Retro Gaming Australia

After a couple of days of Kojima’s Twitter teasing, Konami has officially announced Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection.

The Legacy Collection is a package containing the main Metal Gear canon: Metal Gear, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Metal Gear Solid: Integral, Metal Gear Solid: HD Edition (Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance HD and Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence HD), Metal Gear Solid 4: Trophy Edition and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD, along with a hundred page book on the series history and the Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2 digital graphic novels. The two MSX games will be based on the Subsistence updated versions, while Metal Gear Solid: Integral will be provided as a download code for redemption on PSN.

The release is only planned for Japan at this stage, where it will hit stores on July 11 at a cost of 7890 yen.

This is a dual game ad from Konami, featuring Snake’s Revenge and Super C (or Super Contra) for the NES. Before the release of Metal Gear Solid, most in the West treated Snake’s Revenge as the sequel to Metal Gear, not knowing of the existence of the MSX only Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. There seems to have been a backlash against the game in the years since as a result of its non-canon status, and lack of Kojima involvement.

Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes is a remake of Metal Gear Solid using the technology from Metal Gear Solid 2. The game is often criticised for its over-the-top cutscenes, which were directed by Japanese cult filmmaker Ryuhei Kitamura. Some also feel that the accentless voices take away from the game, in spite of the fact that they are consistent with the rest of the series. I feel like I am in the minority since I actually like the game.

For the longest time, many outside of Japan were led to believe that Snake’s Revenge was the true sequel to Metal Gear, but upon encouragement from one of the guys that worked on Snake’s Revenge, Hideo Kojima set out to make the real sequel – Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. It was not until the release of Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence some 13 years later that the West got an officially translated version of the game.

Metal Gear Solid (known as Metal Gear: Ghost Babel in Japan) for the Game Boy Color is an alternate story (i.e. non-canon) set seven years after the events of the original Metal Gear. It plays a lot like Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, but with the wall-flattening introduced in the PlayStation game. It’s arguably one of the best GBC games around.

Metal Gear Solid was one of the biggest hits of the 1998 rush, and its impact on video games through the use of high production values and cinematic cutscenes is felt to this day. Gaming needs more Cybernetic Ninjas.

On the 7th of July, 1987, Metal Gear for the MSX2 was released in Japan. The game wasn’t actually all that successful until Konami ported it to the NES and released it in North America later that year, where it went on to sell a million units.

Metal Gear was originally a straight up shooter until Hideo Kojima was assigned to the project to sort out development difficulties. Inspired by The Great Escape, he decided to abandon the game’s focus on action and emphasise stealth.

Konami decided to make a NES sequel, Snake’s Revenge, without Kojima’s involvement. Kojima was allegedly persuaded into making the sequel, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake by a co-worker who was on the Snake’s Revenge project, who wanted a true Metal Gear sequel.

Neither game did especially well, leaving the series dormant for 6 years until the release of Metal Gear Solid, which turned the series into the powerhouse franchise it is today.

Konami does not appear to have planned any special releases or events for the actual date of the anniversary, though we’ve seen a series of Uniqlo t-shirts and Play Arts Kai figures released over the past 6 months. The next Metal Gear game, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, is due out in early 2013.

Konami and Square Enix have teamed up to produce more Play Arts Kai toys in celebration of Metal Gear’s 25th anniversary, which will be celebrated this July.

The Cyborg Ninja was the first cab off the rank – now the second figure in the range, the MGS1 Themed Solid Snake is available. You can order it from AmiAmi for 4390 yen.

More MGS-themed Play Arts figures are planned for the year, including Meryl Silverburgh, Solidus Snake and the MGS4 Raiden.

Again, we apologise for the bad lighting, but we wanted to show the actual item off.

As part of the celebrations for the 25th anniversary of the Metal Gear series this year, Konami and Kojima Productions have been working with Square Enix to produce figures of the most popular characters from the series.

The first figure, the Cyborg Ninja/Gray Fox, is now available in Japan. You can get it for 4400yen from AmiAmi.

The lighting in this room is awful, but I figured you all might like to see the actual box and figure, rather than the same old promotional stills.

Metal Gear lunacy at its finest.

Metal Gear Solid: Special Missions (or VR Missions for our American brethren) is a mission pack featuring 300+ VR training missions, similar to the half dozen that were on the original Metal Gear Solid disc. The expansion was actually the second disc of the game’s Japanese re-release Metal Gear Solid: Integral, which was an improved version of the original game, but Konami decided to release it by itself outside of Japan. This ad is for the French release.