Summary
Breaking the fourth wall feels modern, but it’s actually as old as the hills. From Shakespeare putting a play within a play in bothHamletandA Midsummer’s Night Dream(complete withMystery Science Theater 3000-esque commentary), to Cervantes critiquing himself inDon Quixote, creators have been nudge-winking the audience for centuries.
It’s been done in video games too, withMetal Gearbeing the most famous for smashing the barrier between game and reality. Creator Hideo Kojima couldn’t settle with a standard stealth-action game about terrorists and walking tanks. They had to find some way to psych their players out, with their most famous examples beingMetal Gear’s best fourth wall breaks.
10“Turn Off Your Console Now!”
Sometimes it takes a while for a game to get its signature features. Sonic couldn’t spindash untilSonic 2. Chocobos and Moogles didn’t exist untilFinal Fantasy2and3,respectively. So, some would thinkMetal Gearon the original MSX might’ve been more pedestrian compared to theSolidgames.
But as Snake goes deeper into the Outer Heaven compound, his CO Big Boss gets worse at giving advice. It all reaches a head when, revealed as the leader of the terrorists, he orders Snake to “turn off your console now!”. It’s fairly standard today, but it was eyebrow-raising back in 1987.
9MSX2 Saves The World
The series has often featured real consoles in their games, like the PS1 inMetal Gear Solid, and Otacon’s speech about the PS3’s dual-layered discs inMetal Gear Solid 4. Yet only one has actually managed to save the world.InMetal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Big Boss abducted Dr. Kio Marv, a Czech scientist who invented a biomass alternative to oil called OILIX that could solve the world’s fuel crisis.
He’s the only one who has the formula, so Snake has to save him on top of stopping Metal Gear and Big Boss. Except he ends up killed byfellow scientist Dr. Pettrovich-Madnar. All seemed lost until Snake learned Marv was a fan of video games, and his favorite machine was the MSX2,MG2’s home device. He hid the formula in an MSX2 cartridge, which Snake retrieves, keeping the fuel flowing.
8“Kept You Waiting, Huh?”
As the games got bigger, Kojima got more ambitious, filling the extra space with more cutscenes and Codec calls. It’s something that’s irked fans sinceMGS1with their length often dwarfing the gameplay time. The developers seem to have expected this, as one of Miller’s codec lines inMGS1tells players to take regular bathroom breaks in case they end up in “a long demo.”
Metal Gear Solid 2opened with an impressive sequence of Snake leaping onto the tanker, where his “Kept you waiting, huh?” line was also aimed at players. ThenMetal Gear Solid 3had Naked Snake trying to flee a warehouse before it got blown sky-high by his planted C3s, only for Volgin to catch him and explain his plot. Holding R1 would show the Sorrow showing the countdown for the C3. Then, once Volgin was done, he’d give a mock apology for taking up that time.
7Mister Kojima!
Hideo Kojima went from just creating the games to being a character within them. At first, he was one of many hidden “ghost” photos inMGS1. Then he was the only “ghost” photo inMGS2.MGS4went one further, crediting him as “God” (the voice that calls Psycho Mantis’ ghost away during his reappearance).Peace Walkerthen had Miller remarking that Camille’s surname, Cosima-Caminades, sounds a lot like “Kojima kami nan desu” (“Kojima is God”).
Kojima himself can be recruited to Boss’ MSF if they pick the truck labeled “63824” (a reference to Kojima’s birthdate). Then Boss has to keep a certain agent alive inGround Zeroes’ Intel Operative Rescue mission, who turns out to be Kojima. He can then be re-recruited for Diamond Dogs inMetal Gear Solid 5if players haveGZsave data. He’s since appearedin other games too.
6Sam & Gabe
MGS3threw in an additional mode where Snake had to sneak around and catch the apes fromApe Escape. It was fun, goofy, and not carried over to the game’s HD editions. This is a shame as it opens with a funny scene where Colonel Campbell tries to call Snake out of retirement, who’s not interested in taking on any more Metal Gears and isn’t keen on dealing with any apes either.
