SNAKE'S REVENGE Game Data Console: Nintendo Entertainment System Maker: Konami/Ultra Genre: Action Adventure Release Date: April 1990 (America)
Very little is known about Snake's Revenge, the unofficial sequel to the original Metal Gear for the NES or why it got made. This is what I gathered.
With the success of Metal Gear for the MSX2, Famicom and NES, there was no doubt that a sequel was on it's way. Kojima, after releasing Snatcher and SD Snatcher, he decided to work on a MSX2 sequel of his first game called Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. During development, Konami of America wanted to release a Metal Gear sequel for the NES market and that's when Konami of Japan realized that Metal Gear 2 couldn't be ported to the NES due to technical differences (different layers, memory, pallettes, ect). So Konami of Japan ordered their Famicom development team to create a Metal Gear sequel for the foreign market and the result was Snake's Revenge. It was released in America three months earlier than Metal Gear 2 for the MSX2 in Japan. Kojima had nothing to do with the development of the game and the game is nothing like Metal Gear 2.
Snake's Revenge is a continuation of Metal Gear 1 for the NES. Taking place three years after the destruction of the original Metal Gear, Big Boss (Snake's former commander) has survived thanks to cybernetic implants and is threatening the world again, this time with an even more powerful version of the Metal Gear appropiately called Metal Gear 2. Solid Snake decides to settle this old score by infiltrating his base with two Fox-Hounders, a Marine and explosive expert named Nick Myer and John Turner from the Navy's information center, who is an infiltration professional. Jennifer from the first game also made a return as Snake's navigator inside the fortress.
The basic gameplay was the same as the NES version of the first game, but the A&V were cleaner due to the fact the game was made specifically for the NES and the enemies were smarter and would follow you everywhere once they seen you until they were all dead or lost track of you. The ability to turn dead enemies into food and ammo during stealth mode was also bought back in Snake's Revenge. The transceiver was simpliefied a bit (no annoying frequencies to remember). The game was somewhat linear compared to the first game as Snake travelled through boats, trains and lifts as he tries to reach the enemy's main headquarters and there was no going back once certain areas were completed.
One of the most annoying new features in Snake's Revenge was the side-scrolling stages. This part of the game suffers from confusing controls (Snake would drop explosives in crouching postion as opposed to the stabs he does while crawling) and annoying traps. While the side-scrolling stages was added to make the game more action-onriented, it has no purpose in the game other than to irritate players. What's even worse is that all the side-scrolling stages has the same appearance, unlike the main overhead stages.
In some way, this game is better than the first Metal Gear for the NES, since it actually include several appearances of the Metal Gear tank. There is a cargo ship filled Metal Gear TX-55s at one point and you actually get to fight the new Metal Gear at the end of the game as opposed to a Super Computer.
While the storyline and character development may be non-existant and the Manual Writing Guild of Konami of America may not had taken this game seriously (the main bad guy in the manual is refferred as Higharolla Kockamamie, the settings is Ishkabibil and Jennifer's bio claims that she is the sister of Ginger from Gilligan's Island), once you get over the bad parts, Snake's Revenge is not a bad game.
However, Snake's Revenge is no alternative to the real Metal Gear 2's superior gameplay and storytelling. However, not many people in America were aware of the deceiving trick Konami has pulled on them until the PlayStation sequel (Metal Gear Solid) was announced. Hideo Kojima, the series's creator, established the fact that he had nothing to do with Snake's Revenge and that Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake for the MSX2 in Japan only as the orthodox sequel to the original. When hardcore Konami fans in America learned this, they started to talk thrash about Konami of America and Ultra and regarded Snake's Revenge as the biggest lie the company has pulled off. Snake's Revenge wouldn't be so criticized has it been released as an unrelated game or a spinoff starring different characters (say, a Fox-Hounder name Justin Halley), but since it was released as an alternative to Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, it will forever live on the shadows of it's superior MSX2 counterpart.
One last thing that I should note about Snake's Revenge is that it doesn't fit anywhere in the official Metal Gear timeline. The events in Snake's Revenge occurs during the same time period as Metal Gear 2 for the MSX2 (three or four years after MG1). Snake retired from Fox-Hound shortly after Metal Gear 1 and joined the CIA for six-months, yet he is still a Fox-Hounder in Snake's Revenge. Big Boss is on life support in Snake's Revenge and turns into a giant cyborg, but he seems to be fine in Metal Gear 2. Finally, Metal Gear's codename is different, it's VRC-4 as opposed to TX-55.
Back to the main page.
SNAKE'S REVENGE