100 Fun Facts About Metal Gear Solid

Metal Gear Solid (1998) was developed and published by which company?

Konami: the game was named Metal Gear Solid rather than Metal Gear 3, with 'Solid' nodding both to its hero Solid Snake and to the series' leap from 2D into 3D.

Which Alaskan island base does Solid Snake infiltrate in Metal Gear Solid (1998)?

Shadow Moses: officially a nuclear weapons disposal site in Alaska's Fox Archipelago, the island secretly doubles as a testing ground for a new walking tank.

Which nuclear-armed walking tank do the terrorists seize in Metal Gear Solid (1998)?

Metal Gear REX: the terrorists threaten a nuclear strike with it unless Washington pays $1 billion and hands over the remains of the legendary soldier they revere.

Who leads the rogue FOXHOUND unit in Metal Gear Solid (1998)?

Liquid Snake: for most of the game he also poses over the radio as Snake's trusted adviser Master Miller, tricking him into arming the very weapon he came to stop.

Which FOXHOUND member has his right hand cut off by the cyborg ninja in Metal Gear Solid?

Revolver Ocelot: the ninja's blade takes his hand in the middle of a gunfight with Snake, yet he survives the game and is revealed as a double agent reporting to the US President.

Which FOXHOUND member first attacks Snake from inside a tank in Metal Gear Solid?

Vulcan Raven: once the tank is destroyed he returns for a second fight in an underground warehouse, this time carrying a 20mm cannon built for fighter jets.

In Metal Gear Solid, what does Psycho Mantis scan to 'read your mind'?

The player's memory card: he names other games saved on it, so the English release dropped the titles never sold outside Japan.

On the PlayStation original, what was the trick to beating Metal Gear Solid's Psycho Mantis?

Using the second controller port: with the pad plugged in there, he can no longer 'read' Snake's moves, a trick the PC version swapped for the keyboard.

Which FOXHOUND member dies without ever fighting Snake in Metal Gear Solid?

Decoy Octopus: disguised as a hostage, he is killed by the FOXDIE virus Snake unknowingly carries, so the 'DARPA chief' who dies in the cell was him all along.

Hal Emmerich, the engineer Snake rescues in Metal Gear Solid, goes by what nickname?

Otacon: he designed the game's walking nuclear tank believing it was a purely defensive system, and turns on his employers once Snake shows him the truth.

The cyborg ninja in Metal Gear Solid (1998) is revealed to be which former ally of Snake?

Gray Fox: Snake's old comrade, believed dead, had been rebuilt as a cyborg test subject, and he dies crushed beneath the walking tank after crippling its radar dome.

Meryl Silverburgh is introduced as the niece of which character?

Colonel Roy Campbell: he later admits she is really his daughter, born of an affair with his brother's wife and raised without ever being told.

In Metal Gear Solid (1998), which support character invented the Soliton radar and saves your game?

Mei Ling: the young data analyst of 1998 returns in Metal Gear Solid 4 as captain of the battleship USS Missouri, which she commands in battle.

Who was Solid Snake's English voice in Metal Gear Solid (1998)?

David Hayter: by co-star Paul Eiding's account, he gave up half his own fee so that the original voice cast could be rehired for the game's 2004 remake.

Solid Snake's physique in Metal Gear Solid (1998) was modelled on which action star?

Jean-Claude Van Damme: the game's artist took Snake's build from him but borrowed the face from another actor entirely, Christopher Walken.

Kojima used which toy to mock up Metal Gear Solid's 3D areas?

Lego building blocks: his designers put levels together in bricks to see how the planned camera views would look.

Metal Gear Solid was originally planned in 1994 for which short-lived console?

3DO: early artwork of Snake even shipped on a 3DO preview disc for Kojima's Policenauts, but as the console faded the project moved to Sony's new machine.

Which artist designed most of the Metal Gear Solid characters and mecha?

Yoji Shinkawa: he started at the publisher in 1994 as a bug tester on Policenauts, rose to design the whole series, and followed Kojima out of the company in 2015.

The North American release of Metal Gear Solid added which unlockable outfit for Snake?

A tuxedo: it unlocks only once the game has been finished twice on one save, and the gag stuck, with later games in the series hiding a dinner suit of their own.

