Originally published on Set The Tape
Hideo Kojima is a well known name in the world of gaming, due to his 1998 game Metal Gear Solid. This wasn’t Kojima’s first game, and it wasn’t even the first game in the series that made him famous, as the previous two games in the franchise were released on older consoles.
However, it wasn’t until the leap to 3D graphics and full voice acting that the series gained international attention. Solid Snake quickly became on of the best known video game protagonists, due in part to the fantastic performance from David Hayter, and the game quickly became a best seller across the world and made the Playstation Platinum list.
As the years went on Kojima released further games in the series, with Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty being released in 2001 on the Playstation 2. However, thanks to the continued success of the series with the sequel, and the upgrades in hardware capabilities, Kojima was able to revisit Metal Gear Solid, and six years after its release was able to introduce the world the his remake, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes.
A part of the reason why Kojima, who partnered with developer Silicon Knights for the remake, wanted to return to the first game was due to the reception to certain parts of the sequel. Whilst Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty was received well and was praised for the changes to the gameplay and the graphics, some fans and critics were less enthused about the story. There were complaints that the game didn’t hit as well as the first, and that the new protagonist, Raiden (Quinton Flynn) just wasn’t as good as Snake. With a third game on the horizon that would take things even further away from the first, shifting events back to the 1960s and puts players in control of Big Boss (also voiced by David Hayter), returning to Metal Gear Solid could be the perfect thing to get fans excited for the franchise once again.
Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes sticks closely to the story of the original, which sees special operative Solid Snake being sent to the remote Alaskan island of Shadow Moses, a nuclear weapon disposal facility that has been taken over by the rogue special forces unit FOXHOUND, of which Snake used to be a part.
It’s revealed that the facility is being used to create a deadly walking battle tank, capable of firing nuclear weapons, named Metal Gear REX. If the US government doesn’t give FOXHOUND the body of Big Boss, they will launch a deadly attack. Sent in alone, and unarmed, Snake must infiltrate the facility and stop FOXHOUND, a mission that will see him encountering their leader, Liquid Snake (Cam Clarke), and learning some shocking truths about his own origin.
The main changes to the story came in the forms of cutscenes expanding upon action. Thanks to the upgrade in both graphics and they way action games had developed in the years since the original release, the remake incorporated more dynamic cutscenes; though Kojima had to get the game’s director to tone down some of the action in places. Thanks to the success and popularity of The Matrix more games were trying to emulate the action, incorporating bullet-time like sequences in them, and whilst Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes does still contain some of these moments a number were removed at Kojima’s insistence.
Silicone Knights faithfully reconstructed the characters and environments from the original, expanding and adding details in some areas, but remained true to the spirit of Metal Gear Solid. Considering the most high profile game remake around this time was the Resident Evil remake on the GameCube (as was The Twin Snakes) made some sweeping changes to both overall tone, setting, and story, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes remained much truer to what had come before; something that made fans of the original much happier than any larger changes would have done.
The voice acting, whilst re-recorded to provide better quality, also went through the same level of care and attention. Though it almost didn’t. All of the original voice cast returned to rerecord their line, with the exception of the Cyborg Ninja character who was originally voiced by Greg Eagles now being voiced by Rob Paulsen so that Eagles did not voice two characters within the game. This change did draw some slight criticism from fans, who preferred the original version. However, the returning cast was not always guaranteed, and it was revealed by one of the actors, Paul Eiding, after the game was released that David Hayter had insisted that everyone else return and gave up half of his pay check to make sure that it could happen.
As with the original Metal Gear Solid, the remake received high praise, and high sales, despite only being released on the one console. It has landed itself on numerous best games lists for the Nintendo GameCube, and has become a firm favourite amongst fans of the franchise; a popularity that has led to copies of the game becoming increasingly sought after and increasing in price (yes, I’m mad I got rid of my original copy still as I really want it back). With a brand new entry in the series coming before the end of the year, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes was a wonderful addition to the franchise, and the perfect thing to start off what might be the best year in Metal Gear Solid history.
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