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TGS07: Snake in Smash Bros Brawl
Konami invited some lucky press folk who've been at TGS to sit in on a kind of Snake retrospective. Chronicling the career of the big guy, they even took some time to chat about his upcoming foray into the world of smashing. Kojima showed off Snake traversing some of the levels in Smash Bros. Brawl, as well as utilizing some of the game's unique items.We can't wait until his dojo update ...[Via Go Nintendo]
No More Heroes: more beam katanas and Raidenesque Irishmen
The latest No More Heroes site update reveals some of the different beam katana weapons that Travis Touchdown will be using in his quest to become the highest-ranked assassin in Santa Destroy for some reason. The "system" page has images of the pistol-gripped "Blood Berry," which is the katana that Travis wins from an auction, and the elegant Tsubaki, which is made for him by Naomi.We think we're going to scour eBay for a couple of hours now. We're definitely pro-beam katana, even if we feel pretty strongly anti-assassinating-folks.In other No More Heroes news, on the Kojima Productions Report podcast, voice actor Quinton Flynn revealed that he was a member of the No More Heroes voice cast, playing an Irish character named Henry. Flynn, best known for playing Raiden in Metal Gear Solid 2, was on the podcast to discuss his upcoming reprisal of that role. But you guys knew all of that, because you already listen to the Kojima Productions Report every week, right?
Konami considering Metal Gear collection for US
The Metal Gear collection is a hot item for hardcore Metal Gear fans. It includes nearly every game ever created in the Metal Gear franchise: the original Metal Gear, Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake, Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and the PSP Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops. In addition, documentary DVDs will also be included. In Japan, the package ran a very affordable 6250 yen -- about the same cost of one modern retail game. So, will this collection make its way over to the States? At Comic Con, Kotaku's Michael McWhertor spoke to Konami's marketing VP, Anthony Kraus about the issue. He confirmed that Konami was "considering" the package, but they had to talk to retailers about interest in such a collection. If the collection comes to America, it might not be the exact same collection. It will, however, be "very similar." [Thanks, Random!]
Konami announces Metal Gear Solid for mobile phones
Though you might not consider a cell phone game to be a "real" addition to the franchise (on account of it being phoney, you see), you can take solace in the fact that a mobile Metal Gear Solid will bring a whole new level of realism to those infamous codec calls. "Hello, is this the colonel? An earth-shattering megaton, you say? Metal Gear?! Konami announced a 3D MGS cell phone game at their 20th Anniversary event in Tokyo? What do you mean that's it? Stop lying to me, colonel!"1UP says a release date and price have yet to be announced. The game is expected to come pre-loaded on a special Metal Gear-branded phone from Sony and may require you to speed dial the girlfriend whenever you want to save your progress.
Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops expansion announced
If you're the sort who enjoys snapping unsuspecting necks during the train commute to work, you'd be pleased to learn that the PSP's Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops is due for an expansion -- it should distract your future victims long enough to let you indulge in your disgusting and bizarre habit of killing complete strangers. Announced during the PlayStation Premier event in Tokyo, IGN reports that Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops + will primarily revolve around online play with new characters (including old wrinkly Snake) and stages. The only addition to the single-player aspect comes in the form of a mode called "Infinity Mission."Japan will receive the expansion on September 20th at a price of ¥2,400 yen, along with a ¥4,300 bundle featuring Portable Ops. Keep an eye out for it (and commuting serial killers).[Via PSP Fanboy]
Konami to re-release every Metal Gear Solid in Japan
In celebration of the illustrious franchise's 20th anniversary and in aid of those newcomers who still find themselves saying, "METAL GEAR?!" Konami has revealed plans to re-release every modern Metal Gear title in Japan, beginning with the PlayStation's monumental (and so very awesome) Metal Gear Solid. Other titles sneaking onto store shelves will be the rug-pulling Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, culinary diverse epic Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and the PSP's portable opus, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops.IGN notes that the games will be sold seperately, as well as in a Metal Gear Solid Collection package. Unless the included version of Metal Gear Solid 3 contains the feature-laden Subsistence disc, it would seem that the original Metal Gear warranting the celebration in the first place has been left out of the all-important loop -- a situation Snake himself is intimately familiar with. Then again, this is from the same Konami that released The Silent Hill Collection sans, you know, Silent Hill. At the very least, this disregard for roots fuels the hope for a (re)release outside of Japan.