The 2004 GameCube remake of Metal Gear Solid was released under what subtitle?

The Twin Snakes: it was built not by Kojima's own team but by the outside studio Silicon Knights, with Kojima and Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto overseeing the project.

Who is the rookie protagonist of Metal Gear Solid 2's Plant chapter?

Raiden: he was hidden from players before release, with trailers showing Solid Snake in scenes that belong to the newcomer in the finished game.

What is the Big Shell in Metal Gear Solid 2?

An offshore clean-up facility: built off Manhattan to mop up a tanker's oil spill, it turns out to be a cover story hiding a vast submersible fortress.

In MGS2's Tanker chapter, Snake seeks evidence of which new Metal Gear?

RAY: unlike the models before it, it carries no nuclear missiles, because it was built to hunt down the copycat Metal Gears spreading around the world.

The rogue anti-terrorist unit in MGS2 with Vamp, Fatman and Fortune is called what?

Dead Cell: the unit was created to launch surprise mock attacks on friendly bases as anti-terror training, before it went rogue and took the Big Shell hostage.

In Metal Gear Solid 2, which of Snake's fellow clones leads the Sons of Liberty terrorists?

Solidus Snake: under the name George Sears he had been President of the United States, and he seizes the Big Shell hoping to break the secret group that really runs the country.

Under what alias does Solid Snake first assist the rookie on the Big Shell?

Iroquois Pliskin: he poses as a Navy SEAL lieutenant, and the surname winks at Snake Plissken, Kurt Russell's antihero in Escape from New York.

The shadowy organization pulling the strings in MGS2 is known as what?

The Patriots: the captive US President confesses that American elections are a drama they stage, and that they even choose who gets his job.

Metal Gear Solid 2's expanded edition was released under what subtitle?

Substance: it reached Microsoft's Xbox first, in late 2002, before arriving on the PlayStation 2, the console the original game had been made for.

Snake Eater's backstory rewrites the resolution of which real crisis?

The Cuban Missile Crisis: in the game's secret history, the Soviet missiles left Cuba only after America quietly returned the weapons designer it had just helped defect.

Snake Eater introduced which hand-to-hand combat system?

CQC: short for close quarters combat, it pairs a pistol with a knife so Snake can seize a guard, then throw him, choke him out or question him at knifepoint.

In Snake Eater, what percentage gauge measures how visible Snake is to enemies?

Camouflage index: the figure climbs as players swap uniforms and face paint to match the terrain, and it drops below zero when Snake stands out.

Which Snake Eater enemy can be beaten by waiting a week until he dies of old age?

The End: the sniper is over a hundred years old, so saving mid-duel and returning a week later, or just winding the console's clock forward, finds him already dead.

Who is Naked Snake's defected former mentor in Snake Eater?

The Boss: her defection was a mission ordered by Washington, and Snake is sent to kill her to clear America's name, learning the truth only after she is dead.

Which electricity-controlling GRU colonel is Snake Eater's main antagonist?

Volgin: he fires an American-made nuclear shell at a Soviet research base and lets the blame fall on Washington, the act that sets the whole plot in motion.

Snake Eater's opening theme is a pastiche of which film series?

James Bond: the brassy theme, sung by Cynthia Harrell, comes back mid-game with nothing else going on, as Snake spends minutes climbing one enormously long ladder.

Kojima found Snake Eater's closing song after mishearing a friend's tip for Stellastarr as which band?

Starsailor: Kojima bought the wrong band's album, liked 'Way to Fall', and ran it over the credits after shelving his first plan of two David Bowie songs.

By what name is the playable Solid Snake known throughout Metal Gear Solid 4?

Old Snake: his cloned body was engineered to age fast, so although the story is set only nine years after the 1998 game, he already looks like an old man.

Which MGS4 gear lets Snake copy the colour and texture of any surface?

OctoCamo: named for the octopus's colour-changing skin, the suit takes on the pattern and texture of whatever Snake holds still against within moments.

In MGS4, weapons are bought from which arms launderer with his own points currency?

Drebin: he 'launders' ID-locked guns so that anyone can fire them, and turns up in every war zone Snake visits with a pet monkey in tow.

Metal Gear Solid 4 was released exclusively for which console in 2008?

