Metal Gear retrospective: Metal Gear?! It can't be! (But it is.) | NES Works
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- Опубликовано: 28 сен 2024
- One of the most beloved franchises of all time makes its debut on NES, though not its actual debut; the Metal Gear Nintendo fans knew and enjoyed back in the 8-bit era was in fact a port of a minor hit for MSX/2 home computers that had shipped about a year earlier in Japan. Although Metal Gear gets the broad strokes right on NES, it trips up over a lot of minor details. And some major ones, too. Still, if a compromised take on a classic is the one that a million former NES owners knew and enjoyed back in the ’80s, there's something to be said even for that clumsier rendition of the game.
Also worth noting this episode: The debut of a brand new publisher! Well, sort of.
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You clearly put a lot of thought into the tone and feel of these videos, but it all comes across so naturally. I love your presentation its so cozy
Thanks Phil, love your work. “Face Value” is still tremendous.
NES Works is back. All is right with the world.
I love how intentionally grainy the video quality is. It's reminiscent of the 80's & 90's television. Props to you my Good Sir.😎👌
The ad at 19:00 is what sold me as a kid. We spent a lot of good time on this game.
The importance of the Metal Gear comic book ad can’t be overstated. It ran in nearly every Marvel comic for about 6 months, and this is notable for being during Marvel’s period of incredibly high circulation. GI Joe, Uncanny X-Men, and Amazing Spider-Man were each clearing about 1,000,000 copies a month sold, and marvel had dozens and dozens of other titles. That’s a lot of eyeballs.
So good I cut it out of the comic and put it on my bulletin board!
Same here! It's actually what sold me on the NES, because I didn't yet have one, but wanted to play this so bad, I cajoled my mother until she got me one! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find Metal Gear in stores until over a month after I got an NES.
Kojima has a fondness for Snake's Revenge. I haven't seen anyone point this out, but Snake on the cover of Revenge is clearly Tom Bergener.
I was a mere 7 years old when this game came out and my feeble mind didn't comprehend the depth and awesomeness this game, but I sure as hell loved the soundtrack haha
7:06 there’s a typo in the lower-third I didn't catch the first time I saw this two weeks ago.
Guess they're Teenage Mutant New Yorkers now. xD
I only recently learned they were the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in the UK.
@@absolutezeronow7928 And all because a sparse few gangs used stuff like nunchucks
The funniest bit of that "ninja ban" is that the BBFC refused to give a rating to a movie
starring Bruce Lee (rest his soul) for the longest time, thus it went unreleased.
I think it was either The Game of Death or Fist of Fury but I'm probably wrong
Teenage Mutant Ninja Yurtles.
@@swirlingabyss Possibly the best game ever programmed on the subject of turtle stacking.
Since it’s Konami, I’ve always said the other three parachutists are Bill and Lance from Contra, and the Rush’n Attack green beret. They ran off to their own missions.
Sir it clearly says Ultra Games on the box
@@JeremyParish The title screen lied to me!
Is it just me or is the audio on this episode *really* quiet?
Snake's Revenge for my favorite NES game.
"Half of Double" is Double Dragon 1 on NES where you only can play single-player instead of having the two-player option like the seminal arcade original.
Kudos on lumping Parker Brothers in with Activision and Imagic. A lot of people leave Parker Brothers out when talking about great third party publishers for the 2600.
Your work continues to be absolutely epic but I can't say I love the faux vhs filter during your sitting segments
Finally, I get to use this: twitter.com/gamespite/status/1425175874891100162
@@JeremyParish
Anyone claiming that's not what VHS looks like, was probably confused by the oversaturated colors the 80's and early 90's were known for.
It just doesn't look right without blues you can drown in, and red bleeding all over the place.
@@JeremyParish I think you’re choosing to be snarky rather than hear his point that he dislikes the effect. (Done practically or as processing.) it’s a weird choice.
But, hey, you’re channel.
@@juststatedtheobvious9633 I don’t think anyone is claiming that it’s not what vhs looked like. And also, it’s a bit disingenuous to say that ANY particular display of VHS styling is “accurate” since the ultimate output of VHS display could be controlled by the display television, the VHS player itself, and the mechanical tape calibration.
@@JeremyParish I just saw this reply, touché! I respect the game, still don't love the artistic choice :)
Colonel CaTaffy for Smash!
