My Metal Gear review saw high praise both for the incredible depth of the game and fun, but intense boss fights. Snake’s Revenge would follow in 1990 on the NES but would the direct sequel be worthy of the Metal Gear name or would it fail to inspire me? Hideo Kojima would not be involved in this version of the NES but would that impact be felt? Very much so. Developed by Konami and published by Ultra Games, the shine from the first game was gone. It’s time to look at a dark spot in the series with my Snake’s Revenge review.
Snake’s Revenge Plot:
Metal Gear games are notorious for their convoluted and sometimes confusing plot. It’s safe just to take it from the manual. Taking three years after the events of Metal Gear…
“The radar invisible Stealth copter dips and weaves through the narrow passes of a vast mountain range which stretches from the borders of Teristan to its capital city Ishkabibil. Only minutes from the drop zone, you clutch your assault rifle and stare out the window. Darkness is everywhere.
Your fellow commandos from the FOX HOUND Battalion sit across from you. One sharpens his knife. The other polishes his grenades. No one speaks, but through the silence, a message comes across loud and clear – this will be the most dangerous mission ever attempted, even more so than the infiltration of Colonel Vermon CaTaffy’s stronghold.
For now, you’re challenging Higharolla Kockamamie and his army of raging lunatics. And you must overcome untold hundreds of Uzi-toting soldiers, a heavily armed battleship, and a loaded locomotive to reach your objective, destroying Higharolla’s Ultra-Sheik Nuclear Attack Tank. Or else the world will be knocked to its knees by a fellow who has won the “Merciless Man of the Year Award” eight straight times.
Side Note this description is awful and the character drawings in the manual are even worse. So bad they are laughable.
Essentially the plot is for you to team up with your Fox Hound buddies and take down a hostile enemy that has gotten their hands on the plans for Metal Gear.
You’ll play as Snake throughout the entire game but there are others who are part of your mission. John is another member of FOXHOUND who gets captured in the beginning to act as a decoy allowing you to enter the base.
Learning that the bi-pedal nuclear tanks are already being mass-produced on a cargo ship, you destroy the ship sinking any chances that the evil organization has of blowing up the world. Once the ship is destroyed, Snake is informed that a new prototype of Metal Gear has already been in development and is located on another base. There’s a FOXHOUND agent named Jennifer who is inside the base and has information on it.
Once Snake infiltrates the base, Jennifer who has been dropping information for you is captured. Nick, another member of FOXHOUND who had been communicating with you is killed, and as it turns out Big Boss who was supposedly killed in the first Metal Gear is back with a new cyborg body.
Snake defeats Big Boss (again) and Jennifer is rescued leading Snake to the prototype of Metal Gear. He destroys it and along with Jennifer escapes. The United Nations declares “World Peace Day” and everyone lives happily ever after. Well… at least in this Metal Gear timeline.
Snake’s Revenge Gameplay:
Sure, this Snake’s Revenge review won’t be the most positive one you’ve read but there were some good things with this game that I want to touch on before heading to my constructive criticism.
First, the soundtrack is very good. It sets the mood and continues throughout the game as the atmosphere changes. I felt that the music was on par with the series’ excellence.
On the side-scrolling portions of the game, it looks very well done. The sprites are a bit larger and have more detail. It was a cool touch to go from the top-down perspective to more intimate side screens. Overall, the graphics look great. This is a clean-looking game from the spotlights that search for you, the factory corridors, and the enemy designs, everything looks top-tier for the NES. A “good-looking” game doesn’t mean it’s a good game though, and that’s what I discovered in my Snake’s Revenge review.
I needed a guide right away. It’s very easy to get lost in this game and every misstep is a point of frustration to an already difficult game. I felt like the receiver in which you communicate and receive help over was less utilized compared to the first Metal Gear. It’s great when they point you in the right direction or drop hints, but I just didn’t seem to be getting the push toward mission goals that were needed which often made me feel like I was truly on a one-man mission.
