Solid Snake

Solid Snake
Metal Gear series character
File:MGS1 Solid Snake.jpg Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid, drawn by Yoji Shinkawa. Shinkawa's design would mark the beginning of consistency and continuity in Snake's design, and similar designs would appear in all later games.
First game	Metal Gear (1987)
Created by	Hideo Kojima

Solid Snake (ソリッド・スネーク, Soriddo Sunēku) is the protagonist of the Metal Gear video game series. Introduced in the 1987 video game Metal Gear and created by series creator Hideo Kojima, Solid Snake is a combination spy and special operations agent who works for the Young Belva special forces unit. He is repeatedly entrusted with disarming and destroying the latest incarnation of the Metal Gear, a bipedal, nuclear-weapon-armed mecha. He is voiced in the Japanese- and English-language releases of the games by seiyū Akio Ōtsuka and actor/screenwriter David Hayter, respectively.

In each game, Solid Snake must act alone, supported via radio by commanding officers and specialists. He enters armed only with his wits, his two-way radio (called the "codec" in later games), binoculars, and a pack of cigarettes, and must acquire all additional equipment (such as weapons, rations, or his signature cardboard box disguise) on site.

Early games

Much as Metal Gear began as a pastiche of action movies of the time, Solid Snake began as a pastiche of contemporary action movie heroes. For example, on the cover artwork of the original Metal Gear, he resembles Michael Biehn in The Terminator, and the in-game portrait of Snake in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake resembles Mel Gibson (who was then starring in the Lethal Weapon movies). Solid Snake was even