(Only problem is the makers of _The Mattel and Mars Bar Quick Energy Chocobot Hour_ might sue).
With Higharolla Kockamamie as an assist trophy? I'm sold!
His Final Smash would be summoning his 27 sisters.
Beyond informative! Always enjoy your class.
I hadn't considered that Ultra Games would mainly publish games deigned specifically for the American market, but looking at the lineup it kinda makes sense
Jean Claude van Damme mixed with Christopher Walken makes my head explode so hard.
The only things keeping me from playing this game are the troll floor traps and the need to tap every wall to find secrets.
They were fun back in the day, but you only get so much free time nowadays.
The floor traps were way worse in Snake's Revenge, to the point where the later parts of the game is filled with them, at least in the first Metal Gear you could kind of see them coming.
I would suggest save states and guides. I used to be a “no guide” guy but I realized that if it meant NOT playing games I wanted to play, it just makes sense to take a little help when you need it.
As much as it is an inferior port, I still absolutely adore Metal Gear on the NES.
This is great episode. I’ll always be a Gameboy Works first man, but boy did you knock it out of the park here.
Excellent review as always, though I feel compelled to comment snidely at the mere SUGGESTION that any track in the NES version of Metal Gear can even come CLOSE to being as good as the Theme of Tara (the main theme, named not for a person but for the "ta-RA!" that so prominently features in its refrain -- no joke!) from the MSX original. The Theme of Tara is often regarded as one of the best 8-bit PSG tracks of all time, and I'm very much inclined to agree. The NES Metal Gear music is excellent, as one would expect from Konami, but... yeah, it's no Theme of Tara. Nothing else is, really.
Well... thanks for taking the time to be snide, I guess.
@@JeremyParish Heheh anytime. ;)
Seriously, though, I know how much work must go into making all these videos, and you produce more than almost anyone else out there. You're doing an amazing service for gaming history, and while the few times I comment tend to just be me pulling that old internet chestnut -- the WELL ACTUALLY -- I hope you don't take offense to any of it. You're entirely entitled to think MSX Castlevania isn't superior to the NES one (even though it is), and to rank the NES Metal Gear music over the amazing Theme of Tara, and those rare few of us who are hipster enough to argue those finer points with you may raise a ruckus, but the fact is, we still watched your videos and loved them in the end, and we've got nothin' but respect for you and the amazing work you do.
Just figured I should say that, as I know complaints and nitpicks tend to ring loudest when surveying one's comments and feedback, but as snide and snarky as your comments section may get from time to time (to which I have no doubt contributed on occasion), you wouldn't be getting comments at all if people didn't care about what you had to say. So don't ever give up the fight, man! You rock.
As usual, I agree with the general assessment. While Metal Gear NES is definitely an inferior product to the MSX original, it is by no means a bad game, and even has a few good things missing in the original. The main overworld theme is fantastic. And I actually think the opening area does more to teach the player what kind of game this is than the original does by throwing you right into it. The changes that mar the game's flow aren't enough to change what makes the game special. It's still Metal Gear. It's just... an odd remix of Metal Gear.
I've seen a number of people say the NES game is just terrible, full stop, and not only do *I* disagree, but the fact that the sequels only happened because of how well-liked and successful the NES game was, also disagrees. Bottom line: it's a fun and interesting game.
I agree, as someone who has completed both versions, NES is really fun but more actiony and does have a bit more problems. I think if the plot was better people would embrace it more.
I liked how the NES version actually organizes the menus vs the MSX where it puts it in any order. I think if you play the NES version with save states, it's much more enjoyable
It's not like any of us knew of the MSX when we were playing it. So the comparison, to me, is immaterial.
Nintendo: 3rd parties won't dare releasing crappy games if we limit them to 5 games per year!
LJN: ...hold my beer.
LJN really aren't that bad. There's far worse publishers for the NES. Don't believe that AVGN is a serious review show, it's never been that at any point, he exaggerates flaws for comedic effect, that's all. It was all about which developers made the game
Remember, developers like _RARE_ made games for LJN. Good quality games. Like A Nightmare on Elm Street, one of my favourite Rare games for sure. James Rolfe says he loves the game, when he's out of character and just speaking as himself. He says the same for many LJN games
LJN is a meme and all but they're not a bad publisher at all.
