Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

The Metal Gear series has always been a personal favorite of mine since Metal Gear Solid. Since I first played that game I have absorbed everything Metal Gear that I could. With that being said, with the announcment of Peace Walker as being the "last" of the Kojima Metal Gear games I was all in. 
 
Peace Walker is a Prequel to Metal Gear Solid but a sequel to Snake Eater and Portable Ops. Which makes it a prethreequel? . . . Peace Walker has you again playing as a young Big Boss after the days of the cold war. Pretty much the entire set up of this game is establishing how Outer Heaven came to be. Theres another plot about Snake and his mercenaries defending some country from a military invasion but the real story anyone cares about is Big Boss setting up Outer Heaven. You get a lot of character cameos (including Kojima himself) and personal story developments for Snake. As in the previous game Snake doesn't accept the name of Big Boss yet But that all gets fleshed out in the story of this game. As a Metal Gear fan I was very happy with the story. Like any other Metal Gear game it all ties together nicely forming one giant story with the other games that would be enjoyable to play through in order. 
 
The gameplay for Peace Walker is like a combination between Portable Ops and MGS4. It takes a while to get the hang of the control change for Portable Ops but once you do it feels a lot smoother. Just as in Portable Ops you capture troops to add to your already existing army, but this time instead of having to drag them back to a box hours away you can use a fulton recovery system where you send them up in a balloon (kind of like you see in the Dark Knight.) The game plays in missions with literally hours of bonus missions. It seems like there is no end to them adding just days worth of replay value.  The game is still told in the graphic novel format like in Portable Ops but there is a few interaction scense to keep it fresh and your mind focused. Like any Metal Gear game you will get your share of giant boss battles with crazy mechanized death machines hell bent on making Snakes life a living hell. Sorry still no crab battles.
 
Peace Walker is definatly the best Metal Gear game on any hand held platform and maybe even one of the best Metal Gear games. Kojima pulled out all of the stops for this addition and definatly raised the bar on the psp. A must have for any Metal Gear fan.