Stealth Action Game Compilation Review: Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol. 1

Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol. 1 is the latest in a long line of compilations featuring Metal Gear games. It made its own name, however, by having several things going for it that no other compilation before it had.

The first volume of the Master Collection is headlined by the first three Metal Gear Solid games, but it actually contains seven games and two variants. The games that have appeared in other compilations over the years include the console versions of the mobile remakes of the MSX2 versions of Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.

Beyond these games, the compilation also saw the first re-release of the Family Computer and Nintendo Entertainment System version of Metal Gear and the NES-exclusive sequel Snake's Revenge. It also was the first international release of Metal Gear Solid: Integral, which was originally released only in Japan. This game combined the international version of Metal Gear Solid, with the English voices and the choice of Japanese or English subtitles with the VR Missions. Integral was actually the original release of the latter before it was released in North America as Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions and in Europe as Metal Gear Solid: Special Missions.

Beyond the included games, the Master Collection also includes the motion comics Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel, which digitized IDW Publishing's graphic novel adaptation of Metal Gear Solid  and Metal Gear Solid 2: Bande Dessinée, which digitized IDW Publishing's graphic novel adaptation of Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty.

Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol. 1 is a large treasure trove of Metal Gear games that were released throughout three decades. However, its value will largely come down to whether you don't own another Metal Gear Solid compilation and whether the compilation-exclusive games such as the NES version of Metal Gear and Snake's Revenge as well as the first international release of Metal Gear Solid: Integral matter to you. If either of those cases turn out to be yes for you, then this compilation is well worth picking up.

Final Verdict:

4½ out of 5

Action Stealth Game Review: Metal Gear 2 - Solid Snake

While it was the giant success that Metal Gear Solid would become upon its release over ten years after the start of the series, the original Metal Gear was enough of a success that two sequels from two separate teams were put into production. 

The Ultra Games version of Metal Gear received the Nintendo Entertainment System exclusive Snake's Revenge in Europe and North America. This sequel led series creator Hideo Kojima to put Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake into production for MSX2. Unlike the original MSX2 version of Metal Gear, which received an official English version in Europe, Solid Snake was only released in Japan. This led to somewhat of a mythical release, as Metal Gear 2 was only available via a fan translation until an English version of the mobile remake was included in Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence in 2006.

The gameplay retained the stealth action gameplay of the original game, but it introduced several concepts that would remain part of the series going forward. including crawling, and crouching. There was also more danger which could be spotted with the radar. Enemies now respond to sound produced by Snake such as footsteps. To avoid being spotted, Snake now can hide under tables or inside lockers.

The graphics of Metal Gear 2 for MSX2 were very similar to those of the original MSX2 version of the first game. This meant that they were in a classic overhead style with characters and locations being as well-detailed as 8-bit graphics allowed. The music and sound effects, likewise, also fit in the game well.

Hideo Kojima is a fan of American action films, which shows in his game design as well as in the design of the detailed character portraits in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Some obvious ones include Mel Gibson as Solid Snake and Sean Connery as Big Boss. Other character portraits include Platoon's Tom Berenger as Grey Fox was based on Tom Berenger in Platoon, Rambo's Richard Crenna as Roy Campbell, and Gunhed's Brenda Bakke as Holly White.

Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake was a huge step forward for the series. The new elements were a necessary evolution which would be included in all of the games moving forward. The radar, enemies hearing sounds of footsteps, and the ability to hide in lockers, would become a huge part of Metal Gear Solid when it released eight years later.

Final Verdict:

4 out of 5

Metal Gear (Ultra Games) Review

Metal Gear Solid Review

Action Stealth Game Review: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty was the highly anticipated sequel to the highly successful and influential action-adventure stealth game, Metal Gear Solid. While the series had several games before Solid, it was that game that put the series on the map, and it was that game that Hideo Kojima and his team at Konami had to follow.

Sons of Liberty did not disappoint. The music is just as great as its predecessor, as is the sound effects such as footsteps and the clinks and clanks of the mostly metal environment. The biggest gain is when it came to improving upon the technical aspects of the game compared to its predecessor.  The increase in capability from the PlayStation to the PlayStation 2 was a huge leap. This allowed the team to give the characters full facial expressions, which was a much-needed upgrade from the creepy eye-less visage of Solid Snake from the PlayStation game.

