Released: 1987, U.S.A.
Publisher: Ultra
System: NES
Players: 1
Genre: Action/Adventure

Metal Gear was first released in Japan on the Japanese exclusive MSX home computer system in 1987 by the now legendary series creator Hideo Kojima. After gaining a favorable impact on it's players, the ideas latent in Metal Gear's stealth-over-shooter style was recognized as a success. In order to better market this game, it was ported to the NES system and released internationally later in 1987 under Konami's Ultra label. Ultra was a short-lived extension of Konami created for the sole purpose of circumventing Nintendo of Japan's policy which called for a certain number of games to be released abroad each year per company. This was due to Nintendo's concern that a flood of mediocre NES software would cause damage to the home video game market. To counteract this, Nintendo put strict guidelines as to how many titles could be created per company per year, regarless of company size or profit. Thus, Ultra was spawned. While Ultra did manage to recreate Metal Gear's feel and style perfectly, some major elements were lost in the final product due to the NES's limited memory capacity. A very noteworthy thing to consider is that original creator Hideo Kojima did not assist in the conversion and portation of the Ultra release. The game went on to be a hit stateside anyways and was even given a pseudo-sequel, the knockoff military themed Snake's Revenge for the NES. Once again, Kojima had nothing to do with Ultra's sequel and Snake's Revenge ultimately floundered without him.

I hope you explore this section of the site thoroughly, as there's many amusing things to see if you look hard enough. Enjoy the game using the information provided and you'll see just why I've dedicated my time to this particular game I'm sure.