Kojima despises MGS NES, doesn’t mind Snake’s Revenge, led to future MGS games

Hideo Kojima recently received a great deal of attention for some remarks he made to Nintendo Power. The Metal Gear creator expressed some significant disdain for the NES version of Metal Gear. Kojima told the magazine:

“I had absolutely no participation in the development of the NES version. The NES version was a pitiful title developed cheaply and simply by a small team in Tokyo. That was during the bubble economy where anything and everything that was released would sell. I came across the game in a bargain bin and tried playing it, but the game design is pretty bad. There is some new gameplay that includes infiltrating a base that didn’t exist in the original. However, even I, the developer of the original game, was unable to infiltrate the base even once. Furthermore, being ‘Metal Gear,’ it goes without saying that Metal Gear should make an appearance at the end. However, from what I’ve heard, due to technical difficulties in displaying the spirte on the screen, they swapped Metal Gear out for a gigantic monitor. That made me see that those who created the game had no sliver of appreciation for the players. However, even though it was an abomination, it was during the bubble economy and it sold millions overseas. That title has only soiled my reputation.”

Of course, this news post wouldn’t be complete without some commentary from Kojima regarding Snake’s Revenge on the NES. Interestingly, Kojima told Nintendo Power that if the game was never developed, then Metal Gear 2 on the MSX2 and MGS for PlayStation would never have been been created.

“I wasn’t involved with Snake’s Revenge for the NES either. However, this was created by the Kobe development team and wasn’t what I would consider a ‘bad game.’ Actually, one of my juniors was working on the NES Snake’s Revenge and he said to me, ‘We’re making a sequel to Metal Gear, but what I really want is a true sequel made by you, Kojima-san.’ It’s because of that request that I ended up creating Metal Gear 2 on the MSX2. If Snake’s Revenge for the NES had never existed then there would not have been an MG2 and there would never have been an MGS for the PS1.”