Metal Gear: Ghost Babel

(Disclaimer: in the following review i will assume that you are familiar with the PS1 game Metal Gear Solid, and to an extend, with its predecessors, Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake to the MSX2. If you aren't, most of it will make little or no sense at all, and will most likely look like the rumblings of a mad man. Ohhh right, and it contains spoilers regarding the official MGS timeline, not the Ghost Babel one though)

I'm finally out of jail, and I'm back! Seriously, I'm now over educated and under employed, which means i have plenty of time to play games and write shit about them.

Metal Gear: Ghost Babel, released in Europe as Metal Gear Solid (like the legendary PS1 title), is a year 2000 stealth game for the GameBoy Color. Produced under request from Konami Europe, it features the talents of the man itself, Hideo Kojima, as producer; and Shuyo Murata, who would later co-write MGS3: Snake Eater and co-direct MGS4:GoP.

(BTW, I'm fully aware that the screenshots are shitty, but its the gameboy resolution, and they were either taken from a PSP or taken from wikipedia, so give me a brake)

About the game: once again, you take the role of Solid Snake (and not Raiden, AHAHAH), and your mission is to infiltrate another fortress (sort of), and destroy another Metal Gear, this time, codenamed Gander. This game does not follow the official Metal Gear timeline, presenting an original and alternative plot, despite adapting some elements from the 1998 PS1 MGS. According to it, the events at Zanzibar Land never came to pass. After the destruction of Outer Heaven and the death of Big Boss, Snake retires from FOXHOUND, and moves to Alaska to pursue his love of moonshining and dog sled racing. However, seven eyers after the the events of Metal Gear, a separatist group from "wherever in Africa", called GLF occupies what remains of Outer Heaven, rename it to something stupid, and steal a Metal Gear prototype, and so it begins.

The supporting cast is somewhat reminiscent of MGS, with Col. Campbell and Mei Ling being similar to the original game. The new characters, in a way or another, tend to replace the original ones, in similar functions. Ronard Lesenbrink replaced Natasha Skdfjnskdfnenko (I made that up) as a weapons tech, Brian McBride replaced Master Miller (my ass!!!!) as someone who tells us shit we do not care about, and James Harks aka Jimmy the Wizard, a teenage wonderboy, replaces Otacon in every way, including being annoying as hell and being able to generate an enormous  amount of murdering hate towards himself. Finally, Meryl is replaced by Delta Force chick Chris Jenner, who, just like Meryl, is there pretty much to look good, but in 8-Bit.


The bosses themselves are your usual Metal Gear variety, reminiscent from several bosses from the MSX titles. They all belong to the Black Chamber, yet another renegade elite special forces unit, this time led by Black Arts Viper, a boobytrap master. Besides him, it features the talents of Slasher Hawk, who has two boomerangs (seriously, what's wrong with a bullet), Marionette Owl, puppet master and serial killer extraordinaire, and finally, Pyro Bison, just a regular guy with a flamethrower. The Final Boss (lets not call it Big) is this dude named General Augustine Eguabon.

Storywise, this title is very good, and when i say very good, i mean VERY GOOD. Ignoring the events of Zanzibar Land and Shadow Moses, it is free of the later retcons that made things weird, and delivers a powerful story about political intrigue and espionage. It exposes the hidden agenda behind Operation Intrude N312 and N313, and elaborates on the character of Big Boss, but this time without the existence of the Patriots or the Boss. It is a great story, and to be honest, whoever wrote the plot of Portable Ops surely could learn a thing or two from this title.
The gameplay is pretty much like a classic MSX title, but is able to include several mechanics from the PS1 game, a remarkable feat considering the limitations of the GameBoy color. Don't let this review fool you, this is a VERY VERY GOOD GAME.


The good: everything, truly a master piece. if you don't take my word for it, check it
The bad and the ugly: never mind that.

Ok, this is how it goes, if you are one of those new HUGE MGS fans, who really liked the graphics and have played MGS4 like 3 times, and manage to get a fuckin chicken emblem in easy, GTFO, this game is TO GOOD FOR YOU.

If you are one of those guys who remember the tv ads from 1998 and played the game, take a shot at it. It might look outdated but it is the last classic Metal Gear game out-there.

If you are one of those guys who played everything, including Portable Ops and the MSX originals (or the Subsistence re-releases, which are very ok, except that Big Boss no longer looks like Sean Connery, which was funny, because Solid Snake, who in turn is a clone of Big Boss, actually did not looked like Sean Connery at all, but rather like Mel Gibson, which is weird, because, to my knowledge, Mel Gibson is not a clone nor resembles Sean Connery in any distinguishable way. Confused? I figured so), and even went as far as to obtain a GameCube just to get Twin Snakes (yup, i know your pain), and you haven't played this yet, what the fuck are you waiting for??!!!!!!!!

If you are one of those guys who managed to beat MGS: Integral with Big Boss ranking in order to get close and personal with Mei Ling AND you actually know what I'm talking about, than you have already played this game and you know how good it really is.

Get a decent GameBoy emulator here. I'm going to level with you here. I use RIN GB/GBC 1.32 RM for the PSP, so i have no idea which one to use. You can get the game here. Never mind the Suns of Liberty box in the page, it's the real deal.