This game was rad. The main element, stealth, worked well. I felt the tension upon entering a room with enemy soldiers, and studied their movements so I could pick them off. The items and weapons were fun to use (remote control missile, sick!), but bosses kinda felt like an afterthought. I detest when NES games are hard to navigate because of repeated screens that all look the same, but that was only a small section in this one. It's a fun stealthy adventure, but I do have to wonder about the ethics of punching a man to death while sleeping.

"I FEEL ASLEEP!!"

Me too, buddy.

Me too.

A confusing mess of a game that does still manage to hold onto some of what made the original MSX version great. If there's one thing that the NES version does do well in its own way, it is the music. Metal Gear (NES)'s music is completely different from the MSX version but still ends up being iconic in its own way.

I went through this entire game with save states and the occasional look at a guide but somehow managed to still miss a critical point in the game because of how the game does so little to direct the player. Besides some removed content and oddly placed late game obstacles at the beginning (bottomless pits), the game does still play a lot like the original and can be commended for at least trying to bring Metal Gear to the NES, giving us Americans our first look at the franchise all the way back in 1987.

Did this game yesterday for a challenge! I've been told that it was hard as f... sincerely, it is hard, but we got far worse on the NES.

I used a solution to get through the game within a Twitch live of 2-3 hours, but if I hadn't, it would have been hard because you are constantly lost and you have a lot of backtracking.

Except that, there's a lot of ammunition for all weapons and there's the transceiver bug which make it possible to make everything reappear (food rations include).

The biggest problem of the game is the inventory. There's no logical and you should not need to equip one item only, especially that most of them are keycards or part of a costume. I understand for the weapons, but there are room with toxic gas in which you have to choose between the card to the exit of the room or the gas mask... like you can't wear a mask and hold a card in your hand. And of course, you have to guess between 8 cards which one is good for every door of the 5 buildings of the game.

Last thing : The holes are a pain in the ass since they one shot your character even if you're full life. Luckily, when you die, you restart at some checkpoints and there's a password system. Also, the ennemies are dumb and easy to beat (it is an infiltration game, but if you get caught, it is easy to beat all ennemies).

Infiltrarse en distintas bases llenas de enemigos sufriendo por tu vida y la escasa munición, e ir avanzando mientras consigues tarjetas (llaves de puertas) y otros objetos que te permiten seguir avanzando por sitios donde antes no llegabas hace que Metal Gear me recuerde mucho al primer Zelda de NES.
El mapa y las bases enemigas son auténticos laberintos (no me habría pasado el juego sin dibujar el mapa sobre papel) que obligan a dar vueltas y volver repetidas veces por las mismas habitaciones hasta que encuentras por donde avanzar.
Lo peor de este backtraking es lo tedioso de tener que recordar y cambiar las tarjetas que te vas encontrando para abrir una y otra vez una misma puerta.

The pieces are here, but they're not put together well...

Metal Gear, as seen on the NES (a port which took some liberties), has a great outline for an early stealth/action game, but it is full of flaws. I mean FULL of flaws.

A common complaint of games from this era (as in - before the mid-90s) is that there is a great deal of trial and error. This comes from the simple fact that games did not have the capacity to be long endeavors without some of what we would now call "artificial difficulty". Unfortunately that is only one small aspect of the issues that plague Metal Gear.
Stealth is the name of the game: sneak through an area and dispose of your enemies before they even know what hit them! Except... they respawn. Not only do they respawn when you leave a screen and go back, they respawn if you use your binoculars, they respawn if you exit the inside of a truck or building.
Enemy placement is frequently set to protect the entrance of a location... which means when you enter and then leave that location again, guess who is RIGHT ON TOP OF YOU AT THE DOOR? That's right, the 3 guys you killed 30 seconds ago. This time, you have nowhere to hide to sneak up on them.

I will forgive the translation errors. I can forgive the bugs. I have a hard time forgiving the level layouts that don't even give you the chance to hide in a game based on stealth.

I also have a hard time wrapping my head around just how many dogs I had to punch to death. As a child, my family had a German Shepherd/husky mix who looked just like the dogs in this game. RIP, Rocky, you were a cool dog for a little kid.

5/5 dog. 2/5 game.

Hoje vamos falar sobre a coletânea Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1, que traz os primeiros cinco jogos da franquia de espionagem tática criada por Hideo Kojima. Mas antes de entrarmos nos clássicos do PlayStation, eu dei uma olhada nas versões de NES e Famicom.

Metal Gear foi lançado originalmente para o MSX2 em 1987, mas ganhou uma adaptação para o NES no ano seguinte. Essa versão, porém, não foi supervisionada por Kojima e sofreu várias mudanças em relação ao original, como a remoção do robô Metal Gear, a alteração de alguns cenários e personagens e a tradução cheia de erros. Apesar disso, muitos jogadores ocidentais conheceram a série por esse jogo e se impressionaram com a sua proposta de infiltrar-se em uma base inimiga sem ser detectado, usando vários equipamentos e armas para avançar na missão.