Or take Bill and Ted's excellent adventure for game boy that LJN published, a great donkey Kong clone (and Donkey Kong for game boy is probably the best game boy game ever made, it's fantastic, it's easily the number 1 best donkey Kong game outside of the donkey Kong country series, so if you're gonna make a copy of anything, then donkey Kong 94 as it's commonly known, is a good one to rip off)
And there's Alien 3 for super Nintendo which is a great example of that particular style of mid 90s platformer that you see a lot, with massive maze like levels. Some of those types of platformers were terrible, but Alien 3 is not one of them
Or The Incredible Crash Dummies for SNES. And then the port of the game on the NES that came out a year later and was even better than the SNES version
And the Spiderman beat em up Maximum Carnage is one of the best 16 bit beat em ups, probably the best beat em up on SNES, it's much better than the Final Fight snes ports.
And Friday the 13th for NES is a great game once you learn the intricacies of it. That's another game where AVGN says it's crap, but James Rolfe says it's brilliant
And True Lies for SNES and Genesis, is the number 1 licensed game from that era. Easily. It's an amazing quality top down shooter where you play as Arnie. It's really surprisingly great.
There's more too but these are just some examples
@@duffman18 why would anyone care what james rolfe thinks? its a cool game. but like, why is that your measure of legitimacy lol
Nintendo Wii drove the point home, the Seal Of Quality was bullshit.
"US Exclusive sequel Snake's Revenge"
It was also released in Australia and Europe.
that cover could also double as Hicks from Aliens easily
I appreciate the Chrontendo shout out, Jeremy.
Thanks for another quality video, but I think you need to check your audio levels I really had to jack the volume up on this one
There's someone working on a hack trying to bring the Metal Gear final boss from the MSX game to the NES one.
Awesome work, as always. I love these in-depth looks at the games of my childhood.
"An unapologetic exercise in star fucking... and Geoff Keighley for some reason"
Savage
Funny you mention Tonkin House as one of the companies thankfully not picked up by LJN, considering their SNES version of Ys 3 still gets a lot of play from people who assume the Nintendo console versions are a safe bet for best one. Which with Ys especially tends to absolutely not be the case.
Ys III would be the first Ys game to be ported to a Nintendo console in the West (we never got the Famicom versions of Ys I or II). Of course, Master System and TurboGrafx-CD owners would know Ys from western releases. Interestingly enough, Ys 3 plays differently on each of the 3 consoles that got it at the time: SNES, Genesis, and TurboGrafx-CD.
@@absolutezeronow7928 Oh I know. I've played all those versions. Even made videos about all of them a few years ago.
@@Aboveup I even watched your Ys 3 review this year too (will watch the Ys 4 review soon). Enjoyed that too. Oath in Felghana as you know is a great remake, would love to be able to play that on Switch but Xseed/Marvelous would probably keep NIS America from being able to publish it to that. I know I could buy the Steam version but I'm not really a PC gamer.
@@absolutezeronow7928 Ah, Ys 4. Yet another one where there's the Tonkin House release and the better one. Yeah, the current state of Xseed and Ys is a shame really. I really worry about future availability for these games as things currently stand. I feel like they should've popped up on PS4/Xbox/Switch as is, and not just Ys Origin. But oh well, at least there's one platform they're all on still.
One of my favorites, really fun game
It's absolutely hilarious to look at the NES Metal Gear manual and think that there was a point in time where someone thought "We need to make Metal Gear's story more political!"
B-but I was told by reliable sources (sheltered white boys who get angry about racial diversity in cartoons) that Metal Gear ISN’T political?!
@@JeremyParish As a sheltered white boy myself, I can tell you that Metal Gear in no way makes any political statements, just like Deus Ex, Fallout, and, uh, Campaign '84 for the Colecovision?
Oh to be a fly on the wall at Konami in the 8 and 16 bit eras. I imagine a crowded office with people working at all hours of the day, bouncing between projects every week. People keep one-upping each other in this and that area, they’re encouraged to put together self referential parody games like Parodius or Wai Wai World.
yeah I think it wasn't til 'Operation C' on game boy when I figured out what was really going on... pretty sure I heard about it in magazines right around the time, so it all started to make sense. I do remember my dad getting a kick out of the magazine ad featuring all of snake's armaments you could pick up in the game, I think that's what sold him on it the most! One of these days I'll have to sit down and finish that one, although I do prefer the MSX2 games a lot more.
