The “Metal Gear Solid” series of stealth-action games has dressed our hero, Snake, in all kinds of camouflage, from the gray fatigues of the first game to the background-blending cloak of “MGS4,” but “Snake Eater 3D” is the first game that let me decorate Snake with my dog’s face.
Using the 3DS’ cameras, I was able to took a picture of my pretty pooch, and moments later there he was on the screen, looking back at me from Snake’s chest. That’s the kind of game this is.
“Metal Gear Solid 3,” the oddball of an oddball series, drops you into the middle of a jungle with nothing but your camo, facepaint and wits as you hunt down AK-wielding KGB operatives … and magpies.
“Snake Eater,” you see, gets its name because in this chapter of the acclaimed franchise, you have to kill animals for food, and the animals crawling around in the woods include snakes. Which I guess makes Snake something of a cannibal. Or maybe the title has some kind of deeper meaning, like “What’s Eating Gilbert Snake.” Either way, here’s a “Metal Gear Solid” to satisfy fans of those “Big Game Hunter” arcade stand-ups at the Bass Pro Shop.
| ‘Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater 3D’ |
| » Systems: 3DS |
| » Price: $39.99 |
| » Rating: 3 out of 5 stars |
“Snake Eater” has all the series’ quirks, starting with the voice talents of Snake actor David Hayter, whose singular surfer-growl is less suited to spy chatter than conveying which radio station still plays your favorite hits. The game tells a Cold War story that’s incomprehensible even by the standards of Japanese auteur Hideo Kojima, who created “Metal Gear” in 1987 and seems more interested in filmmaking than game development. And even if you can keep your Khrushchevs and Brezhnevs straight, wait till you meet a character named Ocelot, who cries out like an ocelot.
Amid all the insanity, there’s an extraordinarily versatile game that begs to be played many different ways, over and over. Toss a snake at a guard to scare him, then sneak up for the takedown. Or, with a well-placed, silenced shot to a pulpy nest, outsource your guard-dispatching duties to a swarm of hornets.
Despite its great variety, I can think of two reasons to pass over “Snake Eater.” The first is the nonsensical inventory system, an enemy combatant in a much more real sense than anybody with a gun. The second is that this game, first released in 2004 on the PlayStation 2, is included as one of three games in the “Metal Gear Solid HD Collection,” which is out on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and carries the same price tag as this lone offering.
But for the 3DS owner with a lot of patience, or a lot of desire to see their dog in a video game, this is an offering unlike anything out there.
