Metal Gear Solid is a 1998 action-adventure stealth video game developed and published by Konami for the PlayStation. It was directed, produced, and written by Hideo Kojima, and follows the MSX2 video games Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, which Kojima also worked on. It was unveiled at the 1996 Tokyo Game Show and then demonstrated at trade shows including the 1997 Electronic Entertainment Expo; its Japanese release was originally planned for late 1997, before being delayed to 1998.
Hideo Kojima is a Japanese video game designer. Regarded as one of the first auteurs of video games, he developed a strong passion for film and literature during his childhood and adolescence, which in turn has had a significant influence on his games. In 1986, Kojima joined Konami, for which he directed, designed and wrote Metal Gear (1987) for the MSX2, the game that laid the foundations for the stealth genre and the Metal Gear franchise, his best known and most acclaimed work. At Konami, he also produced the Zone of the Enders series, as well as designing and writing Snatcher (1988) and Policenauts (1994), graphic adventure games regarded for their cinematic presentation.
Solid Snake is a fictional character from the Metal Gear series created by Hideo Kojima and developed and published by Konami, appearing as the main protagonist in many of the games of the series. He is depicted as a former Green Beret and highly skilled special operations soldier engaged in solo stealth and espionage missions who is often tasked with destroying models of the bipedal nuclear weapon-armed mecha known as Metal Gear. Controlled by the player, he must act alone, supported via radio by commanding officers and specialists. While his first appearances in the original Metal Gear games were references to Hollywood films, the Metal Gear Solid series has given a consistent design by artist Yoji Shinkawa alongside an established personality while also exploring his relationship with his mentor and father.
Metal Gear is a franchise of stealth games created by Hideo Kojima. Developed and published by Konami, the first game, Metal Gear, was released in 1987 for MSX home computers. The player often takes control of a special forces operative, who is assigned the task of finding the titular superweapon, "Metal Gear", a bipedal walking tank with the ability to launch nuclear weapons.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty is a 2001 action-adventure stealth video game developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Japan and published by Konami for the PlayStation 2. Originally released on November 13, it is the fourth Metal Gear game produced by Hideo Kojima, the seventh overall game in the series and is a sequel to Metal Gear Solid (1998). An expanded edition, titled Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance, was released the following year for Xbox and Windows in addition to the PlayStation 2. A remastered version of the game, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty - HD Edition, was later included in the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PlayStation Vita. The HD Edition of the game was included in the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 compilation for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S, which was released on October 24, 2023.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is a 2004 action-adventure stealth video game developed and published by Konami for the PlayStation 2. It was released in late 2004 in North America and Japan, and in early 2005 in Europe and Australia. It was the fifth Metal Gear game written and directed by Hideo Kojima and serves as a prequel to the entire Metal Gear series. An expanded edition, titled Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, was released in Japan in late 2005, then in North America, Europe and Australia in 2006. A remastered version of the game, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - HD Edition, was later included in the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PlayStation Vita, while a reworked version, titled Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D, was released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2012. The HD Edition of the game was included on the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 compilation for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on October 24, 2023. The same year, Konami announced a remake, entitled Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, set to release for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S in 2025.
Raiden, real name Jack, is a character and one of the protagonists of Konami's Metal Gear series of action-adventure stealth video games. Created by Hideo Kojima and designed by Yoji Shinkawa, Raiden was introduced in the series as the main player character of the 2001 game Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. In Metal Gear Solid 2, he appears to be a member of the U.S. special operations unit FOXHOUND and is participating in his first mission against terrorists. Despite coming across as a young rookie, he is later revealed to have been a child soldier in his native Liberia. Raiden also appears as a supporting character in the 2008 game Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, in which he is assisting the series' main protagonist Solid Snake in his fight against Revolver Ocelot's forces. He is also the main character of the 2013 game Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, in which he is dealing with his past and his present life as a combatant who faces enemies from private military companies.
Yoji Shinkawa is a Japanese artist. He is best known as the lead character and mecha designer for the Metal Gear franchise. He has collaborated with Hideo Kojima on many of his games.
Big Boss is a fictional character from the Metal Gear series created by Hideo Kojima and developed and published by Konami. He was first introduced in the 1987 Metal Gear game as the commanding officer and father of Solid Snake, featuring in a twist as the game's main antagonist. He is later featured in the prequel games as Naked Snake, an American Special Forces Operator and decorated war hero. Political manipulations cause him to be disillusioned when facing his own mentor, and he gradually develops his own private mercenary company while growing into the original Big Boss persona and being referred to as simply Snake.
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is a 2008 action-adventure stealth video game developed by Kojima Productions and published by Konami for the PlayStation 3. It is the sixth Metal Gear game directed by Hideo Kojima. Set five years after the events of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, the story centers around a prematurely aged Solid Snake, now known as Old Snake, as he goes on one last mission to assassinate his nemesis Liquid Snake, who now inhabits the body of his former henchman Revolver Ocelot under the guise of Liquid Ocelot, before he takes control of the Sons of the Patriots, an A.I. system that controls the activities of PMCs worldwide. The game was released on June 12, 2008.
