Once Upon A Time
There was a game called Metal Gear AC!D², for the PSP. It was the prettiest, funnest spinoff that the Metal Gear series had seen since Ghost Babel, and everybody enjoyed it for a while. But then, a few months later, its big ugly stepsister hit the scene and locked poor little MGA² in the basement, never to be seen again. The ugly stepsister was named Portable Ops, and it demonstrated why 'serious' MGS action games on the PSP aren't as good as wacky spinoffs. (You listening, Peace Walker?)
Yes, Metal Gear AC!D² was a fine game, but its time in the spotlight was cut short and overshadowed by the bigger, sluttier MGS game claiming to be 'canon story' and boasting an MGS3 control scheme. And while it was getting its proverbial ass kissed by every reviewer in the world, the AC!D games were forgotten and and pushed aside; after all, who cares about some gimmicky card game when we finally have a "real" MGS game in our hands, promising to fill in the space between Snake Eater and the original MSX game? Nobody I've heard from.
See, the fact is that most fans are happy so long as you can crawl, shoot a gun, and maybe look around corners. Oh, and the graphics need to be really good. Things like cutscenes and dialogue are merely obstacles to them, standing between them and their mindless sneaky-shooty experience. Metal Gear Solid 2 proved this, and so has every game since. Even when the controls are shoddy and ill-fitted for the PSP (thanks to lazy porting of the MGS3 engine), and the plot is disgraceful (thanks to lazy writing), nothing stopped this game from rising to success. People are just stupid that way.
But a few things have changed since then, right?
The Prince's Ball
In this version of Cinderella, paying customers are like the Prince. And every so often, the Prince has a grand ball where bitches can come and try to impress him. They strut their stuff, shake it around, and the one the Prince likes the most gets invited to the V.I.P. room, where she makes lots of money. And as everybody knows, the finest bitches are always courtesy of the Fairy Godmother. Also known as Hideo Kojima.
But last year there was this embarrassing incident at the ball, when Fairy Godmother Kojima was pimpin' a ho by the name of Guns of the Patriots. Now GOTP was a nasty tricked out ho, no doubt — she had more jiggle than a bowl of Jello. But she made a fool of herself during the talent contest, when she tried to do too many flips off the high dive. She landed with a big painful bellyflop, and the Prince didn't know what to think of that. It seemed really impressive while she was in the air, but it was hard to ignore the splash when she hit the surface.
This bellyflop created a "wave" of mixed emotions (pun intended), but not in the way that Sons of Liberty had years earlier. A part of the Prince hated how the story was full of retcons, shit all over MGS2, and failed to live up to its hype, while the other part wished there hadn't been so many dang stupid codec conversations(!!) and instead had more shooting(!!). He still took her to the V.I.P. room, but the next day he rang up the Fairy Godmother and expressed his concerns.
And so, Peace Walker is in an awkward position. The division among loyal fans (between smart and stupid) means that it will be heavily scrutinized by two opposite sides. Those who mostly want good storytelling and character development will be disappointed if the story is too shallow and sparse, while those who mostly want running and shooting will be disappointed if the gameplay is interrupted by too much story! The polarizing effect of MGS4 means that expectations will probably be more critical than when Portable Ops was released. And with Hideo Kojima as the Director, you have even more pressure to avoid the perceived mistakes of GOTP.
Thankfully, however, the Fairy Godmother always has a plan.
Part 2: Them Glass Slippers & The Clock Strike Midnight
