Metal Gear Acid PSP

Released on 01/09/2005

• Metal Gear Acid Preview

  Scot drops Metal Gear Acid...

  I can't help but shudder whenever someone mentions card-based battle games. I think of Duel Masters or Yu-Gi-Oh – which appear to be more impenetrably complex to the outsider than the average triple heart bypass despite their adoring audience of seven year olds. Something I never thought I'd associate with cards though is Hideo Kojima or the Metal Gear series. Yet, here we have it – a card battle game set in the same universe, but not one you would expect. Metal Gear Acid is actually a well-thought out turn-based strategy game that breaks down the action into digestible, engaging chunks instead of drawing it out into a long, tedious mess.

  Same but different

  The most important thing to remember is that despite the obvious switch in gameplay this is still very much Metal Gear to its core. It features recognisable characters, environments, and weapons as well as another convoluted storyline with a large number of twists and turns. Snake is once again pulled out of retirement when a plane carrying the next US President is hijacked by an elite terrorist group demanding that a secret military project named Pythagoras be handed over to them. Hmm. A secret military project, eh? "No… it can't be!? Metal Gear!?" We're not even sure at this point.

  A lot more enjoyable and engaging than people are willing to give it credit for.

  You begin your mission with a few cards drawn from a deck. These cards contain weapons and abilities than can be used during the mission within your allotted turn. The basis of the game is to use your deck effectively to earn performance points, which in turn can be used to purchase more powerful cards. Abilities such as crawl and the famous cardboard box trick will help you sneak around undetected, while weapons can be called upon for those tight spots where combat is unavoidable. Then there are the character cards, which work in a similar way to Final Fantasy's various summon creatures. Each card represents a character from Metal Gear Solid 1 or 2 and will call upon their special power at times of need – for instance, Metal Gear Ray will fire its ray cannon at numerous enemies on the battlefield.

  The cards aren't as complicated as you might initially think – there are no special clauses or requirements when drawing a card. Instead, they all mirror normal equipment and abilities such as a ration or a SOCOM. In fact, learning the system is incredibly easy thanks to the built-in tutorial which ensures that past the opening scenes you're handling your deck like a pro. Once again, it all fits seamlessly into the Metal Gear universe and never really feels out of place; there's rarely any questioning as to why you're using cards in battle and it adds a nice, strategic edge to the series.

  Convincing the fans

  The hardest audience it will have to convince will be the proud die-hard fans, who will find it tough to overcome their scepticism and embrace Metal Gear Acid as a separate game to the series, rather than a continuation of the story that's been expressively crafted out on the home consoles so far. Those who can take it as it comes though – as a tactical card-based battler – will find it to be a lot more enjoyable and engaging than people are willing to give it credit for.

  Preview by: Scot Bennett
  Preview Published: 23.06.05

  Published: 23/06/2005

• Kojima hates Metal Gear?

  Okay, so that’s kind of a misleading headline, but this is still an interesting story. Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima loves his famous stealth action series – but he hates the Metal Gear NES game, which was a lot of fans’ introduction to the world of Solid Snake.

  It all comes down to the fact that Metal Gear was originally released for Microsoft’s MSX computer, way back in 1987. The game only ended up on the NES after it was ported. And Kojima wasn’t happy about it.

  "I had absolutely no participation in the development of the NES version," Kojima told Nintendo Power recently (thanks Eurogamer). "The NES version was a pitiful title developed cheaply and simply by a small team in Tokyo. That was during the bubble economy where anything and everything that was released would sell. I came across the game in a bargain bin and tried play it, but the game design is pretty bad. There is some gameplay that includes infiltrating a base that didn't exist in the original. However, even I, the developer of the original game, was unable to infiltrate the base even once. That title has only soiled my reputation."

  It’s not all bad, though: "Even though it was an abomination, it was during the bubble economy and it sold millions overseas.”

  If you want to check out more recent Metal Gear games, of course, you could do worse than pick up the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 when it comes out this November. It contains HD remasters of MGS2, MGS3, and Peace Walker. Ace!

• Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes 'targeting a lot of taboos'

  Hideo Kojima, the mercurial genius behind the Metal Gear franchise, has been talking about the upcoming evolution of the series, Ground Zeroes. VideoGamer has reported that the Japanese auteur thinks the game may be too controversial for audiences to handle.

  "Video games as a medium haven't matured very much at all in the last 25 years," Kojima told journalists. "It's always about killing aliens and zombies. Not that I don't like those kinds of games... they are fun, but I think games have a long way to go before they can mature."

  "Over the past 25 year I have tried to work with the Metal Gear series to introduce more mature themes, but really it hasn't gotten there yet. Compared to movies and books it still has a long way to go. That's precisely what I want to try to tackle with Ground Zeroes. Honestly I'm going to be targeting a lot of taboos, a lot of mature themes that really are quite risky. I'm not even sure if I'm going to be able to release the game, and even if I did release the game then maybe it wouldn't sell because it's too much. As a creator I want to take that risk."

  What could he be talking about? Ground Zeroes marks a radical departure for the Metal Gear brand, using Kojima's own Fox Engine to power an open world stealth action experience unlike any previous title. It will follow the recently released - and absolutely fantastic - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, which also shakes things up, focusing on cyborg ninja Raiden and his ability to slice enemies into tiny chunks.

  Published: 25/02/2013

As a valued customer we now offer you the facility to sign up to email price alerts. Please enter the price you want to be, or below, and if drops to that level we will let you know...