Whisper it, but Konami might be back: or at the very least, is showing some signs of life after what feels like over a decade in the doldrums. That's slightly overstating things of course, because Konami has always been a profitable company with fingers in many pies, but it hasn't been competing at the top end for a while now.
The recent release of the generally excellent Metal Gear Solid Delta, and what looks like a good reception for Silent Hill f, suggests that this tanker might be on the turn. And for the upcoming Tokyo Games Show, which will feature an exclusive PC Gaming Show, Konami has scheduled the latest in the "Metal Gear–Production Hotline" series of videos, in which the company's talent talks about what's next for Metal Gear.
But the interesting element of this broadcast is an advance survey, viewable here in Japanese, which includes a few interesting questions for fans of the series. As first spotted by the fan account Metal Gear Network, among the questions the survey asks what kind of information fans want from these broadcasts, with two options being new information on Metal Gear Solid: The Master Collection Vol. 2 and "other future developments in the Metal Gear series." I'll have both thanks.
Then we get on to the interesting part: Konami's survey asks "which of the following Metal Gear titles would you like to see remade" and then basically lists every mainline entry, including Peace Walker. The options are:
- Metal Gear
- Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake
- Metal Gear Solid
- Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty
- Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots
- Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker
- Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
- Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
- Other
Naturally, I immediately went to the "other" box and entered Ghost Babel and Portable Ops+. The notable omissions here would be the original Metal Gear 2, a sequel made without Hideo Kojima's knowledge that is generally regarded as a poor entry in the series, and the plethora of PSP titles made by Kojima Productions including Portable Ops and Metal Gear Ac!d. Not that I think many outside of myself are clamouring for remakes of those.
But what's most surprising is the inclusion of MGS5: Ground Zeroes and MGS5: TPP. I'll admit to being biased here, but I think those games look and play better than 95% of the AAA stuff being released now. MGS3: Snake Eater was a great first choice for a remake, being arguably the most straightforward game in the series and one that also felt long-in-the-tooth (it was originally released on PlayStation 2), but GZ and TPP both have pretty flawless PC versions that run and look like a dream. Anyone who'd want to see these remade over the early PlayStation stuff or even the MSX titles needs their head examined.
Yes, it's just a survey. But I'd hope Konami might have the guts to tackle the earliest games in the series, particularly Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake. This might've been a top-down stealth-shooter constrained by the hardware of its time, but it's the game where the series really blossoms to life: and includes so many ideas that Metal Gear Solid would later crib, but in 3D.
Either way, it looks like things are on the up for Metal Gear fans. Konami's shown it has the talent to do the older games justice, even if some might say that Delta was a little too reverential, and few of us would complain about the publisher revisiting some of the series' earliest entries. The big question will always be what's next beyond the remakes. But after the wilderness years, I'll take whatever I can get.
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