Metal Gear Scanlon: Part 05

My young mind was blown away the same way a young Dan was. Up until then all Video Games were just a guy jumping on platforms or a ship shooting at things. I never encountered a game with anything really resembling a story/voice acting or music. Metal Gear really blew my brain wide open.

if you just lay on the ground, only the things that he throws directly at you hit you

They should call Otacon once so that his number shows up in the Codec memory.

what the heck is with gray fox anyway?

@drewbert would find these bosses easier if he stocked up on rations at all times, would've had Mantis beat first time with that extra health. Great series, can't wait for the next ep!

I'm realising watching this now how much of a fucked up character snake is supposed to be in actuality. When I played this as a kid, of course everything he said was cool as fuck, because it was the 90's I guess and he is basically the epitomy of the stereotypical hero of the time, what every boy at the time assumed to be a "real" man.

Jesus though what an ass "in the battlefield this, in the battlefield that."

He is a war scarred emotionally crippled robot.

I'm looking forward to seeing the next few games played through to see how this all pans out though as I never played past MGS 1.

Dan so help me if u help drew with the card key at the end... SO HELP ME

That looks like a butt chick.

Snake! throw a Hooked on Phonics CD at him, that will preoccupy him for a long time.

I am loving this series both for Drew's experience of playing these for the first time and the memories its bringing back. I really hope you guys keep going with this into the other Metal Gear games.

@drewbert You should think about always stocking up on rations before boss fights. Always. It would be a great help to you considering the number of times you died with the boss almost dead himself.

Drew, you're a bi-pedal walking human being capable of playing Metal Gear from anywhere on the face of the earth.

Amazing the stuff I learn about this game 16 years later. Meryl's face turns red if you keep looking at her? That's new to me.

so you like..... suikoden? what the hell is wrong with you. This was such a mindblowing boss fight back in the day. I can't believe Dan didn't know / remember the thermal goggles or going prone to avoid flying furniture.

anyway thanx guys and keep em coming

"I'm a weird scorpion in a tank sorta thing"

Because of these guys I am playing MGS3, and have become addicted. I play up to 2 hours a day before I get busy. But while in the famous MGS format, it is a rather different game. And actually very decent graphics with the HD remake.

Drew will find it a relief.....

Hanging out in the rest room. 'Got tired of disguising herself....'The writing in MGS3, while not knocking this in it's context, seems tighter.

That little bit w/ the controller was brilliant. It almost made sense.

Yay! I love this feature. Watching this reminds me of how much I LOATHED the boss fights in this game. Funny thing is, I got my first analog controller around the time I played this game. This game made me think analog controllers sucked.

Don't get me wrong...I LOVE MGS! I loved this game. But the boss fights made me fear and hate boss fights to this day. I still groan whenever I get to a boss fight in any game, and watching this play through of MGS has finally made me realize that the reason for it is MGS. Pure and simple. This game has boss fights so brutal they will make you hate boss fights in all games forever. BRUTAL.

I love these so much. It's my dorm room in 1998 all over again.

I'm pretty sure "Boss" in this case is Liquid? At least, that what was I always assumed.

@raven10: I can't tell if you're talking about MGS1 or MGS2 for this tip, but it's worth noting that analogue face buttons were a PS2 feature. There's no analogue face buttons on the PS1 or in MGS1.

Drew? Drew?! DREEEEEWWWWWWWWW!

You can see Mantis easier with the Thermal Goggles on, if you picked them up earlier...

Good job @drewbert

Another incredible episode. Drew seems to finally be getting a handle on the controls, although I think perhaps the gaps between sessions might not be doing him any favours in that respect because he's still having some issues here and there. One quick tip I'd throw out is to remember that bosses usually flash for a second after being hit and they can't be hurt during that time - quite a few bullets were wasted where Drew held the trigger down long after Mantis had been hit.

Other than that it's all going in a pretty great direction - keep plugging away, Drew! Your determination to not simply blame the (admittedly outdated) mechanics is admirable. At the time this game felt easy to control, but trying to go back after modern offerings it feels baffling - the MGS1 sequence in MGS4 [MG minor spoiler] is a real testament to that. Oh, and thanks Dan for ensuring we got a little Castlevania love in there.

Oh man, you know sometimes I forget with the breaks, but this is by far my favorite series going on the site, and a real good way to start the day

"I see you like simulator games!"

the game writting is pretty much all over the place, but when is good, is really fucking good. The Psycho Mantis death was as a depressing as I remember.

You know now that i am older, Psycho Mantis really is a pretty effective send up psychics in general. He uses the video game equivalent to cheap parlor tricks to try and impress you into thinking he has more power than he does.

I g

They even programmed Mantis to comment if you had a save file from Azure Dreams - a rather niche title from Konami at the time. I remember that cracking me up. "I see you like Castlevania... and Azure Dreams." Hideo with the deep cuts.

It's interesting to watch this playthrough. I feel like most action games today follow a similar "design language," for lack of a better word. You kind of have to unlearn that language to play something as old as Metal Gear.

Oh, the new premium button is an explosion, from the thumbnails on the front page it looked like a wax seal or a paint splat or something.

I can't decide if I should feel dumb or sad that it isn't a wax seal because that sounds kinda cool.

@raven10: Hmm, I don't think this works in MGS because the front facing analog buttons came with the ps2 and the feater you wrote about with MGS2.

But someone posted under the last video that drew can gun and run by holding x while shooting. Gameplay is hard in MGS1 :)

MGS was sooo worth the premium content subscription. Everything else is gravy...mmm gravy!

Drew is not great at videogames. lol

@tandar1: Metal Gear Solid, despite being a great game, controls like garbage, and Drew's been away from it for like a week. Give the guy some slack.

@omega: The explosion thing probably fits the whole bomb theme better.

I'll always have the memory of getting to Psycho Mantis as a kid and getting really frustrated at it and going out to my older brother who was out playing in the street and expecting him to know exactly what to do (because big brothers know everything right), he didn't :( I forget how or when we figured it out, maybe Cambell or a friend of his told him but I don't think I was there when he did it. I did however have the honour of beating the game though.

"Was that a lady walk?" "That looks like a butt shake!"

Butt watch simulator 1998 is my favorite game.

Holy crap Drew is terrible at reading attack patterns.

So sad to see Meryl the butt of so many jokes.

So bad...so so bad.

Fun fact I learned when I first played this game: If you manage to get Psycho Mantis' health to 1/3 while the controller is in port 1 and the two statues are whole the game just kills you.

When I learned about the trick of swapping controller ports and smashing the statues I was mad at myself for not thinking of that.

As in who he is? Back in the original Metal Gear for the MSX, Gray Frox was first sent in to stop Big Boss, but was captured. Snake was sent in afterwards as a second attempt. Both are former Fox Hound members.

pffft. They'd totally sold out to the mainstream by then. Everything after BWS96 is a pale comparison to the real thing.

It's not about the butts, man, it's about the watching!

Q: Why would you ever want to intentionally toss somebody in this game? I mean, there may be a ledge at some point you could toss somebody off, but how often does that happen? ie. It is stupid to have the default be to toss them.

Drew you give me a f*cking heart attack!

this dialogue is so bad lol

But heh heh

@baillie: >you can use Thermal Goggles to see where Mantis is going while in camouflage

Holy shit, I'll remember that for my fourth inevitable playthrough

I'm putting my controller on the floor and watching all of this! :D

Omg, watching Drew play this game is so frustrating.