MGA is a good new take for the series...but does it make MGS fans yell, "SNNNNNNAAAAAAAAKEEEEE!!!"?
Gameplay: The card battle system uses cards ranging from weapons to special abilities for use throughout the entire game. You gain more cards along the way (the game has commercials for them) and learn to customize it to your liking. Of course, certain missions call for certain cards but more than likely it'll bring you back to debriefing to get the necessary cards and back to playing the game. The pacing is slow compared to the MGS series. Which is why you have a fast forward button. This helps out a lot when you know you just need to find a freaking secret door on one of the tiles (most annoying mission ever). Overall, if you dont like the idea, I suggest you rent this but if you are an MGS fan, its still has strategy elments so you can enjoy it.
Graphics&Sound: The sound is what you would expect from a MG game. Eerie, actiony, stealthy, and exciting tracks fit the mood of every situation in the game. The lack of voices for the chracters though is a disappointment since we always love Snake's voice right?....RIGHT?! The graphics are pretty good for a PSP launch title. Explosions are meh and the models look great. But some scenes have these dead pixel moments where these pixel sized dots in their tiny groups form during cutscenes which worried the freak outta me since i just got the psp on launch.
Story: Snake has to find another Metal Gear. This time, along for the ride is Tolieko. She'll accompany you throughout most of the missions and is very helpful (such as when trying to find that freakin secret door). You'll meet interesting bosses along the way in Kojima style fashion. You'll meet a clown that can disguise herself as another person, a huge dude with a beard with a Raven (MGS1) like gun, and other which I dont want to spoil. If you know mGS, then youll have no problem understanding the story here.
Overall: This game takes a very big risk by getting rid of the gameply mechanics of MGS and totally starting fresh. The Card element is a nice way for this kind of strategy game but sometimes lacks the special feeling you get of being in the moment. It feels more like you control scene by seen as an author than a character exploring an unknown world level by level. If you can stand turn based games (esp Card games with a crappy secret door mission), then you might want to try this first before a purchase. BUt with a 9.99 price tag on it these days, it's well worth the buy!