Metal Gear (The Non-Canonical Games)
This the first part of this post was revised and now lives here on RetroThing.com!
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Similarly, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes was an unofficial remake of Metal Gear Solid (for the PSX) for the GameCube made, not by Kojima, but by Canadian game developers, Silicon Knights. Many Metal Gear fans, including myself, consider this game to have suffered from Kojima's lacking involvement and featured a few disappointing or strange changes that usually only seemed to mar the original intended game experience. To this day, it seems Kojima still considers his original PSX version to be superior and rightfully so.
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Alternate Universe Soapbox!:
On a somewhat related topic, I'd like to comment on the Metal Gear Ac!d games for the Sony PSP... I love them! The games' creation were not headed by Kojima but instead by Konami's Shinta Nojiri, but despite being non-canonical they are Kojima-blessed games. The game took the stealth action of the original games, made it turn based and added a card system for the player's actions. This makes for a truly unique game experience with an appropriately strange storyline. I can understand and respect where some Metal Gear fans might not appreciate the MGA games but they were intended to be a bizarre spin-off of Metal Gear. They weren't attempting to reinvent the Metal Gear series. They were just telling a side story. I'm not alone in thinking they're really unique, bizarre and fun games. Oh, and if your only complaint with the first MGA was the interface/movement system, try the second game. They revamped it in MGA2.
And while I'm at it, I'll comment on another non-canonical game, Metal Gear Solid (for the Game Boy Color) ("Metal Gear: Ghost Babel" in Japan) which is also, another fantastic Nojiri game blessed by Kojima. This game is considered to be, fairly undisputedly, one of the best games ever released for the Game Boy. It plays somewhat like an alternate universe to the first Metal Gear Solid game for the PSX and is surprisingly similar in many ways.
NOTE!: I recommend the European release of Metal Gear Solid (for the Game Boy Color) as it contains a very cool easter egg not found in the US release.
Lastly, is the Metal Gear Solid Digital Graphic Novel(s) for the Sony PSP which is just like it sounds. It's a digital version of the beautiful Metal Gear Solid comics written by Kris Oprisko and illustrated by Ashley Wood (also known for his cutscene work in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops) that features added sound and some animation. It also included some cool bonuses such as character and item information that can be unlocked by scanning around each scene through a binoculars-like interface.
So keep in mind non-canonical isn't always bad!
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If you see any errors in the above information or links therein, please contact me immediately!
...
Similarly, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes was an unofficial remake of Metal Gear Solid (for the PSX) for the GameCube made, not by Kojima, but by Canadian game developers, Silicon Knights. Many Metal Gear fans, including myself, consider this game to have suffered from Kojima's lacking involvement and featured a few disappointing or strange changes that usually only seemed to mar the original intended game experience. To this day, it seems Kojima still considers his original PSX version to be superior and rightfully so.
---
Alternate Universe Soapbox!:
On a somewhat related topic, I'd like to comment on the Metal Gear Ac!d games for the Sony PSP... I love them! The games' creation were not headed by Kojima but instead by Konami's Shinta Nojiri, but despite being non-canonical they are Kojima-blessed games. The game took the stealth action of the original games, made it turn based and added a card system for the player's actions. This makes for a truly unique game experience with an appropriately strange storyline. I can understand and respect where some Metal Gear fans might not appreciate the MGA games but they were intended to be a bizarre spin-off of Metal Gear. They weren't attempting to reinvent the Metal Gear series. They were just telling a side story. I'm not alone in thinking they're really unique, bizarre and fun games. Oh, and if your only complaint with the first MGA was the interface/movement system, try the second game. They revamped it in MGA2.
And while I'm at it, I'll comment on another non-canonical game, Metal Gear Solid (for the Game Boy Color) ("Metal Gear: Ghost Babel" in Japan) which is also, another fantastic Nojiri game blessed by Kojima. This game is considered to be, fairly undisputedly, one of the best games ever released for the Game Boy. It plays somewhat like an alternate universe to the first Metal Gear Solid game for the PSX and is surprisingly similar in many ways.
NOTE!: I recommend the European release of Metal Gear Solid (for the Game Boy Color) as it contains a very cool easter egg not found in the US release.
Lastly, is the Metal Gear Solid Digital Graphic Novel(s) for the Sony PSP which is just like it sounds. It's a digital version of the beautiful Metal Gear Solid comics written by Kris Oprisko and illustrated by Ashley Wood (also known for his cutscene work in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops) that features added sound and some animation. It also included some cool bonuses such as character and item information that can be unlocked by scanning around each scene through a binoculars-like interface.
So keep in mind non-canonical isn't always bad!
---
If you see any errors in the above information or links therein, please contact me immediately!