As a kid I loved renting this one and stumbling my way around, making barely any progress but enjoying the less conventional game play of the time. And very good point that due to the strict licensing agreements we did miss out on a lot of garbage that Japan got, discovered that in the late 90s when friends and I would spend entire nights playing title we found in the dark corners of the internet only to be severely disappointed (thinking of you specifically Famicom Gundam!)
That was the thing about those earlier games and why they where often superior to modern games. The progress wasn’t the point. Being fun to play, moment to moment, was the point.
@@JazGalaxy new games are also fun to play moment to moment. sometimes moreso. don’t let your nostalgia turn you into a deluded crank. and i’m not some biased young buck. i’m 37 and mostly play old stuff i grew up with because i have an ancient, weak pc. but modern stuff is insanely fun
Good job and interesting take on the marketing campaign of metal gear.
Calling it, I will see a Getsufuu Maden retrospective on NES Works Gaiden.
Only if a patron requests it
It is one of three games I'm considering for a future request but there is another game (a Super Famicom one) that may need a retrospective first.
@@JeremyParish Becoming a patron... hmm...
Me @ 6:10: "No I'm good! This is fascinating!" I mean I did come for a metal gear video but, as the kids say "go off, king" haha. Really informative video, thanks 4 it!
Activision has certainly fell very hard from those promising days of the 2600. Anyway, Nintendo sparing U.S. audiences the likes of Atlantis no Nazo and Onyanko Town was a good thing even if this meant they'd slowly lose out on getting great games that would make their way to competing consoles like the PC Engine, the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and of course, the Sony Playstation which would come to dominate its generation after initially being beaten by the Saturn.
Ah, Metal Gear. Worth the wait, would love to play the originals on the Switch (enjoyed the NES game)
I recorded the script for this episode before the latest awfulness emerged from Activision Blizzard’s fetid bowels. I can’t believe this text aged poorly before it even went live.
I just realized. Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.. should it not be Solid Snake: Metal Gear Part 2?
I mean... To borrow the naming convention of Rambo: First Blood Part 2...
Hideo missed a chance to do a movie reference... Now that is rare.
I never really considered that Nintendo was facing the same “flood of bad titles” problem that caused the 1983 crash and that concern would appear in the games media of the day.
Funny you mentioned parker bros when they distributed Konami games in the us
I swear I knew as a kid that Konami and Ultra were the same company. It must have been from Nintendo Power, because I didn't read much of the other gaming magazines from back then.
My impression at the time was that the Ultra games were the "easy ones", and the Konami games were the "hard ones", which is interesting when you say that the Ultra ones were more focused on the American market.
Am I the only one who remembers knowing this at the time?
You might have made the connection because every Ultra game has a Konami copyright credit on the title screen! That was how I sorted it.
@@JeremyParish Oh, hah, you're right!
The 5 game restriction Nintendo placed was probably for the best, I just wish they didn't also restrict companies to make titles for other systems initially like the Master System. I like Metal Gear NES, especially the OST, but it is definitely a strategy guide game like Zelda 2 & Castlevania 2 IMO.
Nice Death Stranding shout out. You jazzed for the sequel?
To paraphrase FDR: A video which live in infamy - Jeremy subtlety and deliberately dropped the f bomb on the Empire of RUclips.
10:22 I can slightly hear you sip your cognac....that's one sensitive microphone....now that's style, George Plimpton style....game on
That Metal Gear cover. Meeee-yow.
I think Gameboy Color version is a little better and there is a DX hack that uses it for Famicom/NES if you have a Flash Cartridge like the KryzsioCart from Ebay or an Everdrive N8 Pro. Dragon Warrior I, II, III have DX hacks too using Gameboy Color.
Hmmm not sure the EU date was the same as the US
This guy is good...real good.
No mention of Carboard Boxes, were they nixed in the NES version?
This is a retrospective, not a strategy wiki
@@JeremyParish oh, I wasn't complaining, just an absence that caught my attention that I thought there'd be a reason for it. Guess it just wasn't important to the script at hand.
I just woke up! No seriously, I'm in California'
I appreciate NES Metal Gear for introducing 80s gamers to what would become the most wackiest cerebral juxtaposing game series out there, but it is obviously the weaker port. Still a good game.
