Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D is an excellent remaster stuck on a dead system
Handheld versions of big-budget video games have a pretty bad rap. Throughout the 2000s, and through the first half of the 2010s, large publishers seemed desperate to cash in on the successful handheld market by bringing some of their biggest games to bite-sized systems. Unfortunately, this led to quite a few abysmal entries in some otherwise decent franchises. Remember Splinter Cell on the DS or Call of Duty on the Vita? Consider yourself lucky if not; they were just as bad as they sound. Handheld versions of triple-A titles tended to be stripped-down adaptations of their console counterparts that typically looked terrible, and controlled even worse. In hindsight, it’s probably a good thing that this trend died out. That’s not to say there weren’t some diamonds in the rough.
On February 21, 2012 – 10 years ago to this day – Konami ported the PlayStation 2 classic Metal Gear Solid 3 to the Nintendo 3DS. At first glance, this sounds like it would be a match made in hell. While MGS3 was 8 years old at the time, the 3DS wasn’t quite as powerful as the PS2 was. Furthermore, the original game featured a frustratingly complex control scheme that made full use of the DualShock 2 controller’s inputs, including its pressure-sensitive buttons. In contrast, the 3DS has far fewer inputs. In theory, this port sounds destined for failure, but in practice, it’s actually a well-put-together semi-remaster that, at times, even outshines its source material.
Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D is a pleasure to play, likely because it plays quite differently from its PS2 progenitor. It has a few features not previously seen in its original release, such as refined aiming controls, as well as crouch-walking. While these sorts of changes might
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