The original Metal Gear on the NES

For a long time now one of the most popular styles of video game has involved staying very still, doing absolutely nothing, for long periods of time.

However it sounds on paper though the concept of stealth gameplay, as popularised by Metal Gear, has had such an effect on games that barely any new title, from kid's film license to first person shooter, can resist adding its own stealth elements and levels.

The Metal Gear series actually started as long ago as 1987, on the Japanese MSX2 computer and the NES (emulations of the first two games are included in Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence).

Despite the primitive 2D graphics these games still featured all the hallmarks of the modern Metal Gear Solid games - complex plot, outrageous boss characters and stealth gameplay that essentially works identically to the modern games.

In the first game you didn't even start with a gun, but instead hiding from and evading the enemy was far more effective.

Although the original Metal Gear games were reasonably successful, the concept of stealth didn't catch on at first and it wasn't until the release of GoldenEye 007 for the Nintendo 64 in 1997 that the idea really became mainstream.

Published 15th March 2007