My first brush with Hideo Kojima... I keep hearing his work is weird, so let's hope Metal Gear Solid lives up to the hype.

Kojima seems like the video game equivalent of someone like Tarantino or Edgar Wright - a nerd who uses his encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture to create work that's blatantly riffing on what he loves but is also uniquely his. I completely buy John Carpenter saying Kojima is too nice to sue - there's a weird sort of honesty about the Blade Runner and Terminator appropriations here, where 'originality' is almost beside the point. If there is indeed nothing new under the sun, you might as well have fun with what's here.

Reviewed on Feb 23, 2021


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