🕹 Metal Gear

I know Hideo Kojima's work isn't for everyone -- even I struggle with some of the non-interactive elements he puts in -- but, like it or loath it, Metal Gear Solid is seminal. What's more remarkable (in my opinion) is that it was born on the 8bits, practically fully-formed.

If you're a European then your first experience of the franchise may well have been Metal Gear Solid [PS1], a game I marvelled at technically, and studied from a design perspective, that had an ambition and scope way beyond anything I'd ever seen before. And you've got to remember, this was before GTA 3 landed. I'd learn much much later that Metal Gear Solid was actually a sequel and that "Solid" was just excellent way to say "now in 3D". Its roots went all the way back to the MSX*.

Living in europe I was more likely to bump into a PC Engine than an MSX, so I didn't get to play the original until recently, but I did have a copy of Metal Gear on the Gameboy, and that is, in all honesty, utterly brilliant. There's so much of the level-design and gameplay-mechanics that's instantly recognisable from the 3D games that I've given it to some of my students as a coursework in the past. It's that much fun to play and pull apart.

So yeah, I'm completely made up that in 2021 -- the year of the Amiga -- I get to see a proper version land on my fav machine! The scene's one and only H0ffman has taken it upon himself to do a line-by-line source conversion, and not only that, he's improved the music, added some missing graphics and done a load of touch-ups on the side. For free!

It is a thing of absolute and complete beauty that I'm genuinely in awe of. It plays fantastically, and is a great entry-point into the franchise if you've never played it before. I cannot recommend it enough.

This is H0ff's first game project. God only knows what the man's going to come up with next if this is his starting point. I doff my cap, sir!!

So yeah, give this some love:

https://h0ffman.itch.io/metalgear-amiga

*I'm ignoring the NES games; the first port is modified, and as far as I know, Kojima-san had nothing to do with Snake's revenge.