METAL GEAR (1987) - Classic Game Review - MSX2 / NES.

Ladies and gents we have finished playing Metal Gear on stream! I'm super excited. This is my favorite franchise of all time. Metal Gear 1 is an absolute classic, and it still holds up! So let's take a look at Metal Gear 1. So Metal Gear 1 came out in 1987.

This was for the MSX console, a japanese video game console. You might be familiar with the NES version of the game, which incidentally, had a bunch of content that Kojima did not create. So if you want to play the original, the MSX is the way to go.

Man, it's really good. This game is still great! The storyline: Solid Snake is a rookie infiltrator operative, who is brought in by his commanding officer Big Boss, to go into this compound called Outer Heaven and try to figure out what the heck's going on there.

As it begins, they had actually already sent somebody: Gray Fox. Another operative called Gray Fox, who got captured. And he had these two words that he sent, "METAL GEAR," to his commanders before he went dark. So the objective in this game is you, as like the second choice, are coming in to: #1: Try and rescue this guy Gray Fox who already himself got captured, and #2: Try to figure out what the heck he was talking about with this thing called Metal Gear.

And the way the story is wrapped around, there's actually a pretty interesting concept where, not only are you trying to rescue Gray Fox, but it turns out that you're actually trying to rescue a bunch of these Resistance Members who are trapped around the complex.

And that plays into the gameplay because, as you rescue more of these Resistance Members, you actually start to gain more and more pips on your health bar, as well as a ranking, which comes into play for various aspects of the game itself. "Thank you for saving me! You should be able to contact Jennifer from the Resistance "on 120.48.

Jennifer will provide you with direct support. "But she's very proud. Unless you're really high class, she won't respond." Oh my god. The stealth in Metal Gear 1 still feels great. So this was obviously the absolute beginning of the stealth genre. Kojima invented this stealth genre with this video game.

The way the stealth works, the guards' vision... they can only see exactly, like laser focused, what's right in front of their faces. So you can actually just walk one pixel below where they're able to see and they won't see you. There's no concept of like, cones of vision, or anything like that in this game.

So you can kind of finagle your way around the guards a lot of ways, but especially when it comes to cameras and other combinations of guards and things, the stealth can actually still get pretty difficult. Kojima was still Kojima in 1987. He was he was throwing you for a loop every chance he could get.

There's traps all over the place, there's all sorts of mechanics that make you rethink the way you're playing the game, gas rooms and dogs catching you when you think you're safe, and all sorts of things. Kojima was definitely interested in not letting you rest on your laurels.

You know, this may not be an action game, it's kind of like the 'anti-action game' in its thesis, but it is certainly exciting all the time. "This is Big Boss. Get in the truck on the right. Over." Okay. "Argh the truck's been moved!" Oh please... Damn you!!! So in Metal Gear 1, the boss battles necessarily aren't that much to speak of.

It seems like the game is more focused, in this game at least, it's more focused on kind of like the adventure itself, and and finding the places you're trying to find, like in a puzzle game variety. The bosses themselves seem to be more of an afterthought.

Most of them you can actually just kill by standing in the corner and shooting a remote missile at them. But there are a few really interesting ones. In particular, Dirty Duck is a boss who, he actually keeps a bunch of human shields. That's probably my favorite of the boss battles in this game.

Whoa! "I am Dirty Duck! Go ahead and shoot... if you dare." Oh god. "This is Jennifer. Dirty Duck has Card 8. "My brother is among the captives, please don't kill them. "If anything happens to my brother, I won't help you anymore!" So, if you're looking to play Metal Gear 1 yourself, I highly recommend it.

Especially if you're a fan, like I am, of the Metal Gear Solid franchise, absolutely informative. It is canon in the Metal Gear universe, so it's certainly worth playing for that reason, but even as a video game itself, very very worthy. The only thing is, if you're going to play Metal Gear, I highly recommend NOT playing the NES version of the game.

Though this is the one that most people remember who grew up in the States, because the NES is the console that was around, that is not the canon experience of Metal Gear. It included an intro sequence that was not created by Kojima, as well as an alternate ending.

What I recommend doing is pick up the Legacy Collection or the HD Collection. They have remasters of both Metal Gear 1 & 2 and two in that version of the game. Thank you for watching this classic game review of Metal Gear 1. Don't forget to subscribe on this YouTube channel and leave a comment.