The Metal Gear Series Began with a Bang and Ended with a Whimper

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There are few gaming stories as tragic as Konami's. The Japanese game publisher used to be a household name, putting out hit after hit in legendary franchises. Castlevania, Silent Hill, and Bomberman are three of its greatest achievements, but only Bomberman is still getting new games. The Castlevania Netflix series is persisting alongside some re-releases, and rumors abound of several new Silent Hill projects, but the fact remains that after doubling down on Pachinko and the expulsion of its star developers, Konami just hasn't been the same.

Perhaps the greatest victim of this was the Metal Gear series. Led by auteur developer Hideo Kojima, the Metal Gear franchise is celebrating its 35th anniversary in 2022. Unfortunately, neither the series' founding father nor many festivities are to be found at Konami. As part of its shift into other markets and growing tensions between Kojima and Konami's management, Hideo Kojima was let go shortly after MGS5’s launch in 2015. He took a lot of his old co-workers with him, though enough were left for one final Metal Gear game to be made in his absence. No one knows what will come of the Metal Gear franchise now, but it's a shame to see how far it's fallen after such a strong start.

Metal Gear: 10 Best Things About The Pre-Solid Games

On July 13th, 1987, Metal Gear was released for the MSX2 computer. This was Hideo Kojima's first time in the director's chair, and he made sure that it would leave a lasting impression. It is considered to be the title that popularized the stealth genre, and it received a console port to the Famicom a few months later. Eventually it got a sequel in 1990 and both came overseas, and the rest is history. The Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake duology is