Metal Gear [Model KDS-ME]

Nintendo Famicom cart. published 37 years ago by Konami Industry Co., Ltd.

Listed in MAME

Info

メタルギア © 1987 Konami Industry Company, Limited.
(Metal Gear)

Metal Gear is a stealth/military action game published by Konami, and conversion of a game originally released for the MSX 2 in 1987. In 1995, somewhere in South Africa, the military fortress Outer heaven is hiding a super weapon called the 'Metal Gear', formidable machine capable of launching nuclear missiles and to strike any target in the world. A rookie infiltration soldier codenamed Solid Snake is deployed by Foxhound, a secret special forces unit from the western world, to locate and destroy the war machine and to find out what happened to Gray Fox, another agent who had been sent thither before him. However, his mission comes with a twist - he must covertly infiltrate Outer heaven and try his best to avoid direct confrontation with his enemies. Because of the stealth nature of the game, Solid Snake will instantly be in trouble if spotted by guards or surveillance cameras. If discovered, the player has to leave the visited area as quickly as possible until the alert level is lifted. He also doesn't come equipped with any weapons at first, and he must build up his arsenal along the way and collect firearms, remote guided missiles or explosives. The game also offers a plethora of items, such as binoculars (to explore surrounding rooms), gaz mask, rations (to retrieve some health) and key cards that allow the player to access certain areas that are otherwise locked and off-limits. Throughout the game, Solid Snake is also headed by his commanding officer Big Boss - a transceiver constantly feeds the player with critical information about Outer Heaver and the game's intricate story.

TECHNICAL

Game ID: KDS-ME

TRIVIA

Metal Gear was released on December 22, 1987 in Japan.

There are several differences between the Famicom port of Metal Gear and the original MSX version. The beginning of the game is totally different - in the Famicom version, Solid Snake parachutes into a maze-like jungle area, whereas he directly infiltrates the enemy building in the MSX version and deploys by sea. The Famicom game is overall a lot more difficult, some buildings have been shuffled around as well as items and weapons, and some events are a lot more random - trucks transport the player from one location to another, and the jungle phase loops in many places. Enemies could also track the player down beyond the visited screen and this feature was removed from the Famicom port. The most notable difference is also the underlying goal of the game - players had to battle the Metal Gear itself at the end of the MSX version, whereas they had to destroy a Super Computer which controls the Metal Gear in the Famicom port. Finally, in the North American and European versions, many of the character names were changed - Big Boss became Commander South, and the enigmatic leader of the Outer heaven secret army was given the spoof name 'Vermon CaTaffy' (pun on Lybian leader Muammar Al-Qaddafi) - the story in the game's manual was deeply altered, Konami's Ultra publishing company took considerable (and rather childish) liberties with the original Japanese source material, where Vermon Cataffy is described as "a once tranquil shepard boy, who grew up on the remote banks of the Sam Sam River in outer Mongolia with his 27 sisters, turned to terrorism at an early age"... What were they thinking ?

Export releases:
[US] "Metal Gear [Model NES-ME-USA]"
[EU] "Metal Gear [Model NES-ME-EEC]"

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STAFF

Main Program: Yoshihiro Sugimoto
Sub Program: Masahiro Ueno
Graphic Design: Conpagno Ogikubo
Sound Effect: Kazuki Muraoka

SOURCES

Game's ROM.
Game's description by Laurent Kermel; http://www.videogameden.com