The Metal Gear franchise, created by Hideo Kojima and with character and mecha designs by Yoji Shinkawa, features a large cast of characters, several of whom are several soldiers with supernatural powers provided by scientific advancements.
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, officially abbreviated MPO, is a 2006 action-adventure stealth video game developed and published by Konami for the PlayStation Portable. The game was directed by Masahiro Yamamoto and written by Gakuto Mikumo, with series creator Hideo Kojima acting as producer.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by PlatinumGames and published by Konami. It was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in February 2013, Windows and OS X in January and September 2014, and Nvidia Shield TV in January 2016. It is a spin-off in the Metal Gear series, set four years after the events of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. It features returning Metal Gear character Raiden as he confronts a private military company that intends to destabilize peaceful nations for profit. The gameplay focuses on fighting enemies using a sword and other weapons to perform combos and counterattacks. Through the use of "Blade Mode", Raiden can dismember enemies in slow motion and steal health items from their bodies. The series' usual stealth elements are also optional, serving as a means to avoid combat. Two downloadable content chapters were also released, set before the main campaign and centers on Raiden's enemies.
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is a 2010 stealth game developed and published by Konami. It is the seventh Metal Gear game written, directed, and designed by Hideo Kojima, and the fifth installment of the Metal Gear Solid series, as well as the fourth Metal Gear game made specifically for the PlayStation Portable, following Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. A remastered version of the game titled Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker - HD Edition was later released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 as part of the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection in North America and Europe and as a stand-alone retail release in Japan.
Metal Gear is an action-adventure stealth video game developed and published by Konami for the MSX2. It was released for the system in Japan and parts of Europe in 1987. Considered to have popularized the stealth game genre, it was the first video game to be fully developed by Hideo Kojima, who would go on to direct most of the games that followed in the Metal Gear series. A reworked port of the game was released for the Famicom a few months later, which later saw release in international markets for the NES over the following two years; this version was developed without Kojima's involvement and features drastically altered level designs, among other changes.
Metal Gear Solid HD Collection is a compilation of remastered ports of Metal Gear video games released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2011 and PlayStation Vita in 2012. The compilation contains Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater on all three platforms, plus Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker on the home console versions, with the individual games all branded as HD Edition. Bluepoint Games handled the conversions of Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3, while Genki worked on Peace Walker.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is a 2015 action-adventure stealth video game developed and published by Konami. Directed, written, and designed by Hideo Kojima, it is the ninth installment in the Metal Gear franchise, following Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, a stand-alone prologue released the previous year. Set in 1984, nine years after the events of Ground Zeroes, the story follows mercenary leader Punished "Venom" Snake as he ventures into Soviet-occupied Afghanistan and the Angola–Zaire border region to exact revenge on those who destroyed his forces and came close to killing him during the climax of Ground Zeroes.
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes is a 2014 action-adventure stealth video game developed and published by Konami. It is the eighth game in the Metal Gear series directed, written and designed by Hideo Kojima, and serves as a prologue to Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, released the following year after Ground Zeroes. Set in 1975, a few months after the events of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, the story follows Snake as he infiltrates an American black site in Cuba called Camp Omega, attempting to rescue Cipher agent Paz Ortega Andrade and former Sandinista child soldier Ricardo "Chico" Valenciano Libre.
The Metal Gear video games consist of 17 different albums, totaling over 940 minutes of music within the 11 games. There were four different music labels used for the albums in different games. These include Sony Entertainment, Konami Digital Entertainment, Phantom Studios, Sumthing Else Music Works, and King Records (Japan). The most used record labels were Konami Digital Entertainment and King Records. Konami was used for Metal Gear 20th Anniversary: Metal Gear Music Collection, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Original Soundtrack, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker Original Soundtrack, and the Metal Gear 25th Anniversary: Metal Gear Music Collection, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. King Records was used for Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake Original Soundtrack, Metal Gear Solid Original Game Soundtrack, Metal Gear/ Solid Snake: Music Compilation of Hideo Kojima / Red Dis, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty Original Soundtrack, and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty Soundtrack 2: The Other Side. Several different producers were used for different games. These include Konami, Masahiro Hinami, Noriakio Kamura, Norihiko Hibino, Tojima, Harry Gregson-Williams. Konami producing 6 out of the 11 Metal Gear games. The games used many different genres of music throughout the games. They are as follows: breakbeat, classical, drum and bass, electronic, hip hop, jazz, ambient, acoustic, Latin American, electronic rock, industrial metal, alternative metal, hard rock, power metal, neoclassical, romantic music, lounge, and rock and roll.
