Collection essentials #441: Metal Gear Solid (GBC)

The stealth action game Metal Gear Solid on the PlayStation was a revolutionary title and one of the biggest games of its generation, in large part due to setting a new bar for storytelling in a video game. You can, of course, read my previous post all about it.

You’d think by looking at the box that Metal Gear Solid on the Game Boy Color is a scaled down port of that game, but it’s not. Instead, it’s entirely its own thing, a spinoff game which takes place in an alternate timeline after the original Metal Gear (before the series was Solid). And, actually, the game has its own title in Japan, where it was called “Metal Gear: Ghost Babel”. I’m not sure why they removed the distinguishing part of the name from the Western releases. I suppose they wanted people to associate it more closely with the PlayStation game that everybody loved.

There were two previous Metal Gear games on 8-bit systems, and since the Game Boy Color is also 8-bit, you’d think the developers might want to more or less copy the basics over from those games. But this feels like a game that was developed from the ground-up. The most striking difference is that the screen now scrolls in this game. Those other two games were “fixed screen” games, meaning the camera perspective does not move as your character moves; instead, when your character gets to the edge of the screen, the overhead view will completely change to the next “square” over on the map. But in this game, the camera freely moves along with you. Another obvious difference is that this game has diagonal movement. 

The gameplay is mostly what you’d expect from a Metal Gear title, and that’s a good thing. Pretty much all the gameplay elements you’d want are here, featuring stealth-oriented gameplay, various weapons and items, a radar of your surroundings, and various moves to help you evade or fight enemies when needed. The game’s structure is different from others in the series, as it’s now level-based, as opposed to a more open structure in previous games. This sounds like a downgrade, but it works for this game, as it does suit portable “on-the-go” gaming, and the game allows players to revisit previously-cleared stages at any time to try and improve on their past performance, which is pretty cool. In addition to the main story, there are dozens of VR missions that can be played, a welcome bonus. There’s even a two-player mode you can play when linking up with friends who also own the game, something that’s not normally seen in Metal Gear titles.

There was virtually no chance that this game was going to be as great or have as big of an impact as Metal Gear Solid on the PlayStation. This is because the severe limitations of the Game Boy Color hardware prevented the developers from delivering the same kind of cinematic experience, nor every aspect of gameplay. I honestly don’t remember much at all about this game’s story. But what I can tell you is that this game very much feels like a high-quality experience for a Game Boy Color title. This game feels very polished, and it really feels like they did about as good a job as they could possibly do with it. 

I got into Metal Gear in my early teen years, and I knew about this game but didn’t seek it out for quite a while. I wound up playing it in my early adulthood. It didn’t leave as big of an impression as the console titles and isn’t among my top favorites in the series, but I wasn’t expecting it to reach those heights anyway. If you love Metal Gear, this is definitely one worth checking out. It’s one of the finest titles available on the Game Boy Color and a worthy essential in my collection.