Konami makes iTunes useful
For years, we've been crying bloody tears over the lack of availability of game soundtracks in the US. With the rise of music download services, that situation has changed. First we had some Final Fantasy soundtracks on iTunes, then the Mother 3 OST, and now the best news of all: Konami has made a deal with Sony BMG to make their entire music catalog available on download services.Naturally, we'll be loading up with Castlevania music, but Konami has a very large collection of notable game soundtracks that at least deserve a previewing: the Metal Gear Solid series, Contra, Goemon/Mystical Ninja, and Akira Yamaoka's brilliant Silent Hill work. We don't know when Konami will start releasing music on iTunes/Rhapsody/your favorite download service, and we don't know what the order of releases will be. One thing we can confirm: this is hot.[Via Dot Matrix with Stereo Sound]
Wii Warm Up: Snake's Revenge
Some slightly disparaging remarks were made recently on this blog about Metal Gear Solid's Solid Snake. While a certain contingent of our staff may doubt the fighting ability of the son of Big Boss, but we know the truth. Snake is hardcore. He may ask a lot of questions ("Metal Gear?" "A Hind-D?") and he may have a habit of hiding in boxes, but he definitely has the combat prowess required for Smash Bros., made evident by the fact that he smashed his own brother.This post is a big "!" for Snake fans. We can hear your thoughts. Come out of hiding and tell us how awesome Solid Snake is!
Kojima and Suda 51 tease Snatcher fans
Last Saturday, Suda 51's company Grasshopper Manufacture held the coolest event ever, at least for game nerds: Snake vs. Zombie vol. 2, a series of informal panel discussions by big names in the Japanese game industry, including Hideo Kojima, Shinji Mikami, ICO's Fumito Ueda, and Tetsuya Mizuguchi. There were also musical performances from Metal Gear Solid 3/Portable Ops soundtrack composer Norihiko Hibino and Silent Hill series producer and composer Akira Yamaoka.As if the mere existence of this event (and our non-attendance at said event) weren't causing us physical pain, now we have unbearable anticipation buzzing around in our heads. During a Kojima/Mikami panel hosted by Suda, Mikami, a man of taste, mentioned that his favorite Kojima game was Snatcher, to which the other two responded "Ah yes, Snatcher," followed by "Oh, should we announce it here?" To sum up, in italics, there is a possibility that Hideo Kojima and Suda 51 are collaborating on some kind of Snatcher game. We do not care if it is a sequel, a remake, a port, an action figure, or an official recipe for Neo Kobe Pizza. We want ten.
DS wishlist is an excuse to talk about Snatcher
We'd like to thank Racketboy for composing this list of games he'd like to see on the DS. Sure, everyone's got their own wishlist, but they're not online, and they don't all include Snatcher and Policenauts. And we want more opportunities to talk about those two games. He's absolutely right that these games are a good fit for the DS: between Hotel Dusk, Phoenix Wright and stuff like Suda 51's The Silver Case, the DS is pretty much the only system that can be said to be experiencing a graphical-text-adventure boom. It also happens to be the current sales leader. If there were ever a time to shovel all your old adventure games onto a console, this is it.Snatcher and Policenauts are high-quality games that would both sell to and satisfy the Phoenix Wright crowd. Throw a "FROM HIDEO KOJIMA, PRODUCER OF METAL GEAR" sticker on the box and you've got a game that is guaranteed to sell. Here's our totally unsolicited advice for Konami: port Snatcher first, and then if that sells, put some of the profits into translating Policenauts.Other notable games on the list include Metroids (yay) and Pac-Man Vs. We can get behind that, since with Wi-Fi play, we'd actually get to try Pac-Man Vs. against another person for once. Unfortunately, we kind of think that Nintendo is loath to embarrass themselves further by referring back to the GBA/GC connectivity experiment. But more adventure games? That's an easy call.
