METAL GEAR

For those who were worried that this would be NES version fear not, this is the good version of the game with some improvements made here and there. It is true that controller players are stuck using the analog instead of the d-pad, but at the same time the controls can otherwise be configured using the settings.exe file in the game directory. Also use dxcf.exe to change video settings for the game. For those who want to see the game in action try this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnrwGVEWDYE

That's all you need to know, now go play this game.

I really just want to clear some confusion about this version of the game. This is not based off of the MSX2 version of the game. Yes, I know it displays the MSX logo, but that thing is just for show. It appears to be a conversion of the old Japanese mobile phone version that was also what the MGS3 Subsistence release was based on. It's quite awful. Game is choppy as hell, very sluggish and unresponsive, AI seems to lack the slight randomization of the original 87 release. Your bullets are slow, pass through the upper half of enemies for some reason, and disappear after moving about halfway across the screen. Your punch has been... buffed as all hell. The punch is insanely good for some reason with an absolutely massive hitbox. Probably because converting that dinky punch to a clumsy mobile version would have made it worthless. Boss AI is slightly different, which may or may not be a good thing depending on your point of view. This is a gutted version of Metal Gear and is not an ideal way to experience the game whatsoever. I strongly recommend the actual MSX2 version if you can, because this is just as lousy as it was in Subsistence. It's playable, it's just an undercooked and lousy way to play it. I do not recommend this version of the game at all.

The game does work on windows 10; however, if you are having difficulty with it launching you will need to change some display settings. To do this go to the directory where you store your GOG games. Find the Metal Gear folder, in that folder you will see "dxcfg.exe," open that file to tweak how the game displays. For me, I set it like this: Display Mode: 640x480 60 Hz, Presentation: Fullscreen, Aspect Ratio Correction: Disabled, Scaling method: Integer scaling. I disabled anistropic filering and antialiasing. Then you click save and launch it. This works with a minor graphical glitch on my system, the glitch doesn't affect game play. You may experience problems with your controller. The settings.exe file in the same folder can help you set up your controller and it gives you the keyboard configurations if you wish to play that way. I haven't played this all the way through, but it is fun for the most part and is way better than the NES version I played as a kid.

Pleasantly surprised that this is the original MSX version of the game, so props for getting this edition on GOG rather than the crappy NES or DOS versions. Keyboard controls seem to work fine, however upon testing out my gamepad, the up and right direction buttons didn't work at all, I could only control Snake with the analog stick and the button bindings are very strange with seemingly no way to edit them. Until gamepad support is fixed, the definitive version of the game will be the Subsistence/HD Collection version because of how well the gamepad works for that version. But if you don't have access to any of the consoles the game was on and the controller support doesn't bug you, I highly recommend this classic.