The first boss you meet was extremely difficult and I’d learn that that would be the theme of the game. It was just five dudes gang beating you together. You need plenty of ammo and grenades to take them down but just trying to avoid being punched by them was tough enough. For me, it was just too tough as the first “boss” fight.
Much like the first game, the majority of Snake’s Revenge is spent sneaking around avoiding enemies, completing mission objectives, and then facing off with a boss to conclude a specific assignment. While on the surface, this seems like the bread and butter of the series, the difficulty on everything was just a touch overdone. When a game is too difficult and it doesn’t have much direction, the fun factor goes away. You get punished for exploring instead of being rewarded. Boss fights are dreaded instead of getting that satisfaction. Missions where new objectives are added produce groans instead of excitement.
Elements like knifing a cardboard box 25 times and having it disappear I just consider dumb. Something I was hoping would be corrected from the first Metal Gear, was cheap deaths. There were a few electric floors that rotated on a train section that were very hard to predict. Other cheap deaths included holes on the train floor that would open up if you walked onto them. It was unfair and a huge turn-off for continuing the game.
There is a portion of the game where you need to escape a boat before it blows up. You have about 50 seconds to do so, and if you are PERFECT it takes 30 seconds to escape. So if you make one wrong turn or have one misstep, you’re pretty much blown up. It’s these microfractions of needed perfection that just cause more frustration than fun.
You’ll need to hunt down items to make your mission easier or even possible. These include infrared goggles, binoculars, antidotes, rations, power armor, an X-ray detector, a dry cell, an antenna, a backpack, and plenty of pass cards.
While the earlier bosses were extremely difficult, I did find some head-scratching easy ones later on during my Snake’s Revenge review. For example, there is a tank on a bridge that needs to be defeated. The key to this fight? Just stand to the side.
The final boss is well… Big Boss. He’s now a cyborg after being revived and put together from the first game. In his first form, it’s a pretty easy fight if you use run-and-gun tactics by shooting missiles toward him and then running away to hide. Once you do this enough he’ll transition into his next form in which he stalks you. To cause damage you need to get up close and personal and place mines for him to walk into.
When Big Boss goes down, there will be a countdown timer until Metal Gear is activated and starts shooting nukes. You need to shoot guided missiles into a vent to stop Metal Gear but here’s a huge point of frustration. There’s no damage meter or health bar. You have no idea if you are doing any damage with the missiles nor do you know how many missiles you need to shoot. You just keep shooting and shooting hoping that it’s doing something. I was able to know what to do using the guide, but without it, or for those playing back in the early ’90s, I’m sure this portion caused a ton of panic not knowing if they were causing any damage. You also have to hit Metal Gear specifically on a flashing portion. It’s not as obvious as you’d think it would be.
Beating the game doesn’t feel very rewarding. You get some text updating you on characters and staff credits. No cool cutscenes or a flashy payoff. I beat the game simply in the name of the series as I’ve wanted to play every spin-off or main series title in Metal Gear.
This is a very tough game. Both in elements of boss battles, cheap deaths, and the ability to get lost or not understand what to do next. When you beat a game like this, you hope there’s a reward at the end. That’s not really the case with Snake’s Revenge.
Memories:
I remember being sick and emulating this for a weekend. I took long naps in between turns of playing it and I had to follow a step-by-step guide due to the all random hazards. I was excited to play it since I loved the first one, but I quickly realized that this was the black sheep of the series. Oh well, they all can’t be winners.
Snake’s Revenge Review Score:
Snake’s Revenge was disappointing due to the sheer difficulty, lack of Metal Gear atmosphere, and character interactions. Gadgets and items felt less “cool”. It’s the black sheep of the series, and easily the weakest.
Snake’s Revenge scores a 6.4 out of 10.
What would you write in your Snake’s Revenge review? Who was your favorite boss? Where does this rank in the series for Metal Gear? Let me know your thoughts and comments on Snake’s Revenge. I’d love to read them.
Tiger Chainsaw 