Highlights
- Breaking the fourth wall in Metal Gear games has been a long-standing tradition, dating back to the original MSX version in 1987.
- Hideo Kojima, the creator of Metal Gear, has incorporated clever fourth wall breaks throughout the series, including references to real consoles and even making himself a character within the games.
- From humorous dialogue to gameplay mechanics that challenge player expectations, Metal Gear games have embraced and innovated the concept of breaking the fourth wall in video games.
Breaking the fourth wall feels modern, but it’s actually as old as the hills. From Shakespeare putting a play within a play in both Hamlet and A Midsummer’s Night Dream (complete with Mystery Science Theater 3000-esque commentary), to Cervantes critiquing himself in Don Quixote, creators have been nudge-winking the audience for centuries.
It’s been done in video games too, with Metal Gear being 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 being Metal 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 until Sonic 2. Chocobos and Moogles didn’t exist until Final Fantasy 2 and 3, respectively. So, some would think Metal Gear on the original MSX might've been more pedestrian compared to the Solid games.
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.
9 MSX2 Saves The World
The series has often featured real consoles in their games, like the PS1 in Metal Gear Solid, and Otacon’s speech about the PS3’s dual-layered discs in Metal Gear Solid 4. Yet only one has actually managed to save the world. In Metal 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 by fellow 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 since MGS1 with their length often dwarfing the gameplay time. The developers seem to have expected this, as one of Miller’s codec lines in MGS1 tells players to take regular bathroom breaks in case they end up in “a long demo.”
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Metal Gear Solid 2 opened with an impressive sequence of Snake leaping onto the tanker, where his “Kept you waiting, huh?” line was also aimed at players. Then Metal Gear Solid 3 had 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.
7 Mister 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 in MGS1. Then he was the only “ghost” photo in MGS2. MGS4 went one further, crediting him as “God” (the voice that calls Psycho Mantis’ ghost away during his reappearance). Peace Walker then 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 in Ground Zeroes’ Intel Operative Rescue mission, who turns out to be Kojima. He can then be re-recruited for Diamond Dogs in Metal Gear Solid 5 if players have GZ save data. He's since appeared in other games too.
6 Sam & Gabe
MGS3 threw in an additional mode where Snake had to sneak around and catch the apes from Ape 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 to Splinter Cell’s Sam Fisher and Syphon 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.
5 Time Paradox
MGS3 took 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 in MGS3 going 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.
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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 for Back to the Future’s Doc Brown. The “Snake/Ocelot/EVA is Dead” message would also slowly change to “Time Paradox” if left alone.
4 Fission Mailed
To stop the terrorist threat in MGS2, 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, from MG1 to the Game Boy Color Metal Gear Solid. The breakdown affects the game too, as it would display fake Game Overs that would shrink the screen during combat sequences (“Fission Mailed”).
3 “I Like MGS2!”
The Metal Gear games often give the player a few options to toggle before they start, like difficulty settings, etc. MGS3 went one further by asking players what their favorite MGS game was. Choosing MGS1 or MGS3 (in Subsistence) would give the player some perks like more stamina or more camo options. Picking MGS2 would replace Snake with a certain blonde pretty man credited 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”).
2 The End's Time Runs Out
The COBRA unit in MGS3 were 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.
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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.
1 Psycho Mantis Takes Over The Console
Picking Psycho Mantis in MGS1 as 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 influential easter egg in the series. If the player has data for Vandal Hearts, Azure Dreams, Suikoden, and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on their card, Mantis will make a knowing comment about the games.
The Twin Snakes Gamecube remake replaced these with Nintendo titles (“You like Super Mario Sunshine!”) and Eternal 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.