Kojima's Legacy

Adam Wolf · 06-30-2006, 11:24 AM

IGN

We reflect on the influence of Hideo Kojima's 20 years in gaming.
by Mark Ryan Sallee
June 29, 2006 - Hideo Kojima announced during this May's Konami E3 press conference that this year, 2006, marks his twentieth anniversary in the games industry. Since his start at Konami in 1986, Kojima has produced and directed some of the games industry's most influential titles. His first game, Metal Gear, is considered the first stealth-action videogame and birthed a genre that's since spawned many of the industry's most popular titles and impacted other genres with stealth influences. Kojima's later titles, both in the Metal Gear series and out, have also established benchmarks of production excellence, merging videogame fantasy with Hollywood-quality presentation, an achievement many games have imitated though few (if any) have matched.

In his twenty years of gaming, Hideo Kojima has established a rather inspirational legacy. Both in his games and in personal interviews, Kojima has waxed philosophical and set in place influences that will likely last past his lifetime. These influences and inspirations, and the games that ignite them, are this philosopher's legacy.

Metal Gear (1987)
Kojima's first released project at Konami was the original Metal Gear, released in 1987 on the MSX platform. Unlike other games of its time, Metal Gear stresses stealth tactics over direct combat in order to progress through the game. This revolutionary concept is executed with exceptionally simple, yet sophisticated, design.

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Taking the role of Solid Snake, players romp through the fortress of Outer Heaven with very basic actions. Snake can only run, punch and shoot, but these limited abilities are enough to allow for a very unique game experience.

Enemy AI is very basic in Metal Gear, a distant precursor to the AI systems more modern gamers are used to. Without the development of vision cones, enemies simply see in straight lines, and in place of Metal Gear Solid's now defining alert modes the original Metal Gear simply lets players evade pursuing enemies by reaching certain safe screens.

Even with its meager means, Metal Gear delivers a relatively sophisticated game experience with involving plot and puzzling challenges. Whether Kojima knew it or not, Metal Gear would grow to become the creator's career-long project and would influence the design of games years in the future.

Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (1990)
On the heels of Metal Gear's revolutionary design came the second installment in the Metal Gear saga. Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, unlike the pseudo-sequel Snake's Revenge, is a Kojima project through-and-through and advances the stealth-based gameplay of the original. It is in this second Metal Gear game that Kojima introduced the now-iconic radar system (known in later games as the Soliton radar) which drastically changes the stealthy play.

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Instead of playing hide-and-seek on just one screen, Metal Gear 2 players are forced to use the radar to plan movements well in advance. With enemies moving from one screen to another, Metal Gear 2 becomes a more difficult game than its predecessor, but not without added tools for the player. Metal Gear 2 also introduces the ability to crouch, giving players access to hiding spots necessary for evading enemies in pursuit. And in place of Metal Gear's safe screens that immediately halt enemy pursuit, Metal Gear 2 utilizes alert modes to reward tactful evasion with silenced alarms.

Perhaps the most notable progression of Metal Gear 2 is in the production values. Improved graphics and presentation help tell a story that's more vital to the experience. Developed characters and plot twists prefaced the complex stories of future Kojima games, and played a role in the maturation of videogame storytelling.

Policenauts (1994)
As a spiritual successor to Kojima's previously directed Snatcher game, Policenauts sports very classic adventure-style gameplay with decidedly sophisticated style and presentation. The point-and-click gameplay sees occasional action through gun shootout scenes but largely relies of heavy dialogue and investigation to further the plot. Unfortunately, no English version of the game was ever released.

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Still, Policenauts serves as an early example of extensive voice recording in games. The sober dialog between characters and in the lead's narration advances a unique detective story set in a future space colony. Kojima's film background is manifest in Policenaut's unique direction and striking moods, an effect aided by both the pervasive voice work and the melancholy visuals of the animated presentation.

Clearly, Policenauts was a prelude to what would become Hideo Kojima's signature excellence in production.

Metal Gear Solid (1998)
Years after Kojima had last visited the Metal Gear universe, he and his Konami Japan team released Metal Gear Solid, the first 3D entry to the series. Unlike the previous Metal Gear games, the release of Metal Gear Solid was a worldwide event. Both in Japan and in the United States, Metal Gear Solid was met with critical acclaim and retail success.

