Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake – Возрождение стелс-экшена на MSX2

1990 stealth action game

Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake is a 1990 action adventure stealth video game developed and published by Konami for the MSX2 computer platform. It serves as a sequel to the MSX2 version of the original Metal Gear, written and designed by series's creator Hideo Kojima, who conceived the game in response to Snake's Revenge, a separately produced sequel that was being developed at the time for the NES specifically for the North American and European markets. The MSX2 version of Solid Snake was only released in Japan, although Kojima would later direct another sequel titled Metal Gear Solid, which was released worldwide for the PlayStation in 1998 to critical acclaim. This later led to Solid Snake being re released alongside the original Metal Gear as additional content in the Subsistence version of Metal Gear Solid 3 for the PlayStation 2 in 2005. It was also included in the HD remastered ports of Metal Gear Solid 3 released for PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, and Xbox 360, and was given a standalone re release in Japan as a downloadable game for mobile phones and the Wii Virtual Console. Set in 1999, a few years after the events of the original game, Solid Snake must infiltrate a heavily defended territory known as Zanzibar Land to rescue a kidnapped scientist and destroy the revised "Metal Gear D". The game significantly evolved the stealth based game system of its predecessor, and uses a storyline dealing with themes such as the nature of warfare and nuclear proliferation. It is considered one of the best 8 bit games ever made. The player is given a variety of new maneuvers and tools to help them remain undetected and complete the game. For example, the player can now kneel and crawl in addition to walking, allowing the player to avoid making noise over certain terrains, pick up land mines, and hide in tight spaces such as under desks or inside air ducts. A radar with a 3x3 grid on the upper right of the screen shows the player's current area in the center grid (as a red dot), with enemy soldiers as white dots, allowing the player to determine what's ahead. However, the radar is disabled when the game enters alert phase. The radar can also be used with the mine detector equipped to determine the locations of enemy mines or launch Stinger missiles onto an airborne target. Many of the weapons and equipment from the first game are brought over along with new items such as robotic mice used to distract enemies, a camouflaged mat and three different types of rations, each with special attributes. Health and carrying capacity are increased each time a boss is defeated. Hideo Kojima, who directed the first MSX2 game but was not involved with either of the two NES versions, did not have any plans to develop a sequel himself at the time until he became reacquainted with a junior coworker who was assigned to work on Snake's Revenge on a train ride in Tokyo. The coworker revealed his involvement with the project and encouraged Kojima to create his own sequel. By the end of the train ride, Kojima had already envisioned the basic premise for the game. After undergoing a business trip to the sales division of Konami, Kojima successfully convinced his superiors to approve the development of Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. In order to accurately portray realism in the game, Kojima and his crew consulted various references, including a former Green Beret turned author, and even participated in a series of survival games in a forest located in a mountain near their workplace. Originally Solid Snake was announced with a February to March 1990 release window, but was delayed to July, undergoing an increase in ROM size from 3 Megabit to 4 Megabit. Development of Solid Snake was briefly suspended in order to help out on the development of SD Snatcher, which was being developed at the same time by a separate team. Kojima originally wanted the title of the sequel to be simply Solid Snake, the decision to use the protagonist's name for the title of a sequel being inspired by the Indiana Jones movie series, but Metal Gear 2 was added as a fore title under the insistence of Konami's sales and marketing department.

The MSX2 version of Solid Snake was released in Japan on July 20, 1990. Unlike the first MSX2 game, no official English localization was produced (as Konami had already discontinued sales of their MSX games in Europe), although a fan translation was later produced in 1997 by the MSX hobbyist group G&T International. Unofficial imports of the game had reached Europe by 1996, with some fans at the time requesting a port for the PlayStation. The first port of Solid Snake to another platform was the Japanese feature phone version released on October 1, 2004 as a downloadable app on i mode, EZweb, and Yahoo! Mobile services. This version features a few additions over the original MSX2 version, such as an easy mode and an unlockable boss rush mode after clearing the main game once, but also include some other adjustments and changes, most notably the replacement of the portraits used during the conversation sequences. While the portraits in the MSX2 version were modeled after real life celebrities, the new portraits were instead designed to more closely resemble Metal Gear Solid illustrator Yoji Shinkawa's character designs in the later installments. These changes would also be implemented in the version included in Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence for the PlayStation 2, an expanded edition of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater released in Japan in 2005 that included full ports of both, the original Metal Gear and Solid Snake, as part of its newly added content. Subsistence would later be released in North America and Europe in 2006 with full English localizations of both MSX2 games, marking the first time that Solid Snake was given an international release. The two MSX2 games would later be included in the HD remastered version of Metal Gear Solid 3 released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2011 and PlayStation Vita in 2012. Solid Snake was also released for the Wii Virtual Console exclusively in Japan on March 30, 2010. Like all Virtual Console games, Solid Snake is emulated from the original MSX2 hardware rather than being ported from the mobile phone version like the Subsistence and HD Edition ports, although this version of the game has been patched to use the revised character portraits rather than the original ones.

A port of Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake was released as a part of volume 1 of the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on October 24, 2023.

The game's music was written by Konami Kukeiha Club members Tsuyoshi Sekito, Masahiro Ikariko, Mutsuhiko Izumi, Yuko Kurahashi, Tomoya Tomita, Kazuhiko Uehara, and Yuji Takenouchi. The cartridge for the MSX2 version carried a custom sound chip, the SCC (previously employed in games such as Nemesis 2 and Snatcher), which enhanced the music and sound effects beyond the MSX's basic capabilities. Arranged music based on Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake was used for the VR training disc in Metal Gear Solid: Integral (which was released in North America as Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions). Additionally, Integral features two hidden tunes based on Solid Snake available via a secret codec frequency in the main game. One is an arranged version of the "Theme of Solid Snake", while the other is an arrangement of "Zanzibar Breeze" (both listenable by contacting CODEC frequency 140.66 in certain locations). "Theme of Solid Snake" also made an appearance in Nintendo's 2008 crossover fighting game Super Smash Bros. Brawl and a re arranged version is included in the 2018 fighting game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

During its initial release, Solid Snake was ranked on MSX Magazine'''s Top 30 best selling MSX games list for six months, premiering at the no. 1 spot on the October 1990 issue. Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake would later receive near universal acclaim by retro game reviewers. According to Paul Soth of GameSpy, the game surpassed its predecessor Metal Gear in every way. In addition to praising the gameplay, he also praised the game's "gripping, well written storyline" for its "rich characterization" and its "same quality of storytelling that made MGS so compelling." He concluded that players will not be disappointed by "the great gameplay and story," and that it remains "one of the best 8 bit games ever made." The game mechanics of its sequel Metal Gear Solid, despite its transition to 3D, remained largely similar to its 2D predecessor and included plot summaries of the first two MSX2 games (accessible in the Special mode under "Previous Operations"). As such, Retro Gamer regarded Solid Snake to be "as close as anyone can get to playing Metal Gear Solid in 2D", putting it above the Game Boy Color game released a decade later in 2000. Jeremy Parish of 1UP. com referred to Metal Gear Solid as "basically a high spec remake of Solid Snake." Nickolai Adkins of 1UP also noted how much of the scenario and plot elements in Solid Snake were recycled in Metal Gear Solid, ranging from "Snake emerging from retirement to rescue a kidnapped non soldier personnel" in the beginning to "an escape sequence where Snake is accompanied by his female accomplice/love interest" at the end. IGN notes that Solid Snake'' introduced stealth mechanics such as making noise to attract guards, crouching and crawling on the ground, disarming mines, and enemies having view cones.