Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes

• 1. Development Collaboration

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  Nintendo of America announced the remake in 2003. Silicon Knights would develop the game under guidance from Hideo Kojima and Shigeru Miyamoto. Kojima was busy working on Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater at that time. He could not commit to the project full-time. He later suggested to both Miyamoto and Satoru Iwata to let Silicon Knights take the helm. The company's CEO Denis Dyack happened to be at the Nintendo cafeteria in Japan when approached by Miyamoto and Iwata. He agreed to work on The Twin Snakes after completing Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem.

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• 2. Cinematic Direction Choices

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  Ryuhei Kitamura directed many of the game's cinematics while Silicon Knights implemented them into the game. Hideo Kojima asked Kitamura to redo them in his well-known action style. The reworked cinematics received some criticism due to Kitamura's excessive use of the bullet time effect. This technique was largely inspired by the then popular hit movie The Matrix. Some of the in-game music was handled by Steve Henifin and Silicon Knights' music staff. Konami's music staff including Norihiko Hibino handled the rest of the music for menus and cut scenes.

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• 3. First-Person Perspective Shifts

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  Snake fires at Gray Fox from a first-person perspective during combat sequences. New ways for the player to combat enemies were introduced such as the ability to shoot from a first-person view. Enemy AI improved giving enemy soldiers the ability to communicate with each other. They detect the player more intelligently with senses of sight and sound enhanced. All original areas and enemies remained but gameplay functions originally introduced in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty appeared here. The level design stayed virtually unchanged from the original game which spoiled challenge according to critics.

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• 4. Voice Acting Re-recording

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  The voice acting was re-recorded with the original cast from Metal Gear Solid except for the role of the Cyborg Ninja. David Hayter persuaded Konami to have the original voice cast reprise their roles. Increased audio quality allowed by the GameCube picked up outside noise from the original recordings that were inaudible in the PlayStation version. In the original game Gray Fox and Donald Anderson were both voiced by Greg Eagles. In The Twin Snakes Greg Eagles voices only Anderson whereas the Ninja was voiced by Rob Paulsen. Mei Ling, Nastasha Romanenko, and Naomi Hunter speak with North American accents in this version.

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• 5. Premium Package Contents

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  In Japan The Twin Snakes was released on March 11 alongside an exclusive Premium Package. The box includes the game itself plus a platinum-colored GameCube adorned with the FOXHOUND logo. A 44-page book titled Memorandum containing production notes, sketches and photos came inside. A GameCube disc called the Special Disc contained an emulated version of the Family Computer version of the original Metal Gear. The European date was pushed back several weeks after the initial November 2003 target.

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• 6. Critical Reception Analysis

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  GameRankings gave The Twin Snakes an 85.58% score while Metacritic awarded it 85 out of 100 points. IGN rated it 8.5 out of 10 praising its superior graphics and likening presentation to epic movies. GameSpot gave it 8.2 out of 10 or Great on their scale. Eurogamer rated it 8 out of 10 and Gaming Age gave it an A-minus rating. Game Informer cited improved gameplay and graphics along with faithful retelling of the story. Critics noted flagging framerate and bouts of slowdown when too much activity crowded the screen.

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