When the recent Metal Gear Solid HD Collection was first announced, many fans of the series were disappointed by one glaring omission: The original Metal Gears Solid. Hideo Kojima, creator and producer, somewhat agrees.
Metal Gear Solid, originally released in 1998, is considered a milestone in video game history and in game development. It was the first game to truly capture the essence of a big-budget Hollywood action film and combine that with groundbreaking gameplay and interactivity. The game was later re-released on the Nintendo Gamecube with updated graphics and new gameplay additions as Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes. Kojima seems torn as to whether he wants a MGS HD remake to be made, and explains so in an interview with Official PlayStation Magazine.
“There are a lot of people wanting remakes of the original, and as producer I want to answer those calls, but as a creator I’m not very interested in going back. If we were to do it, it would have to be a total remake – the only thing that would be the same would be the story. If it happened at some point I would stay as a producer, but would have to hand off most of the actual creating.”
Hideo Kojima has been bouncing around from producer to director for years trying to find his comfort zone and where he feels he is better-off creatively, but it seems he has no idea where his hand would be better suited for a remake of Metal Gear Solid. All fans can do at this point is just cross their fingers and hope that Kojima goes ahead with the project one day. I personally say that it’s inevitable at this point being that the demand is now so high for it to be done, but I guess only time will tell.
“If you bring the gameplay up to modern standards, then you lose a bit of the original game. It was a game made for a certain era – not just the story, but the controls and everything about it reflect that era in which the game was made.”
While Kojima may have a valid argument here, I think anyone could argue that point and say the same about any game, but I digress.