PlayStation 3: it stayed locked to that one console for some 18 years, until a collection announced in 2026 promised to carry it to PC, Xbox and Nintendo machines.

Peace Walker (2010), set in Costa Rica, was built for which handheld?

PlayStation Portable: Kojima meant to leave it to younger staff but took over as director himself, wanting its story of nuclear deterrence to land with the handheld's younger players.

Which studio took over Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance after Kojima halted it?

PlatinumGames: Kojima's own team could not build a full game around slicing anything at will, so the project was quietly cancelled and handed to the Bayonetta studio to rebuild.

Who provided Snake's voice and facial capture in The Phantom Pain?

Kiefer Sutherland: Kojima wanted an actor who could play a man in his late forties with his face as much as his voice, and film producer Avi Arad suggested the star of 24.

The Phantom Pain plays out in Africa and which Asian country?

Afghanistan: Snake rides in on horseback during the Soviet occupation to rescue his captured partner Kazuhira Miller, before the story moves to the Angola-Zaire border.

What is the name of Venom Snake's mercenary group in The Phantom Pain?

Diamond Dogs: after an outbreak forces Snake to shoot his own infected men, he has their ashes pressed into diamonds so they can go on fighting beside him.

The Phantom Pain's twist reveals Venom Snake is really what?

A body double: he was the helicopter medic who shielded his commander from a bomb blast, then was given that man's face and memories so the real one could slip away.

Skull Face's plan in The Phantom Pain involves a parasite that kills people who do what?

Speak English: robbed of his own mother tongue as a child under foreign occupation, he means to wipe out the language he blames for making the world culturally American.

Before its NES port, Kojima's original Metal Gear ran on which home computer?

MSX2: the machine could not handle a screen full of enemies and bullets, so Kojima turned a planned combat game into one about slipping past the guards instead.

Which 2019 game was the first from Hideo Kojima's newly independent studio?

Death Stranding: after his old employer cancelled his horror game Silent Hills, Kojima left, re-formed his studio as an independent in December 2015, and made this with Sony's backing.

The 2025 remake of Snake Eater swaps the '3' in its title for which Greek letter?

Delta: the publisher said the symbol, which stands for change or difference without altering structure, suited a remake meant to keep the original story intact.

Solid Snake is widely said to be named after Kurt Russell's character in which dystopian John Carpenter film?

Escape from New York stars Russell as Snake, a special forces soldier turned prisoner with 24 hours to rescue the president from a Manhattan turned into one giant prison.

Which everyday object, a Metal Gear series trademark, does Snake hide under to slip past guards?

A cardboard box is Snake's signature disguise, and Peace Walker went further with two-man versions called Love Boxes.

Hideo Kojima asked Masahiro Sakurai to add Solid Snake to which 2008 fighting game?

Super Smash Bros. Brawl set Snake against Mario, Donkey Kong and Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog; he missed the next entry, then returned in Ultimate.

The Phantom Pain features Midge Ure's cover of 'The Man Who Sold the World', a song written by whom?

Bowie wrote it as the title track of his 1970 album, and Nirvana's MTV Unplugged performance in 1993 introduced it to a new audience.

What does Naked Snake lose under torture in Metal Gear Solid 3 while shielding a fellow spy?

An eye is the price: Snake is wounded as he throws himself in the way to protect a disguised ally whose cover is close to being blown.

Metal Gear Solid 3 swaps the series' high-tech bases for a 1960s jungle in which country?

The Soviet Union hosts the whole adventure: two-thirds of the game unfolds outdoors in a tropical forest, a break from the urban bases of earlier entries.

Dutch model Stefanie Joosten provided the face, voice and movements of which Phantom Pain character?

Quiet can join Snake on missions as a buddy, and Joosten later performed the character's theme song live on stage.

In the 1987 Metal Gear, which symbol appears above a guard's head when he spots Solid Snake?

An exclamation mark signals that a guard has seen Snake, and in the 1987 game two of them meant reinforcements would pour in from off-screen.

Solid Snake became an unlockable outfit in which battle royale game's battle pass in January 2024?

Fortnite made Snake the bonus outfit of Chapter 5 Season 1, earned by completing in-game quests before the season ended that March.

In The Phantom Pain, Snake recruits sleeping enemy soldiers by strapping what to their backs?