Hello, love your work. I´d like to know where do you get the release dates for the games? I´m very interested in PAL release dates. Greetings from Germany René
I pull from many sources like Wikipedia, GameFAQs, Mobygames, and more. When a conflict appears, I research through old print archives. Unfortunately PAL dates are very imprecise and badly documented.
@@JeremyParish thanks for the quick reply, I will look into it.
Never played much of this version but the MSX version isn't bad and its MSX(2) sequel is pretty good.
Mg1 is very much an Msx2 game. The msx1 only had 16 colors and its mostly 1 color sprites were an absolute eyesore. The difference between Mg1 and mg2 is just the natural evolution of how good games on a system look later on in its life.
@@MrSegmentfault I must have confused the 2 from the sequel's name.
It's worth noting that Konami's tactic of starting a fake company to get around agreements somewhat echoes Atari in their early days, when they formed "Kee Games" in order to get around distributor limits. Some of their most interesting early arcade titles (Sprint and Tank) were "released" by Kee.
Also, Konami seems at least partly cognizant of the possibility of brand dilution from using the Ultra name, they tended to release games under it that were a bit lacking in one respect or another. Hence, NES Metal Gear, the first NES TMNT (which is kind of janky) and a few of the NES's lacklustre home computer ports.
Good call on Kee. As for Ultra and brand dilution, they specifically used Ultra as a brand for games specifically catering to the US market-either American properties (TMNT, Mission Inpossible), licensed Western titles (Pirates, QBert), or original games specifically for the U.S. (Snake’s Revenge). It was not a 100% hard rule, as you’d see stuff like Carmen Sandiego in silver cladding, but is generally accurate.
@@JeremyParish I don't doubt that, but I do wonder about Contra, which is what one might assume is a very American-oriented game (it's about military intervention in South America after all, although against an alien force) but still got the Konami branding. I'm certain you're right though.
Was Ultra Games truly the first example of a publisher starting a "separate" company/label to get around Nintendo's release restrictions? I know LJN was doing games before Acclaim acquired it, upon which is just became Acclaim's equivalent to Ultra (& the same for Flying Edge on Sega's consoles), but I just don't know if Konami started Ultra first, or if Acclaim bought LJN first. Either way, Nintendo won (with more money), right?
Looks like Acclaim bought LJN in 1990.
@@JeremyParish So it's more than likely that Acclaim saw what Konami was doing with Ultra & thought "Hey, we can do that, too!". Sounds exactly like something Acclaim would do, too.
To be honest, I think Acclaim was motivated more by the massive array of licenses LJN had access to. Properties like WWF were a license to print money.
Was it ever revealed why they got rid of the final battle against the metal gear in favor of blowing up a computer? Of all the changes, that always seemed the most incoherent to me. Does anybody (or Jeremy) know?
I've always assumed it was a limitation of storage space. Since NES ROMs handle data differently than the MSX did, there may not have been enough room available in the CHR banks for Metal Gear's unique tiles. Whereas a large blank screen? No problem.
@@JeremyParish I'll concede that I don't have much more than a cursory understanding of how the NES hardware fundamentally works, but it seems like if it was a matter of space they should have 86'ed a few of the early jungle/dog screens in order to include the eponymous Metal Gear!
@@JeremyParish
Sounds right to me. After all, Konami did the same cheap trick (expanding the levels, while removing bosses and features) for all their 4meg Genesis carts.
@@JeremyParish from Kojima:
“"Furthermore, being Metal Gear, it goes without saying that Metal Gear should make an appearance at the end. However, from what I've heard, due to the technically difficulties in displaying the sprite on the screen, they swapped Metal Gear out for a gigantic monitor. That made me see that whoever created the game had no sliver of appreciation for the players."”
This was my earliest experience with getting bit by no manual being included with the rental. It really felt like being thrown into the deep end.
It still stings to think about all the good or at least interesting titles that never made it over due to restrictions. Speaking of which, time to look up Arumana no Kiseki.
I’ve gotten so used to no more NES Works that I forgot to check in until now. What a pleasant surprise. Proud to say I was a Metal Gear NES owner “back in the day”, and years later skipped school the day Metal Gear Solid was released.
Thank you, Jeremy. I forgive you for wasting all that time on obscure Sega shit absolutely no one cares about.
Give it a rest.
0:04 who framed roger rabbits
It was R.K. Maroon
Nanomachines.
Future societies will watch these videos to learn about the history of video games :)
I sure hope there are future societies
Nes/Famicom has such a drab set of colors, it makes every conversion an absolute eyesore.