Metal Gear também foi lançado para o Famicom, o equivalente japonês do NES, mas com algumas diferenças em relação à versão americana. O jogo tem gráficos mais coloridos, uma trilha sonora diferente e alguns diálogos adicionais. Além disso, o jogo é mais difícil, pois os inimigos são mais rápidos e inteligentes, e há menos itens disponíveis. A versão de Famicom também tem um final alternativo, que revela que o líder dos terroristas não era quem parecia ser.

Apesar de não serem as versões definitivas dos jogos, as edições de NES e Famicom de Metal Gear têm o seu valor histórico e merecem ser conferidas pelos fãs da série. Eles mostram as origens da jogabilidade e da narrativa que consagraram a franquia e servem como um contraste interessante com as obras posteriores de Kojima

I suppose it deserves some credit for being a vastly different experience from anything else on the NES library at the time, but every good idea here has its execution at least somewhat botched. The stealth element is hamstrung by inconsistent/buggy line-of-sight mechanics and an abundance of cramped spaces. The action element is ruined by the wonky perspective that ensures you will very frequently get stuck on corners trying to evade enemies or avoid falling into pits. And the non-linear explorative aspect (which I think had the most potential) was turned into a complete chore by the awful inventory system.

I was quite intrigued by how many tropes and gameplay beats from here made it into the Metal Gear Solid series (the tank boss fight and the electrified floors being two examples), but unlike say early Street Fighter or early Dragon Quest games in which there is still a lot of stuff to like, this just made me wish I was playing Metal Gear Solid instead.

Disclaimer: I've been made aware that the NES version is a port of the far better MSX game, and I do intend to experience the original at some point.

You may be struggling to imagine that there would be anything interesting to talk about in regard to a NES port for the original Metal Gear, and under normal circumstances you’d probably be right. This version is not a totally unremarkable footnote for the franchise, however. In part because said franchise might have never even existed without it (more on that in a bit…), but also due to just how much is actually changed from the MSX2 release.

Now, obviously it was going to be hard to squeeze a computer game onto Nintendo’s first home console released outside of Japan. A fact that resulted in certain bosses being removed (such as the actual freaking Metal Gear itself) and being replaced with simpler ones, on top of minor alterations to the occasional level design. Some of the differences are plain bizarre though. Like, why they went out of their way to create an entirely new opening sequence where you parachute into a jungle or turn the basements of a couple buildings into their own separate bases that you have to traverse a confusing outdoor environment of repeated screens that wasn’t present before in order to reach. The latter of which, paired with the checkpoint system now respawning you at set places based on your ranking instead of whatever elevator you last left, causes you to spend more time lost and perplexed than you already would have.

Fortunately, and perhaps shockingly, not every modification was for the worse. A few legitimately make aspects of the adventure easier, believe it or not. For example, after defeating “Shotmaker/Shotgunner” on the MSX system you’d be thrown into a giant maze where you’d be expected to punch random walls to find hidden rooms containing crucial tools, but here you’re greeted by a normal hallway where the objects you seek are locked behind typical doors. There’s still plenty of wall-punching later on, but this decision removes a lot of frustration from the early portion. You also no longer lose your items when you die, slightly lessening the sting of the aforementioned checkpoint woes and reducing the number of steps you’ll have to retrace following an untimely demise.

Overall, I’d say its distinguishing features are about 50/50 in terms of quality. For every translation issue or enemies not dropping the rare consumable upon death, you get scorpions that are easier to avoid and the ability to open secret passages without the use of precious explosives. As a result, they don’t necessarily make this any better or poorer than Kojima’s handcrafted take in my opinion. So which would I recommend then? Honestly, I’m the type who couldn’t suggest playing Metal Gear in either form, as it’s not a terribly enjoyable game no matter how you slice it thanks to its frustratingly cryptic structure and vague sense of direction (if interested, you can read this review for more on that). Yet, if you’re simply determined to I see no reason to pick this option over the official one. Why not go with the canonically recognized of the two after all?

Consequently, it’s easy to look at this for what it is, largely the exact same game with a handful of questionable unique characteristics, and dismiss it as altogether unworthy of note. Especially considering the “real” MG has since been localized and is fairly effortless to get your hands on today. Although without it the property might not have reached the Solid heights it is currently known for, so I’d argue it’s about as important as any other entry. Konami’s decision to commission Ultra Games, the devs responsible for bringing the title over to the NES, to create their own sequel is what inspired Hideo to give birth to his true follow-up and the resulting massively successful series. Therefore, while it might not be necessary or fun to go and dig up a copy for yourself, it’s pretty historically significant regardless.

5/10

This is the bastardized version of Metal Gear Kojima wasn't involved with, released in the West while the MSX version never saw the light of day here until it was released with MGS3: Subsistence on PS2.

While it's generally on-par with contemporary NES games, it's really flawed compared to the original, with some poor design decisions like the drawn-out and linear jungle section before reaching Outer Heaven, having to fight a stupid supercomputer at the end instead of the eponymous robot, and a janky password save system that serves to frustrate more than anything.