Then and Now: How Metal Gear has changed over the years
Let’s go back in time, and take a look at how Metal Gear Solid has evolved in terms of graphics and technology. The first ever Metal Gear game appeared in 1987 on the MSX2 computer and was released in Japan and Europe. Metal Gear was one of the first games to use stealth. Metal Gear was later released in North America, Europe and Japan on the NES, selling a massive 1 million units. Boasting good graphics for its time and exciting gameplay as no one has witnessed stealth games before.
In 1990 Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, the sequel to Metal Gear was released for the MSX2 in Japan only. The sequel made numerous enhancements including a better storyline and better graphics.
The Metal Gear series didn’t return until around 8 years later. In 1998 Metal Gear Solid was released for the Playstation which took the series to the next level with new graphics and gameplay elements. While Metal Gear Solid kept to its predecessor (Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake) in terms of gameplay but presented it in glorious 3D graphics.
The first two Metal Gear games were successful but Metal Gear Solid was a massive hit selling over 6 million units. Similar stealth games started to pop up including Tenchu and Splinter Cell.
It wasn’t much more than 3 years later until we saw the next Metal Gear title, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty was released for the Playstation 2 in 2001. MGS2 sold more than 7 million units. MGS2 took huge advantage of the power under the PS2’s hood and made the game look fantastic.
Metal Gear Solid 2 feature new additional gameplay features such as first-person aiming, allowing the player to target certain things within the game. The AI was also vastly improved allowing the enemies be blinded, distracted by fruit and other obstacles. The AI went as far as calling for backup and if they did you would be in deep trouble.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater was released another 3 years later which is actually a prequel to Metal Gear (the first metal gear game). MGS3 wasn’t as successful as the previous Metal Gear games, only selling 3.75 million units.
MGS2 and MGS3 provided further enhancements to gameplay and graphics as you see from the screenshots. Many rumours started floating around saying that MGS3 was the last game in the series to make it a trilogy, but think about it; it has past the trilogy mark. Many people forget about the first game on the NES.
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is still in development and is due to be released exclusively on PS3 worldwide on June 12 2008. MGS4 is apparently the last in the series. MGS4 will take massive advantage of the PS3’s hardware capabilities and it’s obviously the best looking Metal Gear game ever…
So the Metal Gear series went from a gameboy colour style game to become a massive 3D digital art display.
Click to enlarge above montage.
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I’ve one question to ask you… Which was your favourite Metal Gear game?
Tags: metal gear 2, metal gear 2 solid snake, metal gear solid, metal gear solid 2, metal gear solid 2 sons of liberty, metal gear solid 3, metal gear solid 3 snake eater, metal gear solid 4, mgs, mgs2, mgs3, mgs4, msx2 computer, stealth games, Then and Now
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Comments
i like MGS the shadow moses mission, the boss battles with grey fox and psycho mantis were intense!!!!
Metal Gear Solid 3, cause I got to play as the Legendary Soldier Big Boss, and we saw the introduction of CQC.
Final Fantasy has
better story
better graphics
better chracters
better history
better followign and more fans
thans MGS series
but it doesnt have better gameplay
My favorite was MGS1 because it was the first game on PlayStation that I really enjoyed. More than FFVII.
actully its hard for me to choose caues they all blend in very perfactly but i was relly moved by the level of drama that the first mgs had it relly moved my emothions and the second had the most insane plot consperisy like never befor and the third had awsome game play and an unblievable twist at the end of the game and unbelievable cutseans the MGS series is just incradible..
and the forth i think.. i think it’s gonna be a raveilotion in the world of gaming and other developers would try and find ways just to copy its tactics i’m planing to go throw the game by playing 2 houers each day or two days so i could enjoy it as long as i can 
I don’t have a favourite Metal Gear Solid game, they’ve all really impressed me. MGS3 wasn’t amazing, but it was still really good in-terms of gameplay, etc.
I’m selling my xbox 360 to buy a Playstation 3. About 75% of the reason i’m doing this is for MGS4.
The above comment wasn’t written by me. Sorry about that, the guy who posted it is from my site and is having a bit of a mental breakdown.
Good article, keep it up.
Nitroid, you’re an arse. Respect what the guy has written, it’s a good article. When people first start out they are not so good, things can only get better. Im looking forwards for more from you Talk Playstation.
[...] the very first Metal Gear game, Snake’s Revenge and MG2: Solid Snake. We illustrated how Metal Gear has changed over the years, take a look at [...]
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If you don’t mind me asking: where did you get these screenshots from?