Summary
TheMetal Gearfranchise has been closely associated withHideo Kojimasince he helped start it all in 1986. He directed most of the main games, which most mainstream fans have played, but there are plenty of good spinoffs, too. While theyweren’tdirected by Hideo Kojima,they are still worthwhile entries in theMetal Gearfranchise.
Metal Gearis a rare series that doesn’t really have a lot of duds in it, from the mainline games to the spinoffs. How many other franchises can say that, even legends likeMarioorFinal Fantasy? So today, this List will go throughtheMetal Geargames Hideo Kojima didn’t directand rank them based on their overall quality.
The post-Konami breakup with Hideo Kojima was a rough one in the press, and fans thought theMetal Gearseries was dead until this announcement. Youta Tsutsumizaki directedMetal Gear Survive,which is the first game Hideo Kojima hasn’tworked on since the NES days. Tsutsumizaki had worked on various games in the series before this, but this was his big break in the director’s chair.Castlevania: Grimoire of Soulsis a lesser-known project that Tsutsumizaki also worked on,a mobile-based Metroidvania.
Metal Gear Survivetakes place in an alternate timeline fromMetal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, allowing players to create their character and then go out and survive in an odd zombie-like apocalypse. There was some classic stealth gameplay, but overall it has more in common nowadays witha survival game likeRustthan aMetal Geargame. That may be why the response from fans was initially lukewarm, but those who stuck with the game eventually found its charm.
Metal Gear: Ghost Babelalso took place in an alternate timeline to the mainline series.Itsaw the return of Solid Snake after his retirement inMetal Gear 2: Solid Snake,which took place during the same period asMetal Gear Solid. Snake was given a different mission,one that resembled the classic MSX games with a top-down perspective and a level-based progression system common to many Game Boy Color games.
This was Shinta Nojiri’s first role directing a game in theMetal Gearseries, which at this point wasn’t popular.He would later go on to aid in the development of otherMetal Gearprojects, including more notable games than this one.Still, while it was an old-school approach to gameplay, it had everything fans would want to see in aMetal Geargame, fromdynamic boss battlesto charming Codec calls.
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Opswas a direct sequel toMetal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater,but it was not helmed by Hideo Kojima. Instead, Konami veteran Masahiro Yamamoto took charge, who would aid in many productions before leaving and helping other Japanese companies when Konami’s game production was slowing down. For example, he worked with Good-Feel to direct the Nintendo Switch exclusiveYoshi’s Crafted World.
Back to the game,Metal Gear Solid: Portable Opssaw Big Bosson another mission to stop an evil group from wreaking havoc on the world.It was a fully-featured PSP game that had a multiplayer expansion, too, but it never saw a console port, unlike its full sequel,Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker,which Kojima directed.In many ways, that game’s recruitment system would not exist withoutMetal Gear Solid: Portable Opspaving the way, and Yamamoto deserves praise for that.
Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakesis a weird one, to be sure, because a lot of irons were in the fire during its development. The core team was led by Carey Murray, who was listed as the Project Lead in the credits. Funnily enough, besides animation and motion capture branches, there was never a head director listed in the credits. This might be because the game is a remake ofMetal Gear Solid,which Hideo Kojima heavily worked on.
HoweverMetal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakescame to be is officially a mystery, but what’s known at least is that Kojima didn’t fully direct it, nor did Konami solely develop it.It was a rare collaboration between an Eastern and Western studio at the time, attempting to create a lavish remake of a beloved game with tons of gameplay tweaks.For example, snake would go into first-person while aiming, like inMetal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.This was, and still is,a GameCube exclusivethat never left the system, so there are tons of Nintendo secrets hidden too, like Yoshi statues.
Shinta Nojiri returned to direct two of the wildest games in the series:Metal Gear AcidandMetal Gear Acid 2.Both games feature tactical gameplay akin toa grid-based strategy gamelikeFinal Fantasy Tactics,except that movement and actions are driven by collecting cards. The first game’s visual style was more realistic, whereas the sequel was given a cel-shaded aesthetic to match the wackier vibes of the story.
Snake was given a new partner and the bosses were larger than life. Also, players who boughtMetal Gear Acid 2on PSP got a paper peripheral that helped view the game in 3D before the 3DS was released. It didn’t work well, but it was an interesting idea.Metal Gear Acid 2stands up there as one of the greatest games in the series, but is sadly wasting away on the PSP.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeancestarted as a spinoff within Konami, with a team that Kojima put together, but when things were going poorly, a third party stepped in. Kenji Saito eventually directed this game andPlatinumGames developed itfor Konami. PlatinumGames’ understanding of action was well-known at that point, making Raiden behave like Bayonetta with a katana.
It’s fast, fluid, and still retains a lot of the charm from the mainline games, meaning it is a weird and over-the-top video game. From an exceptionally muscled senator who looks like he took The Hulk’s radiation drugs, to Raiden trying to disguise himself in a sombrero, the goofier tone made the game feel like it had Kojima’s stamp of approval on it.While teased many times, there has yet to be a sequel, forcing this cyborg ninja to rust in retirement, but thankfully,Metal Gear Rising: Revengeancecan at least be played on modern systems, unlike many of these other entries.
