Metal Gear Solid 3 was a decent starting point for Konami’s mission to put the series back in the limelight. The company even said as much, noting it chose to remake the 2004 classic first since it marked the “starting point” for the franchise. But this has put Konami at a crossroads: Does it develop a new entry or remake another older one? Given how the former is likely to cause quite a ruckus, it seems like a safe bet Konami will reinterpret yet another installment in the Metal Gear franchise.
However, the question looms: What Metal Gear game should be remade next? Well, here are all of the potential options on the table and how they might play out.
Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake are the two oldest canon games in the series, but given how the series didn’t truly blow up until Metal Gear Solid, they’re mostly curios that many don’t engage with. They’re old, janky, and often confusing, but nonetheless narratively important to the series as a whole, all three factors that make these two games prime targets for one unified remake.
The crudeness of the tech and storytelling gives Konami plenty of freedom to experiment. Story threads can be fleshed out and contain aspects from the Big Boss quadrilogy and also be told in a more contemporary way with actual cutscenes (in addition to Codec calls). The primitiveness of the stealth leaves a void that could easily be filled with the smooth, sneaky gameplay Delta and MGSV have.
This overall primitiveness is a big reason why the first two Metal Gear games are the best candidates for a singular remake; it forces the kind of braver decisions Delta didn’t have. They also don’t have the same nostalgia-driven following, so players would likely be less precious about — and more open to — sweeping changes. This would probably be the hardest Metal Gear remake project, but it also has a high chance of being the most interesting one with the greatest potential.
Metal Gear Solid has already been remade with 2004’s GameCube exclusive Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, a game Konami has stubbornly refused to put on other platforms. Even though Silicon Knights updated the controls to be more in line with Metal Gear Solid 2 and took a few creative liberties, it is strange to remake the same game yet again.
However, Metal Gear Solid is still a somewhat viable candidate for a remake because it is, like MGS3, a decent starting point for the franchise. Many started their journey into Metal Gear with this seminal PS1 hit, so it makes sense to go back to that well again, especially given Konami’s aforementioned words regarding Snake Eater’s “starting point” status.
Being a PS1 game, though, means Konami would probably have to make some bigger decisions. It probably wouldn’t be feasible to carry over the same audio, and the simplistic level layout likely wouldn’t be as much of a challenge if the game had modern controls, something Twin Snakes also had to contend with. Konami would presumably have to add more to the game to match the complexity of the modern Delta-esque controls. Advanced enemy patterns, new threats, and remixed rooms could be such additions.
Opening up Shadow Moses and allowing for backtracking would also be a natural way to upgrade the game, as was the case with the USG Ishimura in the Dead Space remake. Being able to more freely explore the ship added so much to the experience and made the environment much more cohesive and, if done correctly, could do the same for Metal Gear Solid. An older game would require Konami to do more than just put it through Unreal Engine 5 and slap a third-person shooter control scheme on it. Tracing over MGS1 again would probably satiate some nostalgic players yearning for the old days, but that wouldn’t meet the moment for a remake of a game this ancient. Its viability truly depends on how bold Konami wants to be.
Metal Gear Solid 2 is the lone entry in the trilogy that hasn’t been remade, which makes it prime for one. However, it’s also in a bit of a tricky situation because it is so inextricably tied to its era and would require some heavy reworking. Moving away from the fixed camera would reveal how small each area is, so stages would likely have to be expanded to accommodate the new viewpoint. Rooms would have to physically be larger, but also the Big Shell itself should feel bigger by not having loading screens that separate each strut and core. Snake and Raiden’s arsenal and toolsets are also relatively limited when compared to later games, meaning a straight duplication would probably feel overly simplistic.
The questions regarding a Metal Gear Solid 2 remake prod at how a game should be remade and whether or not it should be a literal translation or something that attempts to recreate the feeling the original gave players. An exact copy of MGS2 might be more faithful, but it seems poised to be overly simplistic and lose its luster when divorced from its original launch era. A Metal Gear Solid 2 remake aiming to recreate the feel of the original would emulate the shock that came from its character switch and gameplay upgrades. Pulling that kind of surprise off is going to be quite difficult (and likely impossible to do at that scale), but it is core to what makes MGS2 so memorable.
If Konami understands this and tries to mix things up for a remake, then that makes MGS2 a worthy candidate. But it’s going to be incredibly strange if the publisher decides to repeat what it did with the MGS3 remake and put out something safe and too predictable since that was exactly what MGS2 was not.
Metal Gear Solid 4 needs to escape the clutches of the PS3, but a remake does not seem like the way to go here. Metal Gear Solid 4’s gameplay has aged well, thanks to the studio’s forward-thinking decision to modernize the controls, so it wouldn’t be too hard to jump back into its stealthy third-person shooting. Animations are still smooth and the visuals hold up, despite being almost two decades old. This one mostly just deserves a port and is primed to be the centerpiece of the inevitable second Master Collection.
Unsurprisingly, Metal Gear Solid V is the entry that is the least deserving of a remake. Its controls are still nearly flawless, and the amount of control it gives players over their playstyle is unprecedented. It remains the apex of the stealth genre a decade later. The Phantom Pain was also updated to run even better on PS4 Pro, meaning PS5 players aren’t stuck with an outdated version, too (Xbox One owners, however, were not as lucky since that version didn’t get the same update, which also leaves Xbox Series X|S owners in the dust).
There is an argument, though, that it should be “finished” or bolstered with new features. For example, a more robust Subsistence mode — where players are dropped into missions with no gear — that covers all missions (and not just a select few) would benefit the game since it would further demonstrate how open its mission design is. Finishing its mostly complete cutscenes is also probably not a bad idea. This would seemingly just bring Hideo Kojima and his team’s vision across the finish line, so it would ideally not be considered sacrilegious by many who balk at the idea of Konami making some creative decisions without that visionary at the helm. However, these are mostly light additions and changes that a Master Collection version or current-gen port could have and do not justify a full remake.
Metal Gear has various spin-offs, but none of them necessarily scream for a remake. Portable Ops is a more limited and shallow version of the modular mission design of Peace Walker (which was then expanded upon in MGSV). Both of them are designed around portable play, though, so a big console and PC remake of them doesn’t feel appropriate. Acid and Acid 2 are likely some of the least-played modern Metal Gear games, but a grand remake of two turn-based card games also doesn’t seem like the best use of resources. To the credit of all four of these titles, they were tailored for PSP and the short gameplay spurts it was geared toward, but that doesn’t lend them to being remade for non-portable hardware.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance doesn’t have those PSP-related intricacies but highlights the general vibe for all five of these games: They’re more deserving of modest ports and are easy inclusions for another Master Collection. The PSP games should be more accessible and could benefit greatly from modern amenities like save states, rewinding, and online play, while Revengeance’s parry-focused action gameplay is still some of the genre’s best and doesn’t need any sweeping changes. This isn’t to say these games are flawless gems and can’t be improved, but the bar to remake a spin-off is quite high and these titles — for one reason or another — don’t meet that threshold.
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