Summary
- The Metal Gear series revolutionized stealth gameplay with weird plots and fourth wall breaking.
- Spin-off games like Metal Gear Online, Metal Gear Acid, and Policenauts offer unique gameplay experiences.
- Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance became a popular spin-off despite initial doubts.
There were games that did stealth before Metal Gear and games that stuck to stealth after Metal Gear. Yet without Hideo Kojima’s seminal sneak ‘em up series, the gaming landscape would be less special. Its sneaking gameplay, weird plots, meta fourth wall breaking, and more made it a unique experience.
The 25 Best Metal Gear Games, Ranked
Metal Gear has a long, storied history, but which of its games stand the test of time as true classics?
This didn’t just apply to the main series though. Metal Gear produced a range of spin-offs and side games that tweak the gameplay in their own way. They’re a mix of alternate timelines, non-canon events, possible epilogues, and some that are just pure gameplay. Out of the wide options, these are the best of Metal Gear's spin-off games.
7 Metal Gear Online
The Series Goes Online And Breaks Its Gameplay In Half
- Developer: Konami Digital Entertainment.
- Platforms: PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 , Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC.
- Release: September 2015.
The Metal Gear series has had some form of Metal Gear Online since Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, which did away with the story in favor of players operating in teams to out-sneak their rivals. Like Grand Theft Auto Online, they’ve taken on a life of their own, even after their servers have been shut down. MGO 1 & 2 live on through emulation and fan servers, complete with updates made by the community.
Still, they’re low on the list because they require the main games on top of all that finagling to play today. The only version still officially running as of this writing is MGS5’s MGO, which still offers plenty of fun outside Konami’s FOB mode money mill. It even allows people to play as Ocelot and Quiet, complete with their own quirks like dual-wielding pistols and invisibility, which can really turn the tide in their favor if used right.
6 Metal Gear Acid
Early PSP Players End Up Dealing With The Heart Of The Cards
Metal Gear Acid
The PSP is an underrated handheld with some solid official titles, and strong enough to handle unofficial ones through hacking and emulators. Even so, Metal Gear fans must’ve been surprised when its launch title, Metal Gear Acid, wasn’t strictly a stealth game like the later entry MGS: Portable Ops. Instead, it was a turn-based trading card game.
The player’s deck controls all their actions. Taking out enemies, getting past surveillance cameras, fighting bosses or other players through the multiplayer mode relied on using one’s deck wisely. The higher the cost of a card’s use, the longer they’d have to wait for their turn. It was good for what it was, though it wasn’t what most people were expecting.
5 Metal Gear Acid 2
Taking on Technological Mysticism With A Deck Of Cards
- Developer: Konami Corporation.
- Platform: PSP, J2ME Mobile Phones.
- Release: March 2006.
MGA1 also had its own weird story involving cover-ups, false identities, and a plane getting hijacked by puppets. Metal Gear Acid 2 somehow made it weirder by having a false Solid Snake, a character referenced in Metal Gear Solid 2’s Snake Tales mode, and a research facility obsessed with the Kabbalah. That’s just the tip of the iceberg too.
10 Weirdest Pieces Of Cut Content In The Metal Gear Series
The Metal Gear franchise's games were meant to have some truly bizarre content, true to Hideo Kojima's signature style.
Otherwise, it offered the same card-trading gameplay as the first game with some quality-of-life improvements. Players could sell off duplicate cards to earn cash to buy new ones, and players could move over items to pick them up. It also has a tutorial mode for newbies, where they can test their decks against Liquid Snake and Vamp of all characters.
4 Policenauts
Metal Gear Goes To Space And Discovers A Time Paradox
Policenauts
Kojima’s visual novel games were marketed as their own thing, but by lore, they’re spin-offs from the Metal Gear timeline. In Policenauts’ case, every game up to Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake is canon to it as their events turn up as background detail. For example, it introduced Meryl four years before she turned up in MGS1. Except she says she helped Snake out in MG2. Either there's a time paradox or it's a very alternate timeline.
The story focuses on Jonathan Ingram, a man who was frozen in cryosleep after a space accident. Rescued twenty-four years later, he tries to make a new life as a P.I., only to witness his ex-wife's murder. Intent on avenging her, the trail leads him to the space colony Beyond Coast, where he learns more about what happened to him, and what happened to his family, friends, and former colleagues in the Policenauts while he was on ice.
3 Snatcher
An Alternate Timeline Where Metal Gear Ends And The Robot Menace Begins
Snatcher
- Released
- November 26, 1988
- Developer(s)
- Konami
- Genre(s)
- Visual Novel
That said, Policenauts doesn't diverge as much as Snatcher. Made soon after the original Metal Gear, it ends the stealth series as soon as it began by having the world suffer a lethal pandemic in 1996, one year after Snake would've stopped Big Boss in his debut outing. Once the disease is stopped decades later, a new threat emerges in robots that kill people and take their place, acting like body-snatching Terminators.
It’s up to Gillian Seed to stop these Snatchers, using just his pistol and his robot buddy Metal Gear. Known in-game as a robot navigator, it was modeled after MG1’s titular robot and later served as the basis for the MG Mk2 in MGS4. Other references include descendants of MG1’s characters (Dr. Pettrovich-Madnar), place names (the Outer Heaven nightclub), and organizations (FOXHOUND).
2 Metal Gear Solid (Game Boy Color)
The Series Returns To 8-Bit In Style
- Developer: Konami Computer Entertainment Japan, Tose.
- Platform: Game Boy Color.
- Release: May 2000.
If the visual novel games feel a step too far from MGS’s gameplay, the Game Boy Color Metal Gear Solid game (aka Metal Gear: Ghost Babel) will be much more familiar. Snake is still aided by Colonel Campbell and Mei Ling over the Codec, yet it isn’t a squished-down version of the PS1 classic.
Every Metal Gear Solid Game In Chronological Order (And The Year They Take Place In)
The Metal Gear Solid games span across decades, though not in chronological order. This should clear the timeline up.
It’s a separate sequel to MG1, where Snake returns to the remains of Outer Heaven to stop a new group of terrorists and Metal Gear Gander. The game is broken up into stages with rankings à la Peace Walker and MGS5, and it does a great job of combining MG2’s gameplay with MGS1’s additions. It even has VR Missions, which reference a certain new soldier called "Jack."
1 Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Jack Lets It Rip In The Series' Most Popular Spin-Off
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
- Released
- February 19, 2013
- Developer(s)
- Platinum Games
- Genre(s)
- Action
Yes, GBC’s MGS references Raiden, who’d later polarize fans when he suddenly took center stage in MGS2 without anyone outside Konami and their close sources knowing about it. He’d grow on them later, as MGS3 would joke about him via the character Raikov, and MGS4 would turn him into a cyborg. His acrobatic moves made people wish they could play him.
A wish that Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance granted. Despite nearly being canceled after Kojima Productions couldn’t finish it, they called in PlatinumGames to turn it into the action game people know today. Its tongue-in-cheek attitude, memes (“Nanomachines, son!”), and smooth gameplay has helped it endure in the public eye for over a decade and counting.
Games You Need To Play If You Love Metal Gear Solid
The MGS series is one of the most iconic in all of gaming. If you're a fan, then be sure to give these games a shot.