Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes

Classic Metal, New Gear

NA release: 9th March 2004
JP release: 11th March 2004
EU release: 26th March 2004
Developer: Silicon Knights, Konami
Publisher: Konami
NGC Magazine: 90%
Mods Used: Widescreen Code

Metal Gear Solid was an immense success on PlayStation, and its sequel on PS2 took it to a whole new level. With Nintendo wanting more big third party titles on GameCube, like they managed with Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid was something else they were interested in. Instead of a late port of Metal Gear Solid 2, Nintendo ended up getting something exclusive: a full remake of the original game using the gameplay improvements from MGS2, and Silicon Knights – the developers of Eternal Darkness – would take the helm, as Kojima was busy making the third game.

One of the biggest criticisms of The Twin Stakes are the over-the-top cutscenes, which was a result of Kojima asking filmmaker Ryuhei Kitamura to re-do them. There are some fancy camera swooshes (complete with sound effects) and a lot of bullet-time effects – which many claim to be inspired by The Matrix, but his films already had stuff like that prior to The Matrix. Personally, I love the crazy cutscenes. I also have a bit of a fondness for discovering a trick with it when I was younger – you could actually pause them by opening the GameCube disc tray.

I have more of an issue with some of the dialogue. It’s like the people that wrote the Codec (a special radio) conversations and the in-person dialogue didn’t communicate at all. Snake would be told things only to not know who someone was immediately afterwards. And that happens with the required Codec conversations, you can get even more context by calling characters yourself, but Snake is still as baffled as ever. Other than this, the story and dialogue is great.

It’s also quite a short game, which means the pacing is extremely well done. You’ll always be encountering new and interesting things and not just stealthing your way through everything, but there are also sections of pure action – such as some communication towers where you get attacked by a Hind-D – where Snake will end up doing a backwards somersault off a missile. There’s no new sections – nothing padding out the game (in fact, they added some pipes to skip an annoying backtrack section).

What is new are gameplay additions from MGS2, such as a first person view which lets you accurately shoot enemies from a long distance – something the game isn’t really designed for. I like it, but some sections are much easier if you use it. Tranquiliser guns are also added so you can avoid killing enemies, but none of the cutscenes reflect this change – the bosses still die in cutscenes.

Still, The Twin Snakes is, for the most part, the same fantastic game with plenty of wonderful moments. The length of the game means you can try in different ways (the five difficulties have different guard layouts), trying for pacifist runs and hunting for dog tags. It’s a great game with plenty of ways to play.

Great

Silicon Knights have done a fantastic job rejigging the game for Nintendo’s console. It looks great, and the bits that have been bolted on rom MGS2 have been seamlessly integrated. We’re disappointed at the relative lack of extras – where are all the training-style VR missions that PSone owners got? – but the game really can’t be taken to task for this.
Jes Bickham, NGC Magazine #91

Remake or remaster?

A re-release would be great.

Official Ways to get the game

There is no official way to get Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes.