This means 17 years since the month of April 2008 saw the release of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of The Patriots, and gamers stayed glued to it. Maybe the best birthday salute was the simple ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ given by the official Metal Gear Twitter account, with gamers thunderously demanding in reply: port this game onto current-gen platforms!
The tweet was simple: just the mention of the release date of the game, along with the hashtags #MGS4 and #MetalGearSolid. But the replies? Total madhouse! Gaming folks don’t just want to reflavor their nostalgia-this generation just begs Konami (or whoever runs it now) for getting this classic out of the aging hardware of PS3.
The succinct utterance from @FPSthetics was: “17 years and still locked to the PS3 😔.” And that wasn’t an isolated case. Comments such as “@Metalgear Please free this game from the PS3 already” coming from @SodaRMT; “@Metalgear cool now port it to modern consoles” from @iamhammmy; the louder you got, the more desperate the fanbase. The others from the Portuguese language side joined the party; @afogad0’s reply loosely translates to “Keep giving me hope, keep going.”
But it is not merely a simple port. The players want a complete remaster or inclusion in the allegedly coming Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol. 2. @lonewolf3687 went crazy and shouted, “WHERE TF IS THE REMASTERED COLLECTION VOL 2 WITH MGS REVENGEANCE?????” On the other hand, @MyRealityHits has been pushing hard for Metal Gear Online 2 to resurface: “Bring MGO2 back to modern consoles and PC, it’s time for its return.”
Nostalgia times. Lining up at Game (UK retailer) for launch day was like “unreal” hype, reminisced @jonnyplasma4321. Others including @boss_big17554 started quoting famous in-game quotes: “i was…having that dream again.” Because of course. It’s Metal Gear; you can’t really talk about it without one or two people quoting either Snake or Big Boss.
The biggest irony? Some gamers really believe this anniversary tweet is an indirect tease for something bigger. “Teasing us?” asked @Noirx360 outright, while @CorneredFoxes confessed that they “would have bet real money” on Konami announcing Vol. 2 today. Spoiler alert: They didn’t.
And that’s part of the problem-the ugly truth is that porting Metal Gear Solid 4 is tricky. It was developed explicitly for the odd Cell-based architecture in the PS3, which explains why a re-release has never come up. Emulation varies in quality, and Sony’s Own PS Plus streaming service doesn’t include it. So all of these players clamoring “just port it” really mean it’s… not that easy.
Hang on, with the Master Collection Vol. 1 out already and Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater imminent, it doesn’t really feel like a stretch of the imagination to start thinking about the perfect revival of Vol. 2 (with MGS4, Peace Walker, and possibly even Revengeance) in its arms. Comments @AwesomeBrandTTV about the rumblings: “I imagine we won’t get volume 2 until next year at the earliest. They probably want to focus on Delta rn which comes out in August.”
For now, the anniversary tweet will be left standing alongside an army of impatient gamers. And, really? That the fans are still this worked up about a 17-year-old game is a statement in and of itself. Konami’s listening or not isn’t going to dent Metal Gear Solid 4’s legacy.
For those fortunate enough to have a PS3 lying about, it might just be the perfect time to dust it off and dive back into Guns of the Patriots tonight. All else, however… keep tweeting at Konami. They may just give in.
