Metal Gear: MSX2 vs NES
Two games called Metal Gear came out in 1987, five months apart. One was directed by Hideo Kojima. The other was built by a different team who were told to make it as different as they could.
Updated:
| Metal Gear (MSX2) | Metal Gear (Famicom / NES) | |
|---|---|---|
| Released (Japan) | July 13, 1987 | December 22, 1987 |
| Released (North America) | — | June 1988 |
| Publisher | Konami | Konami |
| Directed by | Hideo Kojima | A separate Konami division in Tokyo — Kojima was not involved |
| Development time | Full production | Three months |
| Final boss | Metal Gear itself — the walking nuclear tank | A stationary supercomputer terminal. Metal Gear never appears |
| Saving your game | Checkpoints written to cassette tape (data recorder) | Passwords |
| Famous mistranslation | — | "THE TRUCK HAVE STARTED TO MOVE" |
Short answer: they are not the same game
Two versions of Metal Gear were released in Japan in 1987, five months apart. The MSX2 original arrived on July 13; the Famicom version followed on December 22, reaching North America the next June as the NES release. For most Western players, that second one was Metal Gear — the only one they could buy.
They share a title, a hero and a premise. Almost everything else was rebuilt by different people, working to a different brief, on hardware that could not do what the original did.
How the second version happened
The port was made by another Konami division in Tokyo. The MSX2 source code was handed over without the agreement of the original team, and Hideo Kojima — who had directed the game — took no part in it.
Konami management instructed the team to make their version as different from the MSX2 game as they could, according to Masahiro Ueno, a sub-programmer on the port. They were not given an advanced mapper chip, which limited what the hardware could hold. They had three months.
The boss that is not there
In the MSX2 game, the thing you have spent the whole story hunting — Metal Gear, the walking nuclear launch platform the series is named after — is what you finally face. In the Famicom version it was replaced by a supercomputer terminal.
A game called Metal Gear, in which Metal Gear never appears.
What Kojima said about it
In a 1999 interview with GamersToday, Hideo Kojima is quoted as saying: "I really don’t like saying this, but it really wasn’t up to my standards. The care that I put in the original wasn’t there." He said much the same to Nintendo Power, calling the port a pitiful title developed cheaply and simply by a small team in Tokyo.
And then it happened again
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake arrived on MSX2 in 1990, directed by Kojima. That same year Konami released Snake’s Revenge on the NES in North America, developed without him. It is a separate game, and it is not the overseas version of Metal Gear 2.
Metal Gear 2 received no official Western release at all — Konami had already stopped selling MSX games in Europe. Players outside Japan waited until 2006, when it appeared in Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence.
Which one should you play?
The MSX2 original is the game Kojima made, and the one the rest of the series grows out of. It is also the harder one to reach: saving means a cassette-tape data recorder, so anyone playing on original hardware needs the period equipment as well as the machine.
The Famicom version is easier to find and easier to save, and it is how most of the world met Snake. It made the name famous, built by people who were never allowed to make the same game.
Frequently asked questions
- Are the MSX2 and NES versions of Metal Gear the same game?
- No. They were made by different teams to different briefs. The MSX2 version (July 13, 1987) was directed by Hideo Kojima. The Famicom/NES version (December 22, 1987 in Japan, June 1988 in North America) was ported by a separate Konami division in Tokyo, using the MSX2 source code handed over without the original team’s agreement, and Kojima had no involvement.
- Why does Metal Gear never appear in the NES version?
- Two reasons, both given by Masahiro Ueno, a sub-programmer on the port. Konami management told the team to make their version as different from the MSX2 game as possible, and the team was not given an advanced mapper chip, which limited what the cartridge could hold. The final boss became a stationary supercomputer terminal instead, and the walking Metal Gear was cut entirely.
- Did Hideo Kojima work on the NES Metal Gear?
- No. He directed the MSX2 original and took no part in the Famicom/NES port. In a 1999 GamersToday interview he is quoted as saying, "I really don’t like saying this, but it really wasn’t up to my standards. The care that I put in the original wasn’t there."
- Which Metal Gear came first?
- The MSX2 version, on July 13, 1987. The Famicom version followed five months later, on December 22, 1987, and reached North America as the NES release in June 1988.
- Is Snake’s Revenge the NES version of Metal Gear 2?
- No. Snake’s Revenge (NES, 1990) is a separate game developed by Konami in North America without Hideo Kojima. Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (MSX2, 1990) is his sequel, and it received no official Western release at the time — Konami had already discontinued MSX sales in Europe. Its first official overseas release came in 2006, inside Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence.
- How do you save in the MSX2 Metal Gear?
- Checkpoints are written to and loaded from cassette tape using a data recorder — not battery backup, and not passwords. Anyone playing on original hardware today needs a period data recorder and a compatible MSX2 cassette port. The Famicom version uses passwords instead.
- Was Metal Gear Hideo Kojima’s first game?
- It was his first credited work as director, in 1987. It was not his first job in the industry — he joined Konami in 1986 and spent roughly a month contributing ideas to Penguin Adventure, where he is not credited. The two are often confused: first job and first directed game are different milestones.