My 10 year old self thinks you are a poppy head and this game is awesome. Me as an adult, yeah you are right.
You're both correct
Did you delay this just to make that joke??!!
I 100% did.
The version that is bad and doesn't even have the title in the game.
What took you so long? Oh that’s right, SG-100 videos
Just a heads up: The more people complain about me covering non-Nintendo systems, the more I'm going to cover non-Nintendo systems. I don't make the rules, that's just how it is.
@@JeremyParish ‘twas a joke - I still watch whatever you upload
No, no... I welcome the excuse to go off-topic.
@@JeremyParish Personally, I REALLY enjoyed the SG-1000 series of vids, Jeremy.
CaTaffy is racist? Are you sure you don't mean "jingoist"?
Have you actually read his bio? It's not great.
@@JeremyParish yeah, I don't think it targets any race specifically. It just has a very ham-fisted "this guy is so foreign and non-American, isn't that hilarious?" vibe to it. Hence why I'd call it jingoist. I think "racist" gets thrown around a lot where it doesn't really fit.
It's a good video, I liked it, that one line just had me scratching my head.
@@taylorlowder8935 "this guy is so foreign and non-American (also monochromatically evil), isn't that hilarious?" - that sounds pretty racist to me
@@lmello009 "non-american" isn't a race. America is probably the most multi-racial culture ever. See, this is exactly what I'm talking about, with the term being thrown around without careful thought. Nation, race, and culture are all different concepts.
@@taylorlowder8935 the name is Colonel CaTaffy. From Mongolia.
Kept you waiting, huh! Yeah you a fan 😉
Breaks my heart that Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake didn’t arrive in the US in any form until MGS3: Subsistence. It would have blown minds if it released when it was new. You ever play it, Jeremy? You gotta cover it sometime if you haven’t already. :) I know you aren’t doing an MSX works or anything, so I understand if it’s not exactly in the cards anytime soon.
The soundtrack also bops metal gear 2 sits along side metal gear solid 2 as my favorite of the series
Thiers also a place in there for metal gear rising
Those old Konami covers are hilarious. They definitely couldn’t get away with that today. The metal gear cover is clearly Kyle Reese from terminator. And Contra is Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. Oh the 80s… 😀
Not just covers. Kojima stole entire characters from popular films in Snatcher and Policenauts. The guy is a massive hack. The games that he has made that were more original and less IP theft are the ones that people don’t like.
Dracula on Castlevania 2's cover is basically traced from the cover to D&D's Ravenloft!
@@JazGalaxy big fucking deal, so many people rip shit off from other shit. If he's a hack then so be it as he's helped create some of the best games of all time whether you personally think so or not.
The artist for the Blades of Steel cover was sued by a Sports Illustrated photographer, since the box art was basically just a paiting of his photo.
@@MaidenHell1977 “he’s created some of the most POPULAR games of al time, whether you think so or not”. “Best” is subjective. And, no, I don’t think he’s created any of the best games of all time.
Jeremy? Jeremy! JER-EM-Y!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What a critical but fair analysis of Metal Gear on the Nintendo. My first experience with Metal Gear was on the NES where, if you bought the cartridge in the pack, back in the day, it came with a foldout map/poster that would show you where to move...yet despite that my friends and I would take turns learning the quirks of the game and where to go. I don't care what the critics of Snake's Revenge on Nintendo say, that somehow it's an inferior Metal Gear experience as if it's some lazy toss up..Nah Snake's Revenge is something that I play 4 times a year. The stealth, the room to room, the enemy AI, the menu navigation, and the music is top tier with Snake's Revenge. That definitely was a stellar US Ultra Games release where it charged Kojima's battery pack enough to deliver the MSX Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake later on with that platform.
I still remember when you did a cartography of this game! Good times. I really love this game despite its flaws.
+1 like for this breakdown of NES third-party licensing and Metal Gear's game design issues.
18:00 Konami USA manuals could be... culturally insensitive. Yes. Laser Invasion even renamed some enemies in cheeky cringey ways.
And thus, the age of the -sockpuppets- imprints began.
Well told, like always.. I remember renting this game multiple times and being terrible at it.. of course I would just slap on the game genie and hack myself some fun.
Ultra Games is the Richard Bachman of Videos Games
Such slander on Snake's Revenge. Still, good vid.