Snake tries passing the buck, saying “Why don’t you make Sam or Gabe do the job?”, referring toSplinter Cell’s Sam Fisher andSyphon Filter’s Gabe Logan. But Campbell has none of it, saying “this is the genre we turned over every leaf in!”. Clearly, Konami wasn’t willing to pass the torch back then.
5Time Paradox
MGS3took the series back to the past, when Big Boss was simply Naked Snake, and Revolver Ocelot was a punk Spetsnaz Major. Though as a prequel, it meant every other game depended on everything inMGS3going off without a hitch. If Snake, EVA, or Sokolov die, they’ll get the usual Game Over screen and desperate cries from the support team.
But it also happens if the player kills Ocelot, where Colonel Campbell (who’s not in the game regularly) admonishes them for creating a time paradox. It had extra weight for Japanese players, as Campbell’s VA Takeshi Aono was also the dub voice forBack to the Future’s Doc Brown. The “Snake/Ocelot/EVA is Dead” message would also slowly change to “Time Paradox” if left alone.
4Fission Mailed
To stop the terrorist threat inMGS2, Raiden needed to infect the GW AI with a virus. However, the system’s antivirus kicked in when it was 90% done. It’s left ambiguous whether it succeeded or not. But when Raiden finds himself in Arsenal Gear, his CO Colonel Campbell starts acting weird. It’s the first overt sign that he wasn’t who he said he was.
He calls Raiden constantly, speaking in odd non-sequiturs (“I need scissors! 61!"). The Colonel also quotes previous games, fromMG1to the Game Boy ColorMetal Gear Solid. The breakdown affects the game too, as it would displayfake Game Oversthat would shrink the screen during combat sequences (“Fission Mailed”).
3“I Like MGS2!”
TheMetal Geargames often give the player a few options to toggle before they start, like difficulty settings, etc.MGS3went one further by asking players what their favoriteMGSgame was. ChoosingMGS1orMGS3(inSubsistence) would give the player some perks like more stamina or more camo options. PickingMGS2would replace Snake with acertain blonde pretty mancredited as “Jack”.
When Major Zero calls, he remarks to the player “What’s wrong? You were expecting something different?”. Luckily for players who didn’t care for Raiden at the time, it’s just a mask Snake can take off and use later in the game. But it does lead to meta-talks about the character’s unpopularity at the time (“You’re starting to irritate me already”).
2The End’s Time Runs Out
The COBRA unit inMGS3were fairly formidable bosses, with The End being one of the more challenging ones to take head-on. If players couldn’t out-snipe him, they had to sneak up on him, looking for signs of his presence. They wouldn’t be killed if they failed but sent way back from his forest. Saving wouldn’t help them either, as he’d instantly tranq Snake the moment he woke up.
But there was a way to take him down without breaking a sweat. Simply save, turn off the PS2, and leave it alone for about a week (or set the internal clock ahead by the same time). On reloading the save, they’d get a scene of Snake coming across his body. He took so long to head back to the game that he died of old age. Snake will feel bad about the cheap win, but a victory is a victory.
1Psycho Mantis Takes Over The Console
Picking Psycho Mantis inMGS1as the best fourth wall break is predictable, but it’s also true. Even if age has rendered it fairly benign, it’s perhaps the most influentialeaster egg in the series. If the player has data forVandal Hearts, Azure Dreams,Suikoden, andCastlevania: Symphony of the Nighton their card, Mantis will make a knowing comment about the games.
TheTwin SnakesGamecube remake replaced these with Nintendo titles (“You likeSuper Mario Sunshine!”) andEternal Darkness. Combined with his ability to move the player’s controller and black out the screen, it really seemed like Mantis had control of the console. The only way to take him down was to switch controller ports, so he couldn’t read the player’s inputs. That way, players could beat him at his own game.