With the graphics increase also came a more detailed game world, and new abilities. Solid Snake can now use first-person aiming beyond the sniper rifle. The original Solid had an auto-aiming feature, which, while effective, is not as effective as true first-person aiming. Even aiming with the sniper rifle is improved, as Metal Gear Solid felt stiff when in first-person mode for this item, whereas Sons of Liberty feels much smoother.

Snake is also more acrobatic now, with rolls and leaps in addition to climbing and hanging. I've been mentioning Snake, but, as is common knowledge by now, Kojima pulled a bait-and-switch by replacing the main character for most of the game.

After the first chapter of the game, which features Solid Snake as the main character, the rest of the game has a new main character in Raiden. Raiden, also known as Jack, is wildly different from Snake. Whereas Snake is the poster boy for the stoic hero, Raiden is much more emotional. His body type is also much more lean and androgenous as opposed to Snake's action movie hero physique.

This caused a lot of controversy when the game was released, but that has largely died down in the intervening years, especially after Raiden was more fleshed out in his next outing as protagonist in Metal Gear Rising. Raiden is actually a fine protagonist, and is actually more acrobatic than Snake, which makes playing the game feel a bit smoother compared to the intro with Solid Snake.

The other controversy, which is kind of laughable now with how weird the series became in later years, is the weirdness of the game's story. Beyond the usual weirdness inherent in the series as a whole, this chapter added in a whole lot of strangeness in the form of artificial intelligence, which actually makes the game more prescient in the current era.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty is a fantastic sequel to the seminal classic Metal Gear Solid. The increase in graphical fidelity and the increased smoothness of the controls made it feel so much better. The story is a bit weirder than its predecessor, and the swap of protagonists still has its detractors, but these changes actually fleshed out the game world. It's a fine installment of a fantastic series, and is still worth playing today.

Final Verdict:

4½ out of 5

Metal Gear Solid Review

Metal Gear Solid 3 Review Coming Soon

Fighting Game Compilation Review. Mega Man Battle & Fighters

In 1995 and 1996, Capcom released two arcade fighting games featuring its popular Mega Man characters, Mega Man: The Power Battle and Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters, respectfully. When the Neo Geo Pocket Color came out, it was a boon for portable fighting game adaptations, so Capcom miniaturized the two games into one compilation.

The fighting games on the Neo Geo Pocket Color were chibi, or super deformed, versions of traditional arcade fighters. This was due to the limitations of the Neo Geo Pocket Color. This works perfectly for these two games, as Mega Man's crew and the robots he fights against are stylized in a way that still looks good when squashed into cute forms.

The Neo Geo Pocket Color had sound hardware that sounded great, and had all of the boops-and-beeps as you'd expect for 16-bit hardware of the 1990s. The music from the arcade game sounded great when converted to this hardware, and the sound effects did as well.

The games themselves were fun versions of the boss fights of the Mega Man games, and that is translated perfectly in this compilation. These boss fights have always been fun to play, and this is the perfect home for them. The thumbstick controller was uncommon in portable game consoles at the time, and the Neo Geo Pocket Color had one that was very responsive. This is what made it so good for one-on-one fighting games, and it is also why this conversion retained the feel of the arcade games even as the graphics were scaled down and reduced heavily in resolution.

Mega Man Battle & Fighters, or Rockman Battle & Fighters as it was known as it was originally a Japanese only release, was a lot of fun on the Neo Geo Pocket Color. The hardware was perfect for one-on-one fighting games, so it was a perfect fit for a conversion of these two arcade games. The hardware is much weaker than that of the Capcom Power System boards of the arcade, but the cute squashed chibi characters work extremely well for the characters from the Mega Man series. This is, without a doubt, one of the better titles that the Neo Geo Pocket Color offered.

Final Verdict:

4 out of 5

Puzzle Game Review: Sega Swirl

Sega Swirl was a puzzle game for the Sega Dreamcast developed by Scott Hawkins at Sega of America in collaboration with Tremor Entertainment. It is a variation of SameGame, a genre that began with the release of Kuniaki Moribe's Chain Shot in 1985.

The screen is filled with swirls of different colors. The goal of the game is to clear multiple swirls of the same color. The more of the same color swirls are cleared at once, the better the score. 

There are five modes of play. The practice mode is exactly as it sounds. The level mode moves to the next stage once all of the score and combo goals are met. The timed mode is also self-explanatory, as the goal is to line up as many swirls and gain as many points as possible within a time limit. 

