In direct contrast to my last review, Snake’s Revenge is a sequel that not only learns nothing from its predecessor, but doesn’t even know what made the first one so great in the first place. It is the definition of missing the point, it is a hollow imitation, and it is just straight up one of the worst games I have ever seen. But, while I am going to do my best to chronicle all this games faults, no words I write down can describe just how poorly designed Snake’s Revenge is, to the point that I implore you to go and play the game yourself, just so that you can stare in awe at how infuriatingly bad it is.

The first big thing that stood out to me while playing was how the screens were laid out; they genuinely felt like first drafts that had no play testing or revisions. The game starts you out in a jungle area where you have to avoid these gigantic searchlights that overlook the area; on paper this doesn’t sound all that bad, it is a stealth game after all, but as soon as you start moving about, you realize just how poorly these lights were placed. There are a good number of searchlights that are positioned right at the transition points between screens, which means that some of these lights are entirely unavoidable, as the player will just end up under one as they go from screen to screen; and to make matters worse, the screens that have the searchlights are pitch black, except for the small areas being illuminated by the lights, meaning that there is a high likelihood that the player is going to run into an object like a box, get stuck, and then subsequently get caught. Combine this with Snake’s new sprite being about twice as big as it was in Metal Gear, thus having a much larger hitbox, and you have areas that feel like they are almost meticulously designed to inconvenience the player at every turn. What's even worse, I don’t think this is even the worst part of this game; the absolute worst that Snake's Revenge has to offer are the side scrolling sections. These sections take after the extremely small, and insignificant elevator rides from the first game, except here they are drawn out into whole, lengthy sections, that require near clairvoyance to be able to get past. These sections have Snake moving through linear hallways, where the player needs to avoid security cameras, hovering drones, and guards, lest the alarm goes off and you have to deal with all kinds of enemies and hazards. Much like the searchlights, all of the obstacles in these sections are placed in the worst possible spots; oftentimes guards will be staring in your direction as soon as the screen changes; the only way to work around this is just to constantly be crouch-walking into every screen, otherwise you have no chance of getting past alive or without using a good chunk of you’re resources.

Thankfully, I guess, the majority of the game takes place in maps that are very reminiscent of the areas from Metal Gear; big dungeons or facilities with enemies to avoid and items to collect. If you played the first game, it should all feel pretty familiar, albeit very boring. I mentioned earlier how I felt like Snake’s Revenge was a hollow imitation of Metal Gear, and I believe this sentiment shows itself through how the game uses aspects of Metal Gears gameplay, but in a way that shows that they didn’t have any understanding as to why those gameplay mechanics were used. In Metal Gear exploration and back tracking were integral to the games progression, and the items you would collect would help you facilitate that goal, playing very much akin to Zelda or Metroid game; in Snake’s Revenge, the game still asks the player to gather items in order to progress, but they are either entirely optional, solve a problem that won’t be introduced until three levels later, or are given almost immediately after the situation you need them presents itself. The worst culprit of this is the battery for the transceiver; when you reach the first campsite, the battery for the transceiver goes out, so you need to go find a new one. A similar thing happened in the first game, where Snake loses contact with his team as he approaches building two (I think it was building two at least). The difference here is that, in Metal Gear, losing contact created tension within the story and made the player panic because their helpline had just been taken out; Snake’s Revenge doesn’t have any of this, the transceiver calls are scripted events, and the battery needed to fix the transceiver is literally on the next screen through a door. There are so many moments like this in the game, and while I don’t think it does anything to directly harm the experience, it just makes it pretty boring and linear, it still kind of sucks when you have the first game under your belt.

I think really the only good thing I can say about Snake’s Revenge is that it retroactively made me appreciate the subtle design of Metal Gear, things that I didn’t even notice during my play through because I just took good design for granted. Well, that and the music; the music slaps hard, like NES Castlevania type beat.

Ah yes, Snake's Revenge without Snake taking revenge on anyone. Those old school names were something else.

Not a perfect game, but I expected worse. Cheesy story and plenty of bullshit moments, but it's not that I didn't have fun at all. It was annoying to get instantly spotted on a screen change, especially in the jungle and on the ship, but I felt like the level design improved towards the end. Standing guards, who frantically turn in all directions suck, but SMG kinda negates the problem as soon as you acquire one. Side-scrolling areas suck even more, since enemies always randomly shake from side to side and you can't stealth consistently, but they aren't as unbearable as people say, I always could just fight them through with a gun and few rations. Despite the flaws, Snake's Revenge still kinda brought me that OG MG joy, but I probably should replay the MSX2 games to compare.