In contrast to the quiet release of previous Metal Gear games, Metal Gear Solid was the subject of much media hype. Promising state-of-the-art graphics and unrivaled production values, Metal Gear Solid was anything but a sleeper hit. The PlayStation had a blockbuster title to augment its superstar library, and Metal Gear Solid's emerged as a PlayStation icon. In the face of Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda, Metal Gear Solid became the champion of the Sony camp.

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Of course, the game's influence goes well beyond giving the PlayStation identity. Metal Gear Solid fulfills its promises, delivering production values that, for the first time in gaming, really exceeded the videogame status quo. Awkwardly animated cutscenes were made a distant memory by Metal Gear Solid's expertly tooled cinematography, and the game's superb voice acting, though not unprecedented, proved that videogame dialog was not limited to scrolling text. Still, Metal Gear Solid would do more than revolutionize the way videogame stories were told.

If the original Metal Gear's design went largely unnoticed by mainstream game developers, it was Metal Gear Solid that proved that stealth gameplay is not just a niche design. After the popularity of Kojima's PlayStation project, other developers took notice and mimed the stealth-based design. Sony's Tenchu and Syphon Filter games have heavy emphasis on stealth, and later game releases merge stealth design with other gameplay conventions. To this day, it's not rare for a typical non-stealth game to include stealth scenes, even if that game is Nintendo's own The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.

Metal Gear Solid made its mark on the gaming public with its combination of superior presentation and unique gameplay. Gamers of the time no doubt still remember the game's defining moments, such as the Psycho Mantis's reading of the memory card to reveal the player's gaming habits, and the peeing-the-pants inside a dark locker. Groundbreaking gameplay designs, especially the game's excellent enemy AI, set in place high expectations for games that followed in Metal Gear Solid's far-stretching shadow.

Zone of the Enders (2001)
Metal Gear Solid was revered as a technical showpiece for its home hardware and Zone of the Enders, Kojima's first released PlayStation 2 project, aimed to achieve the same esteem. As one of the first titles to release on the new hardware, many looked to Zone of the Enders for support of Sony's bold graphical claims. Kojima and his team delivered.

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As an early PlayStation 2 release, Zone of the Enders successfully showed just what the new hardware could do. Though games since have certainly gone beyond the graphical bounds of the first Zone of the Enders, the game proved that the low-framerate, jaggy mess of most early PS2 games wasn't indicative of the hardware's best performance.

Beyond showcasing fancy graphics, Zone of the Enders also helped pioneer a new generation of 3D gaming to solve the 32-bit era's issues. Lock-on targeting was nothing new (The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time established the gameplay mechanic), but the clever camera work and fully three-dimensional controls of Zone of the Enders showed what to expect from Sony's new age of gaming.

But most players remember Zone of the Enders as the game with the Metal Gear Solid 2 demo. Though the game's sales were no doubt helped by the inclusion of a Sons of Liberty demo, it's easy to see that Kojima's more popular franchise overshadowed the 3D robot wars. Zone of the Enders' short and repetitive campaign didn't help change its face as the game with the Metal Gear Solid 2 demo, and the game served as a mere stepping stone for players eager to test Kojima's future magnum opus.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001)
Just months after the release of Zone of the Enders and a year after the launch of Sony's PlayStation 2, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty released to critical acclaim. Combining the basic gameplay of previous Metal Gear games with state-of-the-art enemy AI, Sons of Liberty reignited the public interest in stealth games and restated the franchise's status as the poster child of PlayStation.

It wasn't long before Sony's rivals would secure their own stealth hero. Ubisoft readied Splinter Cell for release on Microsoft's Xbox a year later, and the game quickly became Xbox fans' answer to Metal Gear. Though very different in gameplay, the similarities between Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell are obvious. In fact, Splinter Cell copies Metal Gear's AI design outright, with various stages of enemy alertness, sound triggers, and patrol paths.

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Metal Gear Solid 2's enemy AI is arguably still, five years later, among the best in gaming. The intricate rules of the AI system and the player's manipulations make for very dynamic player interaction with enemies, creating enemies that feel real without compromising the gameplay qualities.

