MSX? No. NES? Yes. Metal Gear? Yes. As WE know it? Not even close.
Now, unlike most people, I played Metal Gear (NES) before I played MGS. I believe my Uncle Gary (a 386 PC addict back in the day), got me a copy of Metal Gear for $4. The cover looked interesting enough. So, I got ready... Okay, three guys parachuting in, so, I'm part of a strike team...cool...
Okay, I'm in the jungle apparently, and I get a call. So, SELECT, then TRANSCEIVER...
Holy bad English batman! But, hey, I can get past that.. Many NES games, even some considered classics did not have well done translation. So I move to the next screen to the right... "I FEEL ASLEEP!"
Funny of course, but it kind of yanks you out of the steath and into the ridiculous.
Even poor Snake had lost his hooked on phonics tapes.. Such as getting in one of the 'warp' trucks to move from place to place...
"UH OH, THE TRUCK HAVE STARTED TO MOVE!"
OH, SNAP! IT HAVE REALLY STARTED TO MOVE? Well, since I feel asleep, I guess I'll take a nap. Tell our Grey Fox he'll have to wait... :)
Look, lets call this one as it is; a very bad port. The MSX, a copy I didn't get to play until MGS 3: Subsistence, was the groundbreaking game. Excellent audio, concept and delivered well-done. MG 2: Solid Snake, Hideo Kojmia must have been on brain steroids, how he made such a great stealth action game (and frankly, a poor graphical version of MGS), is beyond me.
But the NES? Nope. It had inferior audio or graphics, and poor translation. And the things that were different made the game WORSE, not better. In hindsight, there is only so much an 8-bit cartridge can handle. But still... No destroying metal gear at the end? Poor English? Bosses that make very little sense? An endless maze? Blowing up a computer that seems to have a 900" screen?
To give him some credit, Kojima did NOT supervise the NES port or Snake's Revenge. This one is not on him.
Overall, it's a big disappointment. It could've been done a lot better on the NES, console restraints or not.
It does have some redeeming qualities, such as keeping fairly true to the story, the gameplay (stealth was better than shoot 'em up, unlike Snake's Revenge) and an introduction of the series to America. But at the time, if you played this game, you had no idea that it would warrant such an excellent sequel later on the PS1. On the plus side, it took a heck of a lot longer time to beat than MGS. That's at least, one positive thing I can say about it.
A sad 5. Really, it could have been a cult classic of the NES, as it should have been, had it been properly made... But truthfully, it wasn't.