There is also a head-to-head mode, which lets players play for points against each other. This leads into one of the most interesting modes. There is an e-mail mode, which allows for the game state to be sent to another player through e-mail. This player sends their state to the originating player, who picks up the game from there. This is a slow-paced style of game play, but it is an interesting mechanic that got around the latency issues due to the slow speed of modems at the time. This is especially true with the European and early Japanese Dreamcast modems, which were only 33.6 kbps as opposed to the North American and later Japanese modems which were 56 kbps. Those are measured in kilobits per second, which are a far cry from the megabits of broadband connections.

Sega Swirl is a fun take on the SameGame formula. It's plethora of game modes is also a boon considering it was generally included in magazine cover discs or within the discs of Dreamcast web browsers. It was also included in the Sega Smash pack, which is where I first played it. It's not a game that revolutionized gaming history by any means, but it is a fun time waster if you ever come across it.

Final Verdict:

3 out of 5

Arcade Action Game Review: Mappy

Mappy is a cute action arcade game released in 1983. It is the first game in Namco's series of the same name.

The game follows a mouse police officer named Mappy who has to retrieve stolen items in a hideout full of thieving cats. Because he is a mouse, he stands no chance against cats so he has to avoid them. The thieving cats are known as the Meowky gang, or the Mewky gang in Japan. The gang's leader is a large red cat named Goro. The Japanese release gives him a much better name, Nyamco. This combines the company name Namco with nyan, the Japanese onomatopoeia for the cute little high-pitched variation of a cat's meow.

Points are gained from collecting the stolen items, which can sometimes be accessed by opening doors, and bonus points are awarded if Mappy retrieves the stolen item behind the boss cat. Once all of the items are collected, the game moves to the next stage.

The music in the game is of a cuteness befitting the character art. The sound effects are those that are familiar to games of the early 1980s, but they fit the game perfectly.

The most memorable mechanic of the game is the trampoline, which Mappy uses to reach the various floors in his quest for the hidden stolen goods. Both Mappy and the cats can turn left or right to reach one of the floors of the hideout when jumping up, however they both are stuck in their trajectory when coming back down. The trampolines are not well-built, however, as they will break, changing colors to denote their condition, if Mappy jumps on it four times in a row. Luckily, once off the trampolines, they will revert to their original jumpless state.

Mappy is a fun little arcade game. It's cute character art, charming music, and interesting premise makes it still enjoyable to play today.

Final Verdict:

3½ out of 5

Platform Game Compilation Review: Donkey Kong Classics

Donkey Kong Classics compiles the Nintendo Entertainment System ports of the first two Donkey Kong arcade games, Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Junior, into one multicart. 

As noted above, the two most popular games in the original trilogy were both included, which is great since they were the best in the series up to the time of this multicart's release in 1988. It does not include Donkey Kong 3, which likely contributed to that game becoming lesser known than the others.

Donkey Kong was a solid conversion of the arcade game. However, since it was also an early release before mappers extended the capabilities of the Nintendo Entertainment System, it lacks the cement factory stage. That stage would not be added to the Nintendo Entertainment System version until Donkey Kong Original Edition was released for the Virtual Console for Wii in 2010 and Nintendo 3DS in 2012.

Donkey Kong Junior, on the other hand, survives in-tact in its conversion from arcade to NES. Although it was also an early NES game, all of the levels are here. The only real difference, as with Donkey Kong, is the change from a vertically-oriented arcade monitor to the horizontally-oriented, nearly square resolution of the NES hardware.

The multi-cart has one small difference in the games. The title screen in both games are replaced by a single blue Donkey Kong Classics title screen. The games can be selected via the right and left buttons on the NES controller, and the number of players can be selected via a menu below the game select area. The neat thing about this change is that the title screen music from the two games are alternatingly played on the multi-cart's title screen.

Donkey Kong Classics is an interesting compilation of the Nintendo Entertainment System conversions of the first two Donkey Kong games. Unlike Nintendo's earlier multi-carts, such as the Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt pack-in cartridge, the menu is not silent. The games lack title screens, in favor of a single title screen that controls the options of both games. This isn't a bad thing, especially since the title screen music from the both games are alternated on the multi-cart menu. It's a shame that Donkey Kong 3 wasn't included, but the game was the weakest of the original trilogy, so its exclusion is not a big loss.

Final Verdict:

3 out of 5