Metal Gear Solid Goes Mobile

February 29th, 2008, 16:01 Posted By: JKKDARK

via BusinessWeek

t's been nearly four years since Japanese video game maker Konami (KNM) first established its mobile division, re-releasing Frogger as its maiden cell-phone-compatible title. Oh, how far things have come since. The company has just taken the wraps off Metal Gear Solid Mobile, in effect proving that mobile gaming need not be a dumping ground for long-forgotten arcade games from the '80s, with their crude graphics intact.

Instead, Metal Gear Solid Mobile is a graphically rich stealth-action game that manages to more or less recreate the experience of the popular console franchise—yes, even on a phone. It's an impressive technical feat that shows how quickly mobile titles are becoming more sophisticated. Konami took a year to develop this game. By comparison, the team behind the company's mobile version of Contra 4, another so-called triple-A title, took about half the time.

The goal, of course, is to entice wireless users to spend more than a few bucks for mobile games. Indeed, Metal Gear Solid Mobile will cost either $3.99 a month or $9.99 to buy outright through Verizon Wireless, which will have exclusive rights to the title for three months before it becomes available through other networks. Konami says the game is compatible with about 30 handset models in Verizon's lineup.
Secret Agent Snake

Players take on the role of Snake, a secret agent adept at world-saving espionage. Whereas other first-person shooters place an emphasis on "run and gun" game play that highlights twitchy hair-trigger action, both the console and mobile versions of Metal Gear focus on sneaking around to quietly kill or knock out enemies.

Ironically, this kind of stealth play is much better suited to cell phones, which lack the multidirectional joysticks used with console and PC games to maneuver an avatar at a rapid pace. In other words, the slow, drawn-out movements of the main character in this game are easily controlled with a phone's keypad, which, depending on the model you're using, may not always be ergonomically accommodating.

The graphics, meanwhile, are impressive. In fact, the visuals are probably the most innovative element of the game, producing 3D images that come startlingly close to PlayStation 2 quality. I played the game on LG's (LGERF) VX9400 phone, which has a screen that rotates 90 degrees to reorient as a wide-screen view. This game is so good-looking, I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes an advertising vehicle for handset-makers later this year.
Great Design, Weak Story

A bevy of smartly designed features make this feel much more like a full-blown console title than the typical games that come either preloaded on a phone or that you can download for a few bucks. For instance there's an automatic targeting lock and an optional first-person perspective that allows you to see through a character's eyes. Nice touches like these make playing on a phone surprisingly enjoyable. It's even possible to use a phone's built-in camera (on supported models) to snap pictures of colors around you and use them as camouflage. It's a gimmick, yes, but a fun one that nicely dovetails with the whole "mysterious secret agent with lots of gadgets" theme.

Longtime Metal Gear fans, however, will find the game's narrative its weakest point. Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima has earned demigod status among hard-core gamers for the high-polish, cinematic storytelling in his titles. He's well-known for spinning complex yarns, usually via longish scenes that manage to work in everything from existential philosophy to post-structural semiotic analysis.

But on the phone, the intellectual landscape isn't quite so fertile. To accommodate shorter play sessions—on the bus or subway for instance—the game's story unfolds at an accelerated clip, largely through short dialogue sequences between the main character and the supporting characters.

Yet despite the simpler missions with fewer objectives, Metal Gear Solid Mobile manages to maintain the mood and aesthetic of the series even with abbreviated content. While it certainly won't replace the console experience or match its depth, all in all, the end product is an impressive—and fun—new benchmark for mobile gaming.

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