Snake's Revenge foi um jogo feito exclusivamente para o NES em 1990, como uma sequência de Metal Gear voltada para o público ocidental. O jogo segue o mesmo estilo do anterior, mas com algumas novidades, como fases em perspectiva lateral e vertical, um sistema de alerta mais elaborado e chefes mais desafiadores. O jogo também tem uma história mais complexa, envolvendo uma nova ameaça nuclear . No entanto, Snake's Revenge não é considerado parte da cronologia oficial da série, pois Kojima não teve envolvimento na sua produção e lançou o seu próprio Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake para o MSX2 no mesmo ano.

Portando sabendo que não é canônico, eu sinceramente dropei desse game.

Snake´s Revenge es un videojuego sujeto a la comparación. Y sí, es verdad, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake es mucho mejor videojuego que éste, pero eso no lo convierte en un mal videojuego, ni muchísimo menos. Pero claro, escuchamos al Youtuber de turno hablar y, en vez de ponerte en el contexto del juego y jugarlo, repetimos como loros para que toda la comunidad Gamer diga: "oh, ese tipo dice lo que quiero oír. Ese tipo sabe lo que dice." Y así es como la frase "Snake´s Revenge es una mierda" se convierte en una realidad para muchos, una realidad que ellos no vivieron. Pero la verdad en todo esto es que Snake´s Revenge no es un videojuego de 0. Es un videojuego de acción-aventura de disparos muy entretenido, con bases construidas a partir del primer Metal Gear, que si se llamara "La venganza de Manolo" en vez de "Snake´s Revenge" nadie se enfadaría y pasaría por un videojuego decente sin mas. Así que la conclusión de este videojuego es que su mayor defecto es llamarse Metal Gear. Por lo demás, es un juego correcto.

The non canon sequel to the original made without Kojima's permission for the NES... that's not a good sign. The American testosterone drips off this one, with beefcake snake, and the games title of "Snake's Revenge" when Snake won last time... right.

In terms of story, there's not much to go off, it's even more basic than the original game, it gets pretty stupid, but there's not much to say here.

Gameplay is basically Metal Gear 1, enemies have tunnel vision, items infinitely respawn and stealth is pretty barebones. The game has 2D sections that are absolutely terrible, your control is stiff, you can't use most of your weapons and getting detected is way too easy. In fact throughout the whole experience, I noticed plenty of unfair situations where just entering a room at the wrong angle can get you seen by enemies, and you have no real way of knowing what's ahead. There are tons of beginners traps that'll trip you up here, including exploding hostages that look the same as the normal ones.

Honestly when it comes down to navigation, I actually think this game ins't too bad, there's still sine cryptic nonsense, but I felt a guide was the least necessary here of the 3 originals.

The boss fights are an absolute abomination, they are completely unfair and are easily the worst part of the game, they bring the whole experience down a couple of pegs.

It looks fine and the music is okay, there are a couple of bright spots here and there, but overall this is just a badly designed game. - 3.5/10

"Commander Solid Snake, Operation 747 commencing!"

Snake's Revenge is not a great game, but it is one that has an insane gameflow to it. Once you clear the very stilted and difficult intro section, you find yourself playing this weird hybrid of Contra and Metal Gear that has potential in spades but not enough solid design to keep it up in the long run. A great soundtrack and graphical look can't save this game from being plainly just uninteresting. Only the most diehard Metal Gear fans should go near this one.

Y'all listen up. I'm about to set the record straight. There's a lot of negativity for this game out there and a lot of blatant lies being spread about it. I’m not going to name any names, but I’ve seen people calling this a “Contra rip-off” or saying stuff like “the stealth is gone” (tell me you haven’t played Snake’s Revenge, without telling me you haven’t played Snake’s Revenge). Statements that are just factually untrue. Why though? Why is it hated to the degree that there are individuals willing to stoop as low as fabricated slander in an effort to discredit it? Well, to put it more crudely than I typically would, the only explanation I can come up with is that there’s some serious Kojima nutridding going on because this is easily, without a doubt, and by no small margin the BEST Metal Gear of its era.