Next up: Ah, the classic Single Dragon.
Contact missing our Gray Fox.
Excellent video 👍. This brought back a lot of good memories with Metal Gear and some other titles as well.
I bought metal gear for nes at kaybees toys and my mom picked up mario 3 such great memories! I personally loved the nes version the msx version is definitely the better of the two! But the nes version gets so much flak but it is a good game!
Boy oh boy.....that ad. Talking about love at first sight.
You too, huh?
The host segments look genuinely vintage. Did you shoot them on an old video camera? You're also giving me some strong Matt Frewer vibes.
The NES version may be inferior to the original MSX version, but it remains one of my all-time favorite games.
That soundtrack burned a hole into my brain as a kid.
I like the VHS effect on this video much better
What effect?
I loved this game, I played it over and over as a little snake.
Oh, those Ultra Games fellows look promising, I always like supporting budding developers
Jeremy, your videos are so good, never stop making them, please
How was the metal gear a computer?
I FEEL ASLEEP!!
Oddly enough, I remember Konami essentially giving the game away about ULTRA with, of all things, television commercials. Early ones were your average 30 second spots on during cartoon blocks on Saturday mornings or weekdays after school that contained a brief description and gameplay footage from some disembodied voice speaking in an odd tone - almost as if he were describing a horror film - on two different games (I think one was Metal Gear/Defenders of the Crown, and another one was for the first Skate or Die and another title I can't think of at the moment. Don't remember exactly, but that part isn't the point...) and the advert's narrator referred to their games as "Ultra Games for your _Konami_ System".
As a child, I didn't get why it would be called that. I just figured that it was a confused adult reading names they "didn't get", and simply mistook "Konami" for "Nintendo" much like a parent who, back then, would have still been calling ANYTHING video game related "an Atari".
With decades behind me, and context of things like publishing, Nintendo's arbitrarily small release limit mandate, etc., it seems like someone somewhere would have seen one of those commercials - be it a rival or even The Big N themselves - and cottoned on to what Konami was pulling. But, it looks like they didn't.
Ah, I don't think it was a secret-the title screen has a Konami copyright. Ultra was basically just paperwork and a physical mailing address. I'm sure Nintendo knew what was up and let Konami fudge the rules, because Konami brought a huge amount of value to the console and made Nintendo tons of money.
@@JeremyParish _maybe_ Nintendo chose to ignore it, but hindsight makes it puzzling that other publishers didn't expressly do the same thing en masse.
It retroactively seems like an easy loophole other companies could've exploited instead of subcontracting work to to other publishers with varying results or outright "going rogue" like Tengen or Camerica.
TMNY: Teenage Mutant Ninja Yurtles :D
Read your Seuss, Yertle WAS a turtle
Metal Gear was one of a handful of NES games that my dumb babby kid brain couldn't understand. It remained little more than a bad rental memory for years until Metal Gear Solid came out and made me realize "Oh, _this_ is what it was trying to do." While I can appreciate its efforts these days, it's not a game (or series) suited to my tastes.
As a kid, I inevitably played military-themed games because that's just what many games were. Now, though, my tastes are established and variety is abundant. I have no desire to go back and check out these kinds of games.
I loved seeing that Gear Up ad in magazines growing up as a kid. Metal Gear is still one of my favorite NES games and I think your review is accurate and fair, even if I don't always agree. I'm a little scared for the inevitable Snake's Revenge video to come down the line, even though you did seem a bit more forgiving than some in your mention of it here.
I loved the hell out of Metal Gear, but learning more about its origins helped me understand why it seemed so broken sometimes. I actually returned the game for a refund because the screwy radio/room relationships got me into a situation where I couldn't make progress and I thought it was defective. I gave it another chance a few months later and got the issue sorted, but this version has always been a mess.
@@JeremyParish I'm definitely not going to argue that point. It suffered, badly at times, but the sort of "Engrish" that plagued a lot of games back then and had some "hints" that felt as useful as those in Castlevania II. I've yet to play the MSX version, though I do have it on GOG. You did mention the radio room conversations being off and that fascinated me. I look forward to playing the MSX version and seeing how something said might actually make sense in the right place!
You can find a breakdown of the misaligned call settings here: tcrf.net/Metal_Gear_(NES)
@@JeremyParish TCRF, I should have known. Many thanks. This will come in handy!