Metal Gear Solid 2 also continues the series' tradition of production excellence and set a new benchmark for other games, most of which hadn't even caught up with the presentation of the original Metal Gear Solid. But more than simply improving the game's cinematic qualities, Kojima created perhaps the first postmodern videogame. The sinuous plot and irrational characters carry themes of personal loyalties and truths. These themes would later continue in Metal Gear Solid 3, but the influence of Kojima's postmodernity can be seen in other creator's games, including Gouichi Suda's Killer 7.

Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner (2003)
Not to let the shortcomings of the first Enders game spoil opinions of the franchise, Kojima and his team released--almost two years later, to the day--Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner. And though The 2nd Runner never enjoyed retail success, the game is not without its own influential statements. If nothing else, the second Zone of the Enders game boldly exemplifies the way sequels should be done.

Rather than merely upgrading the graphics of the original and extending the same design, Kojima and his team reinvented Zone of the Enders while staying true to the original's best qualities. The varied level design of The 2nd Runner presents a much larger variety of scenarios and challenges than does the game's predecessor, including a jaw-dropping battle against a fleet of airships and plenty of unique boss fights.

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These excellent level designs are conquered with the original Zone of the Enders' signature 3D combat system improved with new grappling abilities. Virtually every in-game object--including environmental rubble and enemies--can be grabbed and used as a shield, melee or projectile weapon. The grappling makes for a satisfying addition to the already solid combat of the first game and seamlessly works with the preexisting combat system.

We can only hope that developers look to Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner as an example of how to properly do sequels. The game takes the original's promising formula and corrects all of its shortcomings to deliver one of this generation's best action experiences.

Boktai (2003)
Taking a break from the mature themes of his other games, Kojima produced Boktai, an original game for the Game Boy Advance. Without question, Boktai's most notable feature is the sunlight sensor built into the game cartridge. The game's tactical design encourages spurts of outdoor play, and though the sunlight sensor is regarded by some as merely a gimmick, Kojima showed that the handheld market is a good place to test experimental gameplay designs.

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Boktai's solar sensor, though vital to the overall game, is actually not entirely necessary in most instances of play. Where sunlight is scarce tactical stealth play flourishes, and the game plays not too unlike Kojima's flagship Metal Gear series. That's not to say Boktai provides nothing notably unique over the console game powerhouse; Boktai's enemy variety and childish charm lend the game identity all its own. The solar sensor gimmick further enhances Boktai's character and yields genuinely unique and original gameplay.

In the wake of Boktai, the handheld gaming market has seen the release of various experimental, gimmicky games. Through Boktai, Kojima showed that handheld gaming is a hospitable environment for experimental designs.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (2004)
Three years after the release of Sons of Liberty, Kojima and his team wrapped up production of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. As could be expected, Metal Gear Solid 3 possesses the same outstanding production of Kojima's earlier titles. Though instead of pushing further with Sons of Liberty's logic-jarring story and scenarios, Snake Eater returns to the series' roots and provides a quintessential classic videogame experience.

Snake Eater's gameplay can be summed up as a natural progression of the systems established by Metal Gear Solid 2. But perhaps the most notable evolution of the game's design can be seen in Snake Eater's fantastic boss battles. In an era of gaming where boss battles seem under-valued, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater restates the impact stand-out bosses can have. Unforgettable confrontations with characters like The End, a man so old he's nearly dead (in fact, he'll die of old age if the game goes unplayed for too long), give the game the sort of defining moments that make games classics.

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Through the game's exceptional production and gameplay, Kojima delivers emotionally driving themes of patriotism and friendship. The characters developed in Snake Eater become very human, compounding the impact of these themes. Few other games convey emotion so well, though all could undoubtedly benefit by taking inspiration from Snake Eater.

Metal Gear's ever-evolving themes look to develop further in the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, as will no doubt Kojima's influences in gaming. After twenty years in the business, Hideo Kojima has already secured an impressive legacy. In the years to come, we eagerly await his future projects and the inspirations they'll undoubtedly afford.

Kojima's Legacy

This is a discussion on Kojima's Legacy within the Video Games & Electronics forums, part of the Non Wrestling Forums category; IGN We reflect on the influence of Hideo Kojima's 20 years in gaming. by Mark Ryan Sallee June 29, 2006 ...