We broke up with that 1996 presentation at the Tokyo Game Show, followed by the one at E3 in Los Angeles, of a Kojima ready to show for the first time its rare pearl, its tipping point that allowed the game designer to evolve his concept of video game, albeit in part. We can actually thank the existence of Metal Gear Solid just Policenauts (and obviously the first two Metal Gear): these titles helped create a very positive reputation for Kojima in the company, to the point of letting him work on the Solid Snake adventure. Games like Resident Evil and Tomb Raider had already been released, and the future was obviously in 3 dimensions: for this reason the designer called the chapter Solid. We can give many values and a lot of importance to this period, but if there is really one thing that has revolutionized his career it was the meeting with the art director. Yoji Shinkawa, since then a trusted friend and collaborator (so much so that he can also be seen in Death Stranding).
If Resident Evil opened Kojima's eyes to using three dimensions, instead he opened his eyes to the world with ideas then out of his mind: in Metal Gear Solid there were in fact many small details that made the game much more realistic than the counterparts. The soldiers had a 150 ° view (an average human field of view), heard noises (both footsteps and those made by Snake to sidetrack), were able to identify the footprints left and called for reinforcements in case of danger. If there is one title that was the PlayStation Killer Application, it was Kojima's game, reaching ben 6 millions of copies sold. The game also featured two possible endings: based on a choice made during the game, in fact, the person with whom Snake escapes at the end of the story is different.
As we have already said above, Hideo Kojima is a great cinephile and this can be seen immediately in Metal Gear Solid: the title in fact has many references to the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The real names of Otacon and Solid Snake are in fact Hal and David, respectively the name of the computer and the protagonist. Additionally, Dr. Naomi Hunter herself is named after one of the film's scientists. To conclude, the submarine from which Snake starts at the beginning of the game is called 2001. The aspect of Solid Snake's appearance also starts from a fusion of three great actors: the face is inspired by Christopher Walken, the physicist by Jean Claudde Van Damme , but much of the work does the general aesthetic inspiration, taken from the character of Jena Plissken (in the original version the name was in fact Snake), played by Kurt Russel in the film 1997: Escape from New York. Metal Gear Solid was a great success, to the point of seeing a comic, a book, an audio drama, a motion comic and a remake of the GameCube game called Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes (by Silicon Knights and Konami). All its success is obviously given a large part by the creation of Kojima, but all his collaborators made this game a real rare pearl: if we take for example Hal "Otacon" Emmerich, in Hideo's head the character had to be an obese scientist who loved sweet, but Yoji Shinkawa instead preferred to design it as it is now, convincing even the designer.
Although the game was full of interesting features, what began to strike was the ingenuity of the game designer in creating situations halfway between the paradoxical and playing with the player: the most striking example in Metal Gear Solid is Psycho Mantis. The enemy, thanks to the use of some software and hardware functions, made gestures bordering on telepathy and telekinesis (obviously it was all very obvious, but at the time it left many with their mouths open). So the enemy could "move" the DualShock with the power of thought (making it vibrate), read what games you had played previously (seeing the saves) and understand where you would have shot to beat it. But it was enough to take the JoyPad and move it to port 2 of the PlayStation, and here Psycho Mantis went crazy not picking up anything from you anymore.
In 2000 the designer set to work on Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, a game that was about to be released on PlayStation 2 and that conveyed the plot of the saga on issues such as the New World Order. In the game, also thanks to the computing power of the machine, Kojima inserted new features like that of hanging and moving along the edges of the railings, the possibility of aiming for yourself and threatening them. There IA he took a big step forward, working as a collective mind for the now more coordinated soldiers, and the higher view allowed for a better view. As always, however, in addition to the various bosses that required ingenuity to be defeated, the designer once again played with the player, displacing him with the protagonist: if Snake was in fact used in the oil tanker's mission, then he would later take command of Jack, codenamed Raiden, which despite the change remains similar enough to check. Obviously Snake is not lacking in this mission, here under the guise of Iroquois Pliskin (distortion of the name Plissken), but the surprise of the inclusion of Raiden (and the advent of the Internet by now) led the designer to insert the character of Snake also in the trailers where, in the game instead, we would have found the new protagonist.
The genius showed up precisely in the appearance of Raiden, diametrically opposite to Snake: blond, half incapable, with feminine features, however, he allowed Kojima to tell this story not from the point of view of Snake himself, but from an outsider (somewhat following the style seen in the Sherlock Holmes books). The designer's cinephile soul is also present in this title: Raiden (whose real name is Jack) will be helped by the girl Rose, a clear reference to Titanic. In the fight with Solidus Snake, before it begins, white doves fly away, imitating the style used by John Woo (in fact, before fighting, these doves are seen flying). Finally, in the game you begin to see a little bit of the designer's authorial soul, who has inserted some of the dialogues that really took place between him and his wife (such as the one between Raiden and Rose regarding the way in which they met).
Often the story of Metal Gear Solid is told consequentially, but what is often forgotten is that between the release of the first and second game there was Zone of the Enders, a very popular title (especially in Japan) to the point that two years later the second chapter was released, Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner. The saga has recently received a remastered for Ps4, and in 2001 dedicated anime were also released, produced by Sunrise.
After a further 3 years from the release of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Kojima churned out Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, a title that took players back in time, becoming a prequel to the entire saga, controlling the original Snake. Here too there was no lack of innovations such as mimicry in the various environments and the inclusion of vigor, as well as real strokes of genius between boss fight and level design. April 1, 2005 Konami undertook a policy of merging the various branches, eventually establishing the Kojima Productions, thus giving more space to Hideo and above all a space of his own. There was no shortage of portable chapters of Metal Gear Solid (such as Acid) but the real step forward was made with Portable Ops, true forerunner of Peace Walker, in turn preparatory for many of the dynamics that will be included in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
Despite everything, also due to the strange diffusion and clientele of PSP, until 2008 people did not feel treated well as orphaned of a chapter for the brand's home console. In that year it finally came out Metal Gear Solid 4: The Guns of the Patriots, which also sold 6 million copies and closed the Solid Snake saga, thus leaving it to its fate. Precisely this base allowed Kojima himself to then work on Peace Walker, a true sequel to the series, always dedicated to Snake, but definitely more refined than Portable Ops.
In short, all this led Hideo Kojima to become one of the 2008 best video game creators in 100, ranking in sixth place. Ahead of him only Gunpei Yokoi (creator of the Game Boy), Hironobu Sakaguchi (creator of Final Fantasy), Will Wright (creator of Sim City), Sid Meier (creator of Civilization) and Shigeru Miyamoto (creator of Mario, The Legend of Zelda and other Nintendo brands). This "power" achieved with the production of titles that have now entered the videogame Hall of Fame will have positive and negative consequences: if on the one hand the designer will be able to further expand his creative horizons, this required freedom will lead Kojima to clash several times with Konami, eventually leading to the separation of Kojima Productions from Konami. But that's another story.