You see, ol’ Hideo didn’t actually have anything to do with this. If you’ll recall, there was a port of the 1987 original MSX2 title made for the NES later that same year by a smaller studio. It was an edited, cutback version, but apparently performed strongly enough on the Western market for Konami to commission a sequel from those same people. Turns out this didn’t sit well with everyone involved, as it’s since been reported that one member of the team told the franchise’s true creator about its existence after it entered development, which inspired him to create Solid Snake and the rest of the mainline entries that followed. Yet, while this may not be the “official,” canonically recognized follow-up, it’s clear that the crew at Ultra Games learned a lot about what could and needed to be improved in its predecessor as they worked on its home console release; leading to them crafting the superior option here.

But before I get into that, I want to address these absolutely ASININE Contra comparisons (tell me you haven’t played Contra, without telling me you haven’t played Contra). Fools are spouting this nonsense because there’s the occasional 2D section. At no point though are you running and gunning through them and their level design is more akin to that of Zelda II’s than the shooter-platformer’s. To be clear, you technically can try to play these segments like a traditional action game, the same way you can technically try to play any MG like a traditional action game. You’re just setting yourself up for more frustration and pain than necessary if you do thanks to the amount of enemies that spawn in and the precious supplies you’ll use up disposing of them. So the goal in these parts continues to be: DON’T. GET. SEEN.

The rest of the adventure is the isometric stealth you’d expect and my gosh is it fantastic. You know what the worst aspect of that first installment is? Having to regularly backtrack across long stretches of previously visited locations with basically no direction. Snake’s Revenge does away with all that in favor of a more linear sense of progression that always has you going forward and never back, not entirely unlike how the later Ghost Babel would break itself up into stages (a case of real recognizing real in the development community?). So no longer after finding key card #7 will you have to leave the roof of building no. 3 to see if it maybe opens one of the six locked doors on the second floor of building no. 1 that you couldn’t enter 2 hours prior, for example. It makes a world of difference. Now you can just enjoy the core gameplay without feeling lost or confused by an overly cryptic structure. Even better is that none of the depth has been sacrificed in the process. You’re still required to make smart use of the tools at your disposal to figure out how to overcome a constant stream of clever, challenging new obstacles and that are steadily introduced.

I like this better than the actual Metal Gear 2. Right down to the presentation. The bright, colorful graphics have more pop to them and the music slaps. Not everything is perfect. It can be seriously difficult at points with imaginative bosses that deliver relentless assaults of heavy firepower, a final stretch filled with bottomless pit traps that will kill you as soon as you enter a room (thank goodness for the better checkpoint system), and a brutal timed concluding battle against the iconic bipedal tank where you have to direct remote controlled rockets through tight vent corners that close randomly to hit a small weak point on the machine’s face. All for an extremely underwhelming ending. That being said, Ultra Games saw the flaws in the OGs formula and legitimately refined it. Even the man Hideo Kojima himself has come out and paid this unfairly maligned gem compliments on two occasions years later. When that’s the case you know its detractors (who I’d wager truly haven’t ever touched this) are merely a bunch of fanboys and girls too blindly devoted to see or concede that their gaming messiah was bested at, literally, his own game.

9/10

"Thanks Konami"

Konami found critical success and some decent sales figures with the first "Metal Gear", so in their heightened wisdom they believed it best to create a sequel to their new IP in the form of "Snake's Revenge". Without the "Metal Gear" tagline being promoted. On the NES. Without the series lead, Kojima.

What could go wrong.

So, this game is utter trash (big spoiler, I know). Every identifiable aspect that made the original "Metal Gear" unique and creative was scrapped in favor of turning the franchise into a stupid "Contra" rip-off and boy did they do a poor job at copying that game! Gone are the stealth mechanics that made the original game somewhat interesting, and instead you aimlessly wander around a jungle dodging searchlights in the beginning of the game.

The controls are super stiff and provide no precision for the number of gunfights you take part in. The story is extremely basic and generic for this era of games. The graphics are just average, with sprites being extremely similar to one another. Hell, even the music takes a dive in quality.

Every aspect of this game is a step-back from its predecessor, and it really deserves no recognition for doing anything other than fuel Hideo Kojima to "take revenge" on Konami and take a huge leap with the franchise following this title's release. With that, I say thank you to Konami - showing us how to p*ss off a game director so much, he spites you by making the franchise into one of the most iconic in the industry to this very day.

Thank God they never again got overly involved with his future work...right?

Final Verdict: 1/10 (Terrible)