![]() He also turned Link into and androgynous looking rapscallion and reimagined the world as looking like a cartoon. It was Zelda with a dash of David Lynch, and feels like the kind of game that would be impossible under Miyamoto.Īonuma took things in a completely different new direction with his next Zelda title, Wind Waker, which bravely opted to flood the series' beloved land of Hyrule after its 16-year stint as one of gaming's most iconic environments. It had moments of absolute horror sharing real estate with pure silliness. Suddenly a Zelda game had a time limit (which proved to be very divisive). Majora's Mask kept all the things people loved about Zelda - the dungeons, overworld, items, and often even characters - but radically flipped the script to make one of gaming's most offbeat mainstream releases ever. We saw this when Shigeru Miyamoto stepped down from the director's chair to let Eiji Aonuma helm Majora's Mask. This isn't the only time a famous creator has handed off their series to another. This is what a Metal Gear game looks like without Hideo Kojima. It's still the Metal Gear you know and love, just different. ![]() Heck, even the word "Revengeance" captures the ludicrous flavour that's made the franchise such a phenomenon, even if Kojima himself didn't pen the hilarious subtitle. The upbeat J-Pop music on the soundtrack is also unique to Platinum's palette, and optional objective of collecting severed arms from specific marked enemies is true to Kojima's vision of body part-specific damage (remember shooting the radios in MGS2?), yet smartly repurposed to serve a completely different vision. ![]() But there are other odd touches that only fresh blood could bring.Īn early encounter with an invincible back-flipping cat feels like something that would be in a Kojima game, yet it's completely original rather than referential. The completely nonsensical plot, the Mariachi costume, obnoxious children, robot dinosaurs (why must they roar?), and the fact that the game's big baddie is a square-looking senator who hulks out with nanomachines all feel like a nod to Kojima. This is obvious in the type of game it is (Platinum doesn't really do stealth), but it's done in more subtle ways too. Instead, it felt like the people at Platinum simply tapped into the mindset of Kojima, but put their own spin on it. It didn't feel like a bunch of people emulating Kojima by tossing in referential codecs and a few familiar images like the Cardboard Box (this is the only series where "Cardboard Box" deserves to be capitalised). But what I admire most about Revengeance is how much it captured the flavour of the Koji-verse without its master on board. Its combat is fast, frantic, deep, and stylishly executed. Revengeance is a fun game for all the same reasons other Platinum games like Bayonetta and Vanquish are ace. Sure, Platinum Games' spin-off was a completely different beast that almost entirely nixed stealth in favour of amputating limbs with an energy sword, but that doesn't make it any less of a game (even if I appreciate that it appeals to a slightly different audience, but I reckon there's a lot of overlap). Revengeance did more than just coin one of the greatest, dumbest words committed to a game's cover. It was called Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and it was awesome! Could someone else fill Kojima's shoes as the next Big Boss? Or is it? How quickly we are to forget that one of the finest Metal Gear games, in my mind anyway, wasn't helmed by Kojima. Metal Gear without Kojima just isn't Metal Gear at all. It was Kojima who inadvertently created one of gaming's biggest icons by stuffing a Kurt Russell lookalike in a cardboard box it was Kojima who fooled the world with a comically misleading ad campaign for Metal Gear Solid 2 it was Kojima who was responsible for the greatest handshake in all of video games. The first answer that springs to mind is a blunt 'no'. Konami has been wishy-washy in its future plans since then the publisher stated in March that it would continue to develop Metal Gear games after MGS5: The Phantom Pain, but then the company's worldwide technology director Julien Merceron left last month and reports indicated it was because Konami would be moving away from console games completely outside of its football series PES.īut let's be optimistic for a moment, shall we? If The Phantom Pain sells like gangbusters - and all signs suggest it's done well - and Konami decides to reconsider its alleged stance on console gaming, would we want another Metal Gear game without Kojima at the helm? After all, the mastermind behind the series, Hideo Kojima, has unceremoniously parted ways with Konami, the publisher who owns the IP. Or at least that's what the internet would have you believe. After 28 years Metal Gear Solid is finished.
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