The Difficult Kojima Legacy
The elephant within the room is that Konami remade Metallic Gear Stable 3 with none involvement from franchise creator Hideo Kojima, who directed, produced, designed, and co-wrote the unique 2004 sport. Konami and Kojima had famously, and fractiously, parted methods towards the tip of growth on 2015’s Metallic Gear Stable V: The Phantom Ache. It successfully ended a partnership that spanned 30 years. Including salt to the wound, Konami canceled Kojima’s in-development Silent Hill revival, Silent Hills—going out of their technique to scrub the sport’s demo P.T. from digital storefronts—and eliminated Kojima’s credit from Metallic Gear Stable V’s sport packaging, together with related merchandising.
That is in distinction to the Silent Hill 2 remake, which noticed the return of the 2001 authentic sport’s creature designer, Masahiro Ito, and musical composer Akira Yamaoka. Konami’s relationship with a lot of the Silent Hill 2 workforce hadn’t been practically as publicly contentious as its rupture with Kojima Productions, and the 2024 remake masterfully balanced new parts inside the acquainted framework of the PS2 sport it was primarily based off. Like Metallic Gear Stable Delta, there are many moments in Silent Hill 2 that straight name again to the unique sport, however not slavishly so in its execution.
Konami is probably going nicely conscious of the continued controversy behind its relationship with Hideo Kojima, significantly on the subject of the Metallic Gear Stable video games. With that in thoughts, noticeably deviating from Metallic Gear Stable 3 may’ve been perceived as a slight towards Kojima since any modifications to his authentic imaginative and prescient would have been made with out his consent. And to make sure that correct credit score was given the place it was due, Kojima’s varied credit are displayed prominently, generally in stylized triplicate, all through the James Bond-inspired opening title sequence, itself that includes a re-recorded model of the track “Snake Eater.” If Kojima and Konami cut up beneath acrimonious phrases a decade in the past, the corporate needed to make sure he was no less than revered when positioning a remake of his 2004 masterpiece.
Konami had a tough tightrope to stroll in adapting a sport that comes with publicly aired soiled laundry linked to its creator. In remaking Metallic Gear Stable 3 so faithfully, it’s clear that the event workforce needed to play issues as protected as potential. However one nonetheless can’t assist however surprise what a bolder fashionable reimagining of Snake Eater might need been.
Developed and printed by Konami, Metallic Gear Stable Delta: Snake Eater is offered now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Sequence X|S, and PC.