A balloon lifts each recruit into the sky for collection, a game version of the real Fulton recovery system once used by the CIA.

Which pickup, sometimes dropped by punched guards, restores Snake's health in the first Metal Gear?

Rations have fed Snake since 1987, when he began his first mission unarmed and had to scavenge every weapon, gas mask and meal from the enemy base.

The Phantom Pain, set in 1984, lets Snake collect licensed hits of the era on which music format?

Cassette tapes found during missions carry licensed music of the era alongside tracks from earlier Metal Gear games, all playable out in the field.

Peace Walker hides a mythical island reached through a crossover with which Capcom series?

Monster Hunter lent its Rathalos and Tigrex to the crossover, and the 2020 Monster Hunter film later drew its soldiers-meet-monsters story from that event.

Solid Snake's very first mission sends him into which fortified mercenary state in South Africa?

Outer Heaven turns out to be led by Snake's own commanding officer, who built it as a place for soldiers to fight free of any government's ideology.

Which Kurdish-born FOXHOUND member wounds Meryl to draw Solid Snake into an ambush?

Sniper Wolf fires mercury-tipped bullets from a PSG1 rifle, and Snake must face her again on a snowfield before he can move on.

Solid Snake calls his support team in Metal Gear Solid (1998) over which radio device?

Codec calls deliver advice and backstory, and the support team may even scold Snake for not saving his progress often enough.

Metal Gear Solid 2's final duel is fought on the roof of which Manhattan landmark?

Federal Hall stands on the site where George Washington was first sworn in as president, and the beaten villain falls to the foot of his statue outside.

In The Phantom Pain's prologue, the hero and his bandaged rescuer take codenames from which novel?

Moby-Dick supplies both names: the rescuer introduces himself as Ishmael and dubs the hero Ahab, and the game keeps returning to the novel's characters.

Harry Gregson-Williams, who scored Metal Gear Solid 2, came from the studio of which film composer?

Hans Zimmer was the original choice, but his rate was too high, so Kojima picked Gregson-Williams after watching The Replacement Killers.

Metal Gear: Ghost Babel, a 2000 spin-off set in Central Africa, was made for which handheld?

Game Boy Color owners got a critical favourite: Ghost Babel ended up as the best-rated game for the system on the review site GameRankings.

Which 1990 NES sequel to Metal Gear was made for the West without Hideo Kojima's involvement?

Snake's Revenge never came out in Japan, and one of its developers urged Kojima to make a true sequel, which became Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.

A preview demo of Metal Gear Solid 2 was sold packaged with which 2001 mecha action game?

Zone of the Enders sold strongly on the back of that demo, and one reviewer said the bundled preview alone made the game worth buying.

Which 2018 Metal Gear spin-off was the first made without Hideo Kojima's input since 1990?

Survive sends a soldier through a wormhole into another dimension, where the crystalline, zombie-like enemies are known as Wanderers.

Which Colorado senator and would-be president is the main villain of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance?

Steven Armstrong first appears to be an ordinary politician, and his rhetoric before the last fight has been widely turned into internet memes.

Which studio, fresh from Eternal Darkness, developed the 2004 GameCube remake of Metal Gear Solid?

Silicon Knights landed the remake after its chief was approached in a Nintendo cafeteria in Japan by Shigeru Miyamoto and Satoru Iwata.

Which nuclear tank from Sokolov's secret project must Naked Snake destroy in Metal Gear Solid 3?

Shagohod was chosen over a rival scientist's concept for a two-legged tank, the kind of machine the whole series is named after.

Which supposed American defector becomes Naked Snake's ally and love interest in Metal Gear Solid 3?

EVA was voiced under a pseudonym by Jodi Benson, the voice of Disney's Ariel, who did not confirm her involvement until 2024.

Which former British SAS man commands FOX and guides Naked Snake by radio in Metal Gear Solid 3?

Major Zero starts the mission under the codename Major Tom, and he goes on to become the overarching antagonist of the entire series.

Which medical adviser secretly injects Solid Snake with a deadly virus in Metal Gear Solid (1998)?

Naomi later admits the virus will kill Snake as well, though she cannot tell him how much time he has left.

Which engineered virus, carried unknowingly by Solid Snake, kills its targets by cardiac arrest?

