Celebrating 38 Years of Metal Gear and the Birth of Stealth Gaming

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On December 22, 1987, a quiet but important shift in action games began with the release of Metal Gear on the Japanese Famicom. Metal Gear asked players to slow down, stay hidden, and avoid fights whenever possible. Today marks the game’s 38th anniversary and the birth of a series that has sold over 65 million copies worldwide while turning Hideo Kojima into one of the most well-known creative voices in gaming.

The idea behind Metal Gear was born earlier that year on the MSX2 home computer. Kojima was asked to make a military action game, but the hardware struggled to handle many enemies or bullets on screen at once. Instead of fighting the limits, he worked around them. Inspired by movies like The Great Escape, he built a game where survival depended on avoiding enemies, not defeating them.

The Famicom version, which later became the NES release in the West, tells a more complicated story. This port was made by a different Konami team without Kojima’s involvement and was rushed in just three months. Kojima has openly criticized this version over the years, calling it deeply flawed. Levels were changed, progression became more linear, and several bugs slipped in. The biggest change came at the end, where the famous Metal Gear machine was removed and replaced with a stationary computer due to system limits.

Even with these flaws, the Famicom and NES versions were how many players first met Solid Snake. Set in the year 1995, the story follows the FOXHOUND agent as he sneaks into the Outer Heaven base in South Africa to destroy the Metal Gear weapon. Along the way, Snake uncovers a shocking truth involving his commander, Big Boss. Despite the weaker hardware, the game still felt unique thanks to ideas like radio calls for advice, top-down stealth movement, and clever tools such as cigarettes used to spot laser traps.

The success of the NES version, especially in North America where it sold more than a million copies, helped save the series. Its popularity led Konami to greenlight a sequel for Western players, Snake’s Revenge. That decision pushed Kojima to return and create his own follow-up, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, for the MSX2. These ideas would later grow into Metal Gear Solid in 1998, which brought the series into 3D and set a new standard for storytelling in games.