I’m struggling to search out fascinating issues to say about Metallic Gear Strong Delta: Snake Eater. Or, a minimum of, new issues – within the ongoing debate over whether or not remakes ought to meaningfully tinker with the unique or keep as trustworthy as attainable, Delta is firmly within the latter camp. It’s MGS3, mainly! It seems higher and it runs worse! It’s been twenty-one years and I nonetheless mentally supplant a lot of the precise dialogue with Hiiimdaisy comedian jokes! That one’s my fault, granted.
I’m, nonetheless, liking Snake Vs Monkey, a recreation of the unique’s Ape Escape crossover mode the place you sprint round tranquilising and capturing cartoon chimps towards the clock. Partly as a result of I by no means performed it on PS2 – I cruelly denied Hideo Kojima his dues by solely ever renting MGS3 from Blockbuster, and evidently didn’t really feel sideshows had been value reducing into the 2 days earlier than I needed to give it again. But in addition as a result of it’s a surprisingly compelling time assault minigame, one which took mere minutes to have me optimising ape-tranqing methods to shave the seconds off.
I say “surprisingly” as a result of the problem is, by and huge, imaginary. There are scoreboards however no cut-off dates, your gun holds infinite darts, and even alerted apes will shortly reset to a docile state for those who sod off for a second. Get a really feel for his or her hiding locations, although, and it is perilously straightforward to start out planning out routes by means of the map, or deciding on taking pictures orders that may KO essentially the most monkeys within the fewest mouse actions. Quickly, they begin wanting much less like PS2 mascots and extra like corners on a racetrack; corners the place that for those who can simply take one just a bit faster, the quantity that seems on the finish will say 00:59 as an alternative of 01:01. And that may be the perfect fucking feeling on this planet.
I don’t declare professional data of the ape un-escaping scene, you perceive. However there’s a tactical depth right here that’s value exploring. Even the comedy animations of a tranquilised monkey falling from a tree, bouncing off each department on the way in which down, could be considered in another way from a newly opened speedrunner thoughts’s eye. Is that only a humorous visible contact? Or is there sufficient downtime between the tranq dart hitting and the monkey lastly touchdown that you could possibly be utilizing it to spin round and flickshot one other one? Sure. Sure is the reply. I see that now, ultimately.
I additionally don’t wish to sound too down on the remainder of MGS Delta. The sport it so reverentially recreates is, concurrently, one of the approachable Metallic Gears (not counting glorious motion spinoff Metallic Gear Rising: Revengeance) and maybe essentially the most assured in expressing the collection’ weirdness. Perhaps that’s why Snake Vs Monkey doesn’t simply really feel like a silly little bit of Sony promotion, even with Delta’s model including in cameos from the far newer platformer/elaborate PlayStation advertising train Astro Bot. Snake dressing up in banana camo to spherical up misplaced primates kinda simply feels like one thing he’d do. I’m glad to oblige.
