Metal Gear was released in 1987 for the MSX. A year later a ported version was released for NES in the US and Europe. After little while, The same company responsible for the ported released made another game without Hideo Kojima's involvement. The game in question, Snake's Revenge, was a disaster as a Metal Gear game and terrible in general. Anyway, it made Kojima plan out Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Thus, the true sequal to Metal Gear, and the first Metal Gear game with real story was born. However, because the MSX was only sold in Japan and there was already a sequal in the US Metal Gear 2 was never released in the United States. Metal Gear was not as popular in that time and Konami could get away with not porting it. Even if they did, it wouldn't be as good.

WARNING: There may be some spoilers in this article. I want to show what really happens in this game to players of Metal Gear Solid. I'll put the spoilers in the end of the sections, marking them with a SPOILER ALERT! From there you can skip to the next section.

Overview

The Metal Gear series has progressed a lot since 1987. Currently it is moving onto Metal Gear Solid 3, the 3rd Game after Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. It became popular when Metal Gear Solid was released for Playstation. After that is gained fans as Metal Gear Solid 2 gave its mysterious previews. Now it is a large franchise instead of a small game released by a Japanese company. These games are known well for their mysterious themes, great story, and frontline action. This game makes up for Metal Gear's few lacking areas.

Story

I don't want to go too far into this. If I do it will ruin the whole game for you. There are many more plot twists that make it a shame that this was never released in the US. Snake's Revenge was a terrible game. It follows no story of Metal Gear History and makes Snake look like a depressed Football Hero who got too high and joined "them". Anyway, Metal Gear 2 has a great story. Snake has been called out of retirement for a top-secret FOX-HOUND mission. A soviet Scientist, Dr. Kio Marv has been kidnapped and held hostage by armed forces in the nation of Zanzibar Land. Colonel Campbell, the new head of FOX-HOUND is there to support Snake through the game. Master Miller also appears, and gives you tips on your mission. The story is really good, and anyone who likes Metal Gear Solid for the plot will love to play this. In fact when you beat a known boss (One of the ones with a decent name or that actually belong in the story) you get the same Dialogue expected in Metal Gear Solid. It really is touching when you beat the 2nd to last boss (Players of Metal Gear Solid can guess who...).

Graphics

Luckily, the graphics are much improved over the original Metal Gear. Snake and most of the areas look much better. In fact, this is the first game where you can see character faces when you use your "Wireless" (Not CODEC in this game, they have wireless phones). Graphics are much better this time around. Okay, they're bad for today's gameplay, but it worked at that time.

Gameplay

A real improvement for gameplay was it really started looking like a Metal Gear game. The guards could see at a 45 degree angle instead of straight in front of them. There was a functional Radar, which showed 9 screens with you in the center screen. It was hard to work with being so small, but it worked none the less. Alert mode is looking better than Metal Gear as well. In Metal Gear if you got away to the next screen you probably end alert mode. In this one, you get an escape meter much like Metal Gear Solid. After the guards lose sight of you, they search around until they find you or the timer on your radio goes out. The few things unimpressing about the gameplay include the Stinger Missile Launcher, which you use to defeat the Hind. It was hard to work with because you get a crosshair on your Radar to work with, not to mention the delay between when you fire and when it hits. The only other thing is that some of the bosses are still a little "Weird". In Metal Gear you would face "Shoot Gunner". Some bosses have better names (i.e. Night Sight, who has a stealth suit invisible to radar and the naked eye), while others are really not the best Kojima has thought of (Such as Running Man, the fastest mercenary in the world).

Music

This music is great. Really great. In fact, if there is ever a remake the music should not be changed at all. The synthesizers used are great, and the way the sounds blend combined with the powerful melodies creates the perfect picture for Metal Gear 2. Players of the VR Missions will recognise most of the gameplay/sneaking themes as VR Mission music. It's very good in the Dramatic scenes as well. If you want the music, you can get the "Metal Gear >> Solid Snake" CD soundtrack with remixed tracks of both Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2. Other than that, you have to rip them yourself. I have a way to rip all of the tracks from the game, and I can send it to you if you want it. Again, just contact me.

Also, if you like the remakes, you may like the style of the Metal Gear 2 Resurrection project. It is basicly a re-arrangement of all the songs by J. War. You can hear a high quality MP3 sample he has out, but that's it for now. I am trying to contact him but his email address won't work, so I'm looking elsewhere to contact him. If you know him, tell him to contact me, because I'd love to see how his project is going. Here are a couple links. His English Site, French Site, and finally I am mirroring the H.Q. MP3 Sample Download of his project. The most up-to-date site is the French site, but I can't put in the translating link from google. All you do is go to google and set the link to translate it to english.

Availability

If you really want to duke it out to get your hands on this game you can go to ebay and buy an MSX and a copy of Solid Snake. That is, if you can find one. Solid Snake never made it to the United States, but fans have translated it as a ROM so that you can download it and play with an emulator. If you look around, you can get an English ROM with a good emulator. I reccomend NLMSX for Windows, because the sound support is really good. If you have any questions you can email me. This ROM, unlike the Metal Gear ROM, allows you to save. You can also get the Save DSK various sites if you need one and can't find one, I can send you one.

Recap

Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake was a really cool game. Even from the graphic limitations, it still told a really great story. If you get the chance, play this game. It helps understand some of Metal Gear Solid. If that was the most complex story you've seen, you haven't played Metal Gear 2. It's an amaxzing game, and I challenge anyone who can put up with the graphical and gameplay limitations of this game to play through. I'll never regret investing my time here.

Final Score: 10/10

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