Kojima apologizes for lack of edible koalas in MGS3 [update 1]
At GO3, an Australian gaming conference of import (that's fancy speak for importance, not goods entering a country), Hideo Kojima had a little speech planned out where he discussed "game technology evolution" and proceeded through the Metal Gear series up to MGS4's current progress. We'll get to that.Before we go there, though, Kojima offered up an apology for the jungle in Snake Eater: "looks more like your backyard than a jungle," he joked, then apologized to the audience in Japanese for not letting koalas be an edible food source in the game. Would koalas even taste good? They'd probably taste like what they eat -- eucalyptus leaves. Anyway, on to MGS4 not-so-news.In line with the rest of his speech on innovating gameplay, he and his team knew that they "exhausted the concept of the space, so why not create a situation, rather then a place where Snake had to sneak in" and decided on a battlezone. He explained the possibilities of the battlefield setting -- how there are two sides fighting and one isn't necessarily Snake's enemy, moral ambiguities, et cetera. Then he showed the latest, but already viewed by many, trailer for the game. So, nothing new on the game, but it's nice to read about how Kojima has evolved the franchise across time.[update: changed the koala's dietary properties to eucalyptus leaves...]
April Fool's Alert #8: VG Cats gets a makeover ... Metal GEAR?!
Scott Ramsoomair's VG Cats has a new page: a Metal Gear Solid MySpace profile for "David" Snake (screen name solidsnake34). Some of the jokes are subtle; we recommend a viewing or two of Metal Gear Awesome for some clarity. (MGA may in fact not help at all, but we still recommend viewing it for a few chortles.) In case you're wondering and are too lazy to do some minor investigation, every link on the page directs you to VG Cats' real index. If you're viewing this after April 1, the page may be gone; feel free to use this gallery below as a time capsule for the event.%Gallery-2382%
Saturday PSP background explosion: fan edition [Update 1]
Every Saturday you can count on coming to PSP Fanboy to get new backgrounds for your PSP. Usually I create the backgrounds myself out of official game art, but this week one of our readers sent in his PSP backgrounds and wanted us to put them up. So with that in mind, I present PSP backgrounds by Brad Hodson. Backgrounds after the jump ...
PSP Fan Art Fridays: Metal Gear
Do you want to share your PSP-related fan art? Send us an e-mail. A new piece of fan art will be shared every Friday. It's Friday and that means another night of Russian Roulette with my friends and that it's Fan Art Friday. This week we have a Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops art piece that depicts Null fighting Big Boss. It's brought to us from Edward. The look on Snake's face as he narrowly dodged that lunge is as frightened as that time I saw that site with the girl in the tub. Great work Edward, way to bring back those nightmares. No seriously, glad to have the fan art and good taste in games. I'm totally gay for Metal Gear. Leave your feedback on this art in the comments, check out Edward's deviant art account and see us back here next Friday!%Gallery-3450%
Columbia Pictures acquiring Metal Gear movie rights, Ghost Rider producer onboard
Columbia Pictures, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, is reportedly in negotiations with Konami for the rights to adapt Metal Gear Solid for the cinema; as breifly noted by Sony exec Yair Landau earlier this week at D.I.C.E. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Columbia has assigned Ghost Rider producer Michael De Luca to the project, while MGS creator Hideo Kojima and JEA's Rick Privman will serve as executive producers. Privman is also the executive producer of the upcoming film version of survival horror game Siren.Sony producers Doug Belgrad (The Grudge 2) and Sam Dickerson will also be involved with the live-action adaptation; and Josh Bratman, who works for De Luca and introduced the project to Sony, will continue to act as a consultant. Plot details and casting prospects remain unknown.[Thanks, Nitroid]
Metal Gear movie backed by Sony Studios -- so, PS3 exclusive?
Stop and think about the subject line for a minute. The Metal Gear movie is being backed by Sony Pictures. Would Sony really want to fund such a large, high-profile project like this if Konami and Kojima were going to stab them in the back and move onto multiple platforms? We think not. While it is indirect and no more than an assumption, it makes sense. You wouldn't see Sony backing the defunct Halo movie, or Microsoft spearheading a Shadow of the Colossus film (there isn't one).For those curious about the film itself, Kojima himself gave this the go-ahead, so you know there will be quality somewhere along the line. Vice-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, Yair Landau, said: "It's a very cinematic game, it really lends itself to movie telling. But the question is, 'How do you translate Snake's experience into a full arc that conforms to what audiences expect on the large screen?" Good question, but that's what Kojima's here for! Ask him for help. There are also talks, he said, of an Everquest movie. Let's not talk about that.[Thanks a lot, Colin!]