FOXDIE was the government's real reason for sending Snake: once it had killed the terrorists, their stolen weapon could be recovered undamaged.

Which deputy chief of Snake's Peace Walker mercenaries later becomes Solid Snake's survival coach?

Kazuhira Miller, nicknamed Kaz, goes by Master Miller in the games set later, when he mentors Solid Snake in Metal Gear 2.

In Metal Gear Solid 2's Plant chapter, which girlfriend of the hero saves the player's progress?

Rosemary, nicknamed Rose, is on the mission as an army data analyst, yet most of her calls end up being about the couple's relationship.

Which child prodigy, Olga Gurlukovich's daughter, co-writes the virus that ends Metal Gear Solid 4?

Sunny grows up to work at a space company in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, where she helps the hero reach Pakistan in time.

At the start of The Phantom Pain, Snake wakes from a nine-year coma in a hospital on which island?

Cyprus is home to the British military base where he has lain since his forces were destroyed, and an assassin strikes soon after he wakes.

In The Phantom Pain, Snake's sea-platform headquarters lies near which Indian Ocean nation?

Seychelles waters host the new Mother Base, which grows as Snake recruits enemy soldiers and prisoners to staff it.

The Phantom Pain's African missions unfold where Zaire meets which war-torn country?

Angola was in the middle of its civil war in 1984, when the game is set, and the conflict pulls Snake's mercenaries into the region.

Which singer performs 'Snake Eater', Norihiko Hibino's opening theme for Metal Gear Solid 3?

Cynthia Harrell's vocal is heard again in the game proper, not only over the opening titles.

Metal Gear Solid (1998) closes with 'The Best Is Yet to Come', a song performed in which language?

Irish is an unexpected choice for a game set in Alaska; composer and lyricist Rika Muranaka provided the song for the closing credits.

Which stealth move did Snake first learn in the 1990 sequel Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake?

Crawling arrived alongside other stealth ideas in the 1990 sequel, such as making noise to lure guards and enemies with cones of vision.

Which secret project used Naked Snake's DNA to create Solid Snake and his cloned brothers?

Les Enfants Terribles is French for 'the terrible children', and learning that his DNA had been used made the original Snake break with his old allies.

In Metal Gear Solid 4, what technology inside soldiers lets a vast network monitor and enhance them?

Nanomachines tie every soldier to the SOP system, and an arms dealer has to inject Snake with them before he can use the newest weapons.

Metal Gear Solid featured in the 2012 exhibition The Art of Video Games at which museum?

The Smithsonian American Art Museum also displayed the game's sequel, and Kojima himself spoke on a discussion panel there in March 2012.

When Solid Snake is not on duty, which outdoor pursuit is his favourite recreation?

Dog sledding is his break from soldiering: Snake is a musher, and he has to be pulled out of retirement for the mission in Metal Gear Solid (1998).

Which in-house technology did Kojima Productions build to power Metal Gear Solid V?

Fox Engine was dropped for the 2025 remake of Snake Eater, which was built on Unreal Engine 5 instead.

Which Metal Gear model, designated ST-84, does Skull Face plan to unleash in The Phantom Pain?

Sahelanthropus has no AI at Skull Face's insistence, so he depends on a psychic child to pilot it, a reliance that backfires during a test.

Which guard, robbed of his uniform by Meryl in the 1998 game, ends up marrying her in Metal Gear Solid 4?

Johnny Sasaki is a running joke for his stomach problems, but Meryl forgives his clumsiness and falls for him by the end of the fourth game.

Which actor has voiced Solid Snake in the Japanese versions of the Metal Gear Solid games?

Akio Ōtsuka recalled being surprised at his debut by the sheer amount of dialogue the character had been given.

Which biologist, more than a century old, does Skull Face force to study parasites in The Phantom Pain?

Code Talker is a Navajo scientist, and Skull Face secures his work by threatening the extermination of his people.

What name is given to Naked Snake's failed attempt to extract Sokolov as Metal Gear Solid 3 opens?

Virtuous Mission ends in disaster when Snake's mentor defects, so he is sent back on a follow-up operation that gives the game its subtitle.

Metal Gear Acid (2004) swapped real-time sneaking for turn-based tactics built around what?

Trading cards control every move and attack in Acid, and most of them depict weapons and characters from across the Metal Gear series.