Hungry for Snake?

These are the two shirts that I picked out from the Metal Gear 25th Anniversary collection at my local Uniqlo store today. It's been a long wait for sure, I was beginning to wonder if they will make it here at all or how many of the designs are actually going to be available. Thankfully most of all the designs are there but some looked better up close than others so it made my decision much easier.

As video games have yet to achieve mainstream recognition within pop culture outside of Japan especially without a big movie franchise attached to its name, it's certainly nice to see these shirts in your regular retail outlet. Even if it means you sometimes rub shoulders with aunties who probably have no clue who solid snake is, picking the shirts next to you.

Rainy Days & Mondays

No matter what era of music you grew up on the classic Carpenters never go out of style. From being prominently featured in the movie Tommy Boy to Nicolas Cage making part of his Johnny Blaze character, the Carpenters are distinctly hip for such soft melody music. Well maybe we should leave Nicolas Cage's Ghost Rider out because badass biker with a spirit of vengeance and the Carpenters just don't mix plus Cage isn't exactly hip anymore these days.

Sing is not the first song that come to my mind when I think of the Carpenters in fact i don't even remember the song was featured in Sesame Street despite coming to know of the Carpenters from my dad's records as a kid. Now thanks to Hideo Kojima I can't think the recent Peace Walker without thinking of the Carpenters' song, Sing. It was the only source of comfort during the horrific torture sequence and also strangely became the boss' theme music in Peace Walker. Somehow it fits with the theme of Peace Walker and the game's message of peace. This is probably the second time I remember a pop culture song being featured in a Metal Gear and both instances happened to be part of the Big Boss saga. The last time was during the ending credits of Snake Eater and a popular britpop band's song was used. I can't exactly remember the band or the name of the song but I did remember thinking to myself that Kojima-san got great taste in music.

Quick Torture Event

While I take good care of my games I don't normally go overboard with my controllers like most. I believe restraining yourself with the controller will ultimately just hinder your enjoyment of the game after all these controllers are made to take the abuse. Despite my penchant for fast-paced hard-hitting action games I only had to replace my controller once on any of my past consoles so there is surely some truth to this.

Things are a little different with handhelds after all you can't just replace the faulty controls you have to replace the entire system so I'm not sure how I should restrain myself with these handheld games. Thankfully most developers don't expect you to button-mash like a madman in front of public eye so handheld games aren't really made that way.

Except Peace Walker isn't like any other handheld game and Hideo Kojima isn't any ordinary developer either. I have read fans lament about the now-infamous torture sequences that live on in every Metal Gear games fearing the worst for what's to come in Peace Walker. Tonight I survived the ordeal and my PSP lived to tell the tale but the build-up to that very moment was agonizing to say the least. I was about 25 hours into the game with no idea of when the torture sequence would pop up and what to expect save the unfavourable feedback from online fans. Then Snake gets captured in my last mission and I knew it was just around the corner but somehow I messed up the quick-time event leading up to the scene. So being the paranoid android that I am I decided to replay the last mission to get the quick time event scene right before playing the torture sequence. I'm not sure if it helped or not but I had an easier time getting Snake out of the prison cell then if I have failed the scene. I certainly don't want to replay that torture sequence again though the game itself is pretty addictive. If there is one thing I know about lady luck is you should never push her too hard.

Solid Fanbase

I was a pretty latecomer when it comes to the Metal Gear bandwagon, not having play the original MSX or even NES installments. In fact, when i first played Metal Gear Solid on my PC, development on the sequel was already well underway on the upcoming Playstation2. I guess you could say i was bought into the franchise by the enormous hype surrounding it and its large fanbase, among them being some of my close friends. To it's credit, every Metal Gear that i have played did live up to its hype but by the nature of my gaming preferences, i just lacked the patience for stealth games. In fact, i rarely ever score a good ranking at the end of the game as my number of times spotted will simply astonish you.

The great thing about Metal Gear is that everyone is attracted to the games for their own reasons or preferences, some loved the stealth gameplay others are intrigued by the storyline and quirky characters. For me, it would have to be the voice acting and motion-capture that you rarely find that kind of quality anywhere else. As much of a retro gamer that i am, the thing that fsacinate me the most about modern games are the cinematic aspect of it mainly the voice acting and motion capture work.

and what do i think of Hideo Kojima?

Let's just say he is not in my top five list of developers, not until he can proved that he can do something else apart just as good as Metal Gear.