Sony Pictures producing Metal Gear Solid movie
Shortly after delivering his convergence keynote at this year's D.I.C.E. summit, the vice chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment confirmed to Gamespot that Sony's film studio would be responsible for dragging Metal Gear Solid into the cinema. "We're working with the Metal Gear guys," says Yair Landau. "It's a very cinematic game, it really lends itself to movie telling. But the question is, 'How do you translate Snake's experience into a full arc that conforms to what audiences expect on the large screen?'" Lead Metal Gear guy, Hideo Kojima, announced the film at last year's E3, though barely any details have surfaced since then. Apart from crushing the hopes of Dr. Boll, Kojima and co. have said nothing with respect to casting, directing or script. A safe assumption sees Solid Snake strangling inept soldiers and battling at least one psychopath with a penchant for babbling about the philosophical hangups of dropping nuclear bombs ... on the rainforest. The real trick will be to provide a film more entertaining than the infamous Metal Gear Awesome (embedded after the break for old time's sake). Landau also hinted at an Everquest movie from Sony Pictures, but declined to name the supposedly esteemed producer attached to it. If it winds up being an epic tale of elven mana dealers and over-the-top dragon chases, we'll know it was Jerry Bruckheimer.
Why don't portables get more respect?
The DS sells more than most consoles. The PSP has some games that look better than many PS2 games. Despite this, there are few magazines or websites devoted to portables. When the web or a mag do focus on a portable, it always seems to be to a lesser degree. If you need any proof, just look at the number of portable games that go un-reviewed compared to consoles. But when the sales are up as is the quality of the games, why do handhelds still get shafted? They're a substitute It seems as though some gamers and press view portable games as a substitute for "real" gaming. Just something to pass the time when you're somewhere unpleasant and unable to play a console game. While it is true that the very nature of a portable game is to give you gaming on the go, it doesn't necessarily mean it isn't as fun or as valuable of a gaming experience as console games. Anyone who's gotten sucked into Lumines or Vice City Stories for hours can attest to that. Kid Stuff While it's true that many games aimed for children have been released for portables through the years, there's no shortage of great games for any age. Especially this generation of portables, it seems more and more portables are aiming their sights for older gamers. Brain Age, Metal Gear and GTA are proof enough that in no way are portables just for the playground. Less vocal fan community One thing that hurts the portable gaming community is that despite the great sales for systems and games, the fan community is far less vocal than the typical console fan base. Of course part of this seems to be self perpetuating since if there aren't many online or print sources for portable gaming, there are obviously less places for those fans to express their feelings. Not as many huge titles Some would say that the portables lack blockbuster titles and that is why they garner less attention. This hardly seems like a good excuse though since at this point nearly every blockbuster franchise has a version on handhelds. From Metal Gear to Mario, if there is a big game on a console there is typically a counterpart on the portable. Not only that, but some portable games consistently sell better than most console games. So while there may be no good reason portables get overlooked, it does seem like they're on there way to reversing this fate. With the increased importance of blogs and forums in the gaming world, it seems like only a matter of time before portable games do get the equal respect they deserve. Until then, the average gamer may just be too busy playing their PSP to even care.
PAL gets exclusive Metal Gear content
My mom always said "Good things come to those who wait" and my dad always said "You just wait around for good things to happen to you". Well because of Konami, I'm now going to ignore everything my dad ever said to me. IGN is reporting that PAL territories will be getting Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops content that neither Japan or the US got. The original game's content will be joined with twelve new characters, new maps and new missions. That's not all though, there will also be a Boss Battle mode which the point of should be fairly obvious. I only hope that at some point this content is made available as a download for current owners of Metal Gear. Check IGN for the more details.
Saturday PSP background explosion [Update 1]
I love my Xbox 360 and I also love custom backgrounds. I don't love paying for them though. Luckily PSP users don't have to pay to have a custom background (that's coming in PSP2). Because of this and to help spice up our reader's PSPs, we will be showcasing new backgrounds every Saturday for you to marvel at. Backgrounds after the jump...
