The Fourth Wall-Shattering Genius Of Metal Gear Solid's Psycho Mantis Battle

thegamer.com:

Nobody designs boss battles quite like Hideo Kojima. I know that hundreds of artists, coders, engineers, and other talented developers actually build his games, but it's no coincidence that almost every game the industry veteran has directed—especially the original Metal Gear Solid—features some of the best boss fights in the history of the medium. Picking a favourite from his PlayStation-defining stealth game is difficult. Sniper Wolf, Gray Fox, Revolver Ocelot, Vulcan Raven—all brilliant, clever, and memorable in their own ways. But it's the incredible fourth wall-shattering battle with levitating oddball Psycho Mantis that has stuck in my mind the most over the years.

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It's an understatement to say that Psycho Mantis had a rough childhood. His mother died giving birth to him and his father hated him for it—to the point where he frequently thought about killing him. Mantis learned this when he developed psychic powers and was able to read his old man's mind, which drove him to kill him and burn down the remote Russian village where he grew up. Metal Gear Solid is a series where every villain has a tragic backstory that informs their personality, beliefs, and abilities, but this is one of the bleakest. Psycho Mantis didn't even really care about Liquid's grand plan for capturing Shadow Moses. In his own words, "I just wanted an excuse to kill as many people as I could." Damn.

However, it's not the character's dark history that makes this boss battle great, but the fight itself. After possessing Meryl and failing to turn her against Snake, Psycho Mantis and our reluctant hero engage in combat. But this is no ordinary