Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater already has a handful of crossovers. The Xbox Series X|S version has a special mode where players take on hordes of Bombermen, bringing in another iconic Konami franchise for Microsoft’s console. The PS5 and PC iterations, on the other hand, have the Snake vs. Monkey mini-game first seen in the original Snake Eater on the PS2. This goofy mode brings in the simians from Ape Escape and tasks Snake with stunning and capturing them. This was present in the initial release, but Delta‘s version of it contains an extra PlayStation crossover that Konami has kept under wraps.
Astro Bot, star of the titular acclaimed 2024 platformer, shows up in every Snake vs. Monkey stage as a secret character players can track down. Sometimes the little robot is disguised as an ape, but other times it is in its base robot form. Some of the monkeys can even be seen gathering around the robot, even though the primate placements are otherwise very similar to the original. Capturing the monkeys shows one of a handful of silly animations, but snatching up the Astro Bot plays a similar animation to the one seen in Astro Bot when players grab one of the Astro Bots. They even go in a special white and blue cardboard box while PlayStation button symbols flutter across the screen.
Delta also teases players with a special surprise if they grab each Astro Bot in every level (none of them are truly hidden, so most players should be able to do this quickly). And while this implies that the reward would be related to Astro Bot — like, say, a blue and white camo uniform or Astro Bot mask — getting all of them just unlocks a golden banana hat Snake can wear. A regular version of the same hat is unlocked once players capture every monkey.
This is obviously not the first time both franchises have crossed over. 2024’s Astro Bot contained multiple Metal Gear characters. Players can rescue Astro Bots cosplaying as Psycho Mantis, Solid Snake, Gray Fox, Naked Snake, and Raiden, all of whom represent various installments of Metal Gear. Like every other Bot, players can interact with each one in the hub and see their comical animations that are always jokes or small references.
The Snake vs. Monkey mini-game was in the original Snake Eater and Subsistence releases but not in later versions. It was not in the PS2 version of the Essential Collection, the 3DS remake, HD Collection, or Master Collection Vol. 1. Snake vs. Monkey was originally on one of Subsistence‘s extra discs, which explains some of the omissions since a lot the content from those extra discs was not included in later releases. It being a Sony-owned franchise also likely barred it from appearing on other platforms.
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