Who's The Big Boss?: Episode 04

I've been waiting for this!!

Who's the Big Boss?

BIG BOSS!

Which one is Venom!? The world may never know.

"It rises in the East!"

Big boss salute

This is Big Boss...
Is your refrigerator running...?

How about the microwave...

Brad Shotmaker.

Ha I forgot about the part where Big Boss (and implicitly Kojima) trolls you near the end. Surely one the earliest examples of a game subverting the player.

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Not a complaint, but I thought Dan would have a bit more to say about the game upon completion. In particular, I thought he might be surprised by just how many elements from the later games were already present in this one. I.e. the cardboard box, the RC missile to bypass electric floors, trucks as fast travel, etc. I though the original Metal Gear was going to be a much simpler game when I played it myself and was pretty surprised by how much Metal Gear-ness was already in it. However, I did also think it's a pretty annoying game to play by modern standards. Metal Gear 2 holds up far, far better and has an even more surprising similarity to Metal Gear Solid.

I sure do love my premium features having about 10 minutes of 'What the fuck is going on?' and 'How do I play this game again?' at the beginning of every episode.

Abby: "Dan what was your favorite part of this game?"

Dan:

Metal Gear 2 will be really interesting because that game holds up damn well. Should be great!

@knifey_spoony: That's the sound of trying to use an item that can's be used, like a card

@liquidsolidus: Thanks.

Looking forward to Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. A top 5 game in the series for sure unlike this game.

DOORS are the ENEMY. You think you can just vanquish your enemy without toil?

Dan being super awkward introducing something will never get old to me. The man lives to torment.

I can't wait for them to get to MG2 which is pretty much Metal Gear Solid in 2D. You can even go prone and knock on walls.

I played Metal Gear 2 for the first time ever a few years ago and was pretty impressed by a lot of it, especially just how cinematic and 'Metal Gear' the opening is.

Also, Grey Fox plays a major role in MG2.

Ah, yes, the 6th best Metal Gear of all-time

massive manager

large leader

sizable sargeant

@ybbaaabby Don't believe chat's lies.

Just remember, it's two dogs down. - GameFaqs Vinny, 2018.

Metal Gear 2 is far better. I hope Dan will try to be stealthy in that game!

I'll be honest, this was a little boring to watch times and the banter saves it, but I dunno why they wouldn't continue on with the series instead of making a completely different wrestling thing? It's like Beast in the East and basically any other show that gets a run and then disappears for like a year or more. I guess I'm just personally bummed cause I absolutely cannot tolerate anything wrestling related - it's bad enough to have Dan bring it up constantly but I can deal cause it's small bursts, but an entire series based on it oof thats rough. Then again, no one is forcing you to watch this stuff or anything so much like the Kingdom Hearts thing or the dating game series I'll bypass it hoping something better comes along.

Enlarged Employer

Don't really get the negativity. This is my first exposure to this game (also the only MG games I like star Raiden ;P) and I'm super impressed. The wall punching stuff is admittedly unforgivable but other then that this is crazy impressive, maybe especially for it's time but even compared to modern games of this scope it's really ambitious.

Just... I don't know. Be patient and pay more attention? It's not Commando. The gaps between sessions probably hurts admittedly. I kind of respect that Kojima dude a little more now.

I'm a little sad they didn't find a way to rope Drew back in as a guest for this. That said, I'm very much looking forward to MG2: Solid Snake, as that game holds up far batter.

I think they're just giving it time like Blue Bombin' or Vinnyvania had at times, when you finish up a game that wasn't perfect you don't always want to immediately dive into the sequel.

Dr. Hole for best character.

Anyone else wonder why it said Easy when Dan saved after finishing the game when it had been Original for all the previous saves? Did they turn down the difficulty?

for all the faults with this game, I think the biggest shock to me was that the climactic battle with metal gear consisted of it doing literally nothing while wall lasers shot at you.

Metal Gear in a nutshell, really.

"Okay, so we found the compass, so now we can kill the scorpions...?" - Alex Navarro

@tevor_the_third: Yeah I played this first on the ps2 when the Snake Eater re-release came out, and I was pleasantly surprised with how Metal Gear it is and how good it is. It really suffers if you don't pay attention to the layout and ignoring the radio doesn't help. I just think it's from a time that required more trial and error, but I don't think it's anywhere near the worst of this era. There's also a ton of hints and help that aren't cryptic if you use the radio (outside of where it is intentionally fucking with you near the end).

For example, when you fight shotmaker, Big Boss tells you to punch a door to get your gear if you call him. It's not meant to be an ongoing mechanic, much like a lot of the later games have some weird specific mechanics around being captured, because you don't have your stuff.

@wobblysnake: I can't decide if this is part of the entertainment or not but they really should write down the next thing they planned to do since they all have awful memories and terrible sense of direction.

Hefty Head Honcho

Commodious Commander

Should have picked up the purse.

"Why hasn't this game from 30 years ago learned the lessons in game design that have been learned by everyone else since???!!" -The Internet

hugest hierarch

gargantuan general

colossal colonel

I thought Alex took a picture of the attack sequence?

My experience with Metal Gear was definitely more positive than what they seemed to have had. Then again I played it in bits every day to completion, so things I had seen and done before were pretty clear in my head. The map design is pretty open but you need to do a lot of things in order - forgetting things make that pretty hard and frustrating.
The radio stuff is also a bit too obscure for its own good but if you understand using the radio, it feels good - it was definitely improved in later games.

Overall I think the game captures the Metal Gearness of the later games pretty well, despite its limited tools.

I beat this game as a kid on the NES. I don't remember using any guides. Of course I was off video so no stress there and it probably took me 10 times as long as this feature, I don't remember.

Amazing that Dan never figured out you can walk under cameras without being noticed, like every metal gear game.

Also amazing is Dan skipping the text for the final boss of the game.