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War transforms us, Snake. Into beasts.

A certain inability to walk into a normal life pervades the player’s thirst for playful violence after taking down the Patriots in the Metal Gear series. The Winds of Destruction will have to fill that void. Some, like Sundowner, claim we surround the Self with violence, because of the feeling instilled when you kill your enemies and liberate the less fortunate and able. Others maintain that we argue philosophy as a way of waking up the beast inside of the Self. Regardless of the means, these musings have persisted through the Metal Gear franchise from the beginning. With Metal Gear Rising, they mesh high and low culture together in allusions that complicate our reason for loving to play.

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Metallica, Megadeth, Metal Gear?

Spinoffs can be a dicey proposition. There’s a real danger of diluting the name of the original franchise by slapping it on a bunch of games that are only somewhat related, and if the spinoff isn’t a quality game to begin with it can cause brand degradation. When a spinoff succeeds though, it can lead to an entirely new franchise that runs parallel with the source material, slicing and dicing its own path to popularity. I’m happy to say that Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is just that type of game; something that can stand on its own as a great action game while still fitting into the convoluted Metal Gear universe. But this isn’t your daddy’s Metal Gear; if Solid Snake is a little bit country, Raiden is 100% metal.

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This ain't your daddy's Metal Gear!

I was really worried about Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. It was originally known as Metal Gear Solid: Rising, and was announced in 2009 as an Xbox 360 exclusive. A troubled and protracted development cycle almost ended in cancellation before the project was given over to Platinum Games. We may never know the full story about how an Xbox 360 exclusive designed by an in-house team hand-picked by Hideo Kojima became a multiplatform game developed by Platinum, but I can at least say that my worries are gone. Metal Gear Rising may not be what people have come to expect from the Metal Gear series, but so far I’d say it’s an impressive game in its own right.

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I’m not sure 30 minute cutscenes are particularly well suited for portable play, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

It wasn’t long ago that we saw the release of Metal Gear Solid HD Collection for both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Previews Editor, Julian Titus, was able to take the title for a spin and his review clearly indicated that this is a great collection of games. The same holds true here, but there have been a few changes in its transition to the PlayStation Vita.

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