News that Konami is following up the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 with a Master Collection Vol. 2 was very welcome, but hardly the most surprising reveal of the year. Still, seeing MGS4 available for a system other than a PlayStation 3 feels weird, at least for gamers of a certain vintage.
It's not quite a Sonic-on-Nintendo-level event; it's more like when Wipeout came to N64. A brilliant game, a very pleasant surprise, but...is this legal!?
Beyond wondering how this PS3-jailbroken version will handle all the Sony-specific references, we were also struck by Game Boy Color's Metal Gear Solid coming as part of the package. That tidbit got a little buried, which is understandable but also odd given that it's the third game in this slim 'collection'. Odder still, it's classed as a "bonus" that you only get by purchasing the MGS4 and Peace Walker pair.
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Both of those will be available separately for $30 a pop, but $50 gets you the full trio including Metal Gear: Ghost Babel, as it was known in Japan (and which we'll call it from now on to save confusion).
Metal Gear and Snake's Revenge for NES were bonus games in Vol. 1, of course, but neither is held in as high regard as 2000's Ghost Babel, a non-canon, alt-timeline mission that (confusingly, given the MGS name) doesn't port the PS1 game to GBC but takes the top-down view of the original MG and augments it with newer ideas from the Solid series.
Well, we say 'series', but this came out a year before MGS2, so the original and VR Missions were the only entries beforehand. According to Hideo Kojima, the game came about after a request from Konami's European branch enquiring about a Game Boy version. Co-developed between Konami and TOSE, Kojima himself was on producing duties only for this one, with Shinta Nojiri directing (who would go on to direct Metal Gear Acid 1 and 2 on the PSP).
As the first handheld game in the stealth series, anybody coming to it from the 3D games should temper their expectations appropriately. However, this still stands as a remarkable 8-bit distillation of the Solid series, and one of the very best games you'll find on Game Boy Color. Take a looksie here if you've never seen it in action:
With the Game Boy Advance just around the corner, and excitement focused on the 'mainline' PS2 sequel, Ghost Babel didn't get the attention it deserved despite being a much more than solid (pun, as always, intended) entry.
"The perspective may have shifted back to its 1987 roots, but Metal Gear Solid on Game Boy Color is very much a game of the new millennium," wrote Jon Wahlgren in our 2012 retro review, where he awarded it 9/10.
"It's quite incredible just how faithful this portable title is to both the 2D games of the MSX/NES and the later polygonal PlayStation entries in terms of gameplay, tone, and aesthetic. Lengthy, challenging, and rewarding, Metal Gear Solid is far and away one of the best carts you can buy for your Game Boy Color, and a title we can only hope hits the 3DS Virtual Console sooner rather than later."
It never did come to VC, unfortunately. At the time of writing, Ghost Babel is sitting at #11 on our reader-ranked Best GBC Games list, and at #4 on our Best Metal Gear Games on Nintendo Systems.
Granted, it'll likely drop down on the latter once Vol. 2 comes out in August, but wherever it places in your personal ranking, it's good to see it coming back on Switch - "bonus" game or otherwise.
And if you never played it, well, your chance is coming.