Gear title can be fucking anything from an actual direct sequel to Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, to a reboot of the entire series. Shit, who knows, maybe Kojima will stick to his word finally and not only stay away from the series but make sure Solid Snake finally has his rest.
DIRECT SEQUEL
Likelihood – Very High
See also – Metal Gear 2, Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Let's get this one over with. While Guns of the Patriots might have answered nearly all the questions we had (including some we didn't) I'm sure there is room for someone to throw some shit in. Oh, how's this?
Liquid Ocelot's greatest villainy ever–establishing a scenario for a sequel.With the Patriots out the question, the United States — perhaps even the entire fucking world — will be like Iraq without Saddam's iron fist. There will surely be all kinds of factions fighting to take control of the hole The Patriots leave behind. The game can take place all over the United States, which actually sounds pretty cool.
Hell, maybe this will open up the whole "CHANGE THE OUTCOME OF THE WARS" concept that ended up being crippled; allowing Snake to either run or help one side of the conflict would allow for the story to change dramatically. Now we got several groups, and maybe only one of them needs to be some crazy fucktarded nutjob group?
Oh, and Solid Snake? We never see him die, right? There we go. At the last minute, Sunny hacked into his DNA using MS Paint and not only fixed the aging gene, but also reversed his aging kind of like Benjamin Button. Of course! Wouldn't that make the game more appealing to 14 year-old Japanese school girls than some old man with his old face taking up the entire boxart?
Of course, they don't have to use Snake. They can ruin the whole thing about Raiden finally getting his life back by having "the good guys" capture Raiden, tell him how "the bad guys" are trying to take over what The Patriots left behind. Make sure he has a beard and an even deeper voice than before. Also, make him smoke. Otherwise everyone will call him gay and all the sexually insecure reviewers will lower the score because he's "whiny."
LONG-GAP SEQUEL
Likelihood – High
See also – Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Batman Beyond!
The problem with direct sequels is that eventually there's very little to explain or deal with, especially when they're not planned — much like a sequel to Guns of the Patriots. A sequel that takes place twenty or more years allows for all kinds of new things. That long of a time period allows all-new scenarios to actually make sense, all-new characters, a few of the old… hell, maybe even AI Solid Snake can give the main character (Little Gray? Sunny? Old Johnny?) advice if Snake abso-fucking-lutely must be in the game for the fanboys. Oh, and if the main character is Little Gray, make Raiden THE BAD GUY! What a twist! Thar kind of shit never happened before in the series!
Metal Gear 3 for 3DO looked like it was going to be slightly different than Metal Gear Solid ended up being.ALTERNATIVE SEQUEL
Likelihood – Slim
See also – Metal Gear: Ghost Babel
Not only can they work on a sequel to Ghost Babel itself, but they can just make Metal Gear 3 and ignore everything from Metal Gear Solid up to Guns of the Patriots. This allows Solid Snake to be a main character and create all-new characters and events that would not conflict the what was established in the 'Solid series.
ALTERNATIVE 2D SEQUEL
Likelihood – Very Slim
See also – Mega Man 9
Why the fuck not? Keep it low-budget, release it to PSN, Live! Arcade, and WiiWare, then enjoy the profit.
NON-CANON TITLE
Likelihood – Slim
See also – Metal Gear: Ghost Babel, Metal Gear Acid
This is quite possibly one of the best ways for Kojima productions to make a Metal Gear title with Solid Snake. They practically have the liberty to do anything to the story, the characters, and even the gameplay.
REMAKE
Likelyhood – Moderate
See also – Metal Gear (NES), Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes
BIG BOSS WAS THE LEADER OF OUTER HEAVEN? WHO KNEW?!! (Image by Josh)This one is easy for a development team that doesn't have Kojima to pull a story out of his ass. They take one that's already been pulled and work around it. The classics are most likely to get the remake treatment since only like three people actually played them.
Of course, how much of a remake might determine how much of the games will be ripped apart. A slight touch up that would turn the 8-bit titles into 32-bit or even isometric "3D" would still allow the title to retain it's story, locations, scenarios, and so forth. It would essentially be the same game, but just with better visuals.
However, a full remake would not be the same game. Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes actually retained a lot of the original because the original was, after all, a 3D title. Remaking a 2D title to 3D is more than just taking maps and adding dimensions. In order for the new gameplay to work, the maps, enemy locations, weapons, bosses and so forth must be fully revamped.
You also have the issue of the cutscenes. The original Metal Gear has like two pages of dialogue. It's sequel has far more than that, but still significantly less than Metal Gear Solid 4, which had a script around five times as long as the average feature-length film. Perhaps it's actually easier to just make an original installment from scratch than a remake?
RE-RELEASE
Likelihood – High
See also – Metal Gear, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Metal Gear Solid
It's quite odd that with the PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS we don't have any Metal Gear titles available. Is Hideo Kojima embarrassed of his classic titles?
At the very least, we can see re-releases for the ‘Solid titles in HD. Yawn. That reminds me though of another possibility…
RE-RELEASE 2D HD REMAKE
Likelihood – Low
See also – Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Sonic 2 HD (fanmade)
It's like you had a hangover back when you played the original! (Image from Sonic Retro)I also expressed the issue with remakes. Re-releases themselves might not garner support from even the dedicated fanbase whose eyes are so sensitive that the sharp edges of pixels would cut them open. At least that's how they act. Nonetheless, there is a way to make something old new again… redo the sprites.
Imagine Metal Gear. Except instead of looking like an 8-bit game, it instead looks like it's from an animation of sorts. It looks the same, but at the same time, it looks like everything is drawn. Not only that, but it has widescreen 16:9 support with at least a 720p resolution. This allows the game to be marketed as "new," peaks the interest of people who have and have not played the game before, and it does it all without that much effort–compared to a full-on 3D remake.
PREQUEL
Likelihood – High
See also – Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
He has a point. The team has 25 years in the game's storyline they can work with. The problem, which Payton doesn't seem to realize, is that these 25 years in Bg Boss' life has kind of been covered and does not need to be depicted.
What "gaps" could possibly exist, unless they just make one and then half-assingly fill it.
REBOOT
Likelihood – Low
See also – Batman Begins, Casino Royale, Prince of Persia, technically most Legend of Zelda titles
If Hideo Kojima had a time machine, this would have already happened with Metal Gear Solid:
This is a real good argument against a DIRECT SEQUEL. While a LONG GAP SEQUEL might help things out by throwing the story into a time in which new people are dominating the political scene, you still got the problem of having past events fit in anyways. So why not start a new, have Solid Snake be the main character, and shape everything accordingly? A reboot gives the freedom to even allow Solid Snake to look and sound completely different.
NOTHING
Likelihood – Never
Wait, it says "Metal Gear Solid" on the box? Fuck, I'll buy two!I don't know about you, but Kojima working on something new sounds exciting. Even if it's a revival of an existing franchise such as Snatcher and Zone of the Enders. Metal Gear has over six major installments, not including non-canon and side story titles. Boktai had four, and both Zone of the Enders and Snatcher has three. Re-releases are one thing, but an entirely brand new Metal Gear? Give Snake a rest, Kojima. I mean, Metal Gear will be showing up on iPhone and iPod Touch units soon in a first person touch-shooting range styled game. What the fucks next? Snake's Bowgun Training for the Wii? Fuck.