Metal Gear Solid was one of the defining games of the PlayStation One, and was one of many reasons that Sony was able to have such a big hit with their first console. It propelled what was at the time a moderately small franchise into stardom, which an additional ten years later would become a pivotal IP for Sony. But looking in hindsight, would its designer, Hideo Kojima, change anything to make the game better? His answer might surprise you.
Hideo Kojima, when speaking to OPM UK, shared his passion of Metal Gear Solid, and even stated that he wouldn’t change anything about it if given the opportunity. He said:
I was just making the game I wanted to make. Looking back, there’s not anything in particular I want to go back and fix. If you change anything, you change the game – and I want to avoid that. If you bring the gameplay up to modern standards, then you lose a bit of the original game. It was a game made for a certain era – not just the story, but the controls and everything about it reflect that era in which the game was made.
On the contrary, Metal Gear Solid received a face lift six years after launch in the form of Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes for the GameCube. However, it did retain nearly all of its design, and instead improved it in ways that made it more functional (i.e. first-person mode, enemy AI improvements, etc.). With that said, the original Metal Gear Solid was an evolutionary game of its time due to its execution in stealth gameplay, boss battles, character development, and action sequences.
Is there anything you would change about Metal Gear Solid? Share the game designer within you in the comments below.
