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Metal Gear (Japanese: メタルギア, Hepburn: Metaru Gia) is a series of action-adventure stealth video games created by Hideo Kojima and developed and published by Konami. The first game in the franchise, Metal Gear, was released for MSX2 home computers in 1987. The franchise takes place in an alternate history where the Cold War persisted into the 1990's due to advancements made in A.I., cloning and robotics technology. Players will principally control a special forces operative who is dispatched by an organization on a secret black ops mission to infiltrate a fortified base and sabotage the activation or launch of the titular Metal Gear, a bipedal mech with the ability to instantaneously launch a nuclear warhead to any point in the world. The series principally centers its narrative on the respective arcs surrounding the war veteran Big Boss, the building of his reputation as a respected military figure, and his tragic descent into villainy throughout the 20th century, and the hardened soldier Solid Snake's exploits to destroy the Metal Gear threat in contemporary times, while grappling with his personal relationship to Big Boss as a surrogate father figure and mentor.

Metal Gear began development as a pure action game inspired by military combat, but was reworked to emphasize stealth and the importance of remaining undetected by enemies when it was discovered the original direction was too graphically intensive for the MSX2 hardware. In addition to featuring stories that thematically address mature subject matter such as the nature of war, the concept of free will, manipulation of publicly available information and the moral ambiguity behind government powers, Metal Gear was conceptualized as a pastiche of various Hollywood action films released around the time of its creation, particularly drawing inspiration from the films The Great Escape (1963) and Escape from New York (1981), which respectively feature stories focused around high stakes infiltration and escape plots hatched by their respective main characters, mirroring the series' intense, stealth-driven gameplay centered around the art of successfully evading enemies and obstacles while procuring various items and weapons in an enclosed facility.

The success of the original Metal Gear resulted in numerous sequels being produced, beginning with Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (1990). The third canon entry in the franchise, Metal Gear Solid (1998), marked the series' transition to 3D polygonal graphics and the usage of constant in-game cinematic cutscenes to emulate the qualities of mainstream film, resulting in the game's ensuing popularity and the franchise itself garnering worldwide recognition. The series is generally credited for the global popularization of the stealth-action subgenre, as well as being a premier example of video games with cinematic production values, boasting intricate, heavily plotted narratives, offbeat and surrealist humor, and the exploration of numerous postmodern, political and philisophical themes.

Despite the franchise's popularity, it had made scant appearances on Nintendo consoles throughout its history. A port of the original Metal Gear was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1987 shortly after the MSX2 version, receiving its own standalone sequel Snake's Revenge (1990) that had no connection to Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake and was developed without the input of the original creative team behind the series. Following Metal Gear Solid's initial release, a separate game adopting the aesthetics of said title was released for the Game Boy Color as Metal Gear: Ghost Babel in 2000, while adopting the MGS name overseas. Eventually, a full remake of the original Metal Gear Solid that adopted mechanics and the presentation of its sequel was released as Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (2004) exclusively for Nintendo GameCube, as a co-production between Konami themselves, Nintendo along with co-producer Shigeru Miyamoto, and Canadian former second-party developer Silicon Knights. An enhanced port of Metal Gear Solid 3 titled Snake Eater 3D was released for Nintendo 3DS in 2012. A compilation collecting the first five main entries of the franchise, Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1, will be released in 2023 for Nintendo Switch, marking the first time both the original version of Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001) have appeared on any Nintendo system, as well as the first time the NES and MSX2 entries of the franchise have been re-released together worldwide.

Content from the Metal Gear franchise has also made appearances in other media outside the series, with the games being the subject of adaptations in comic books, novels and drama CDs among other mediums. The series' primary protagonist, Solid Snake, has also made guest appearances in other games, most notably as a playable fighter in the Super Smash Bros. franchise, where he became the first ever third-party guest character to be featured in the roster upon his inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008) for Wii. Snake later returned as a main roster character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018) for Nintendo Switch. Both games featured a stage based on the Shadow Moses Island base in the original Metal Gear Solid, along with Trophies, Spirits and music tracks from the franchise.

Games on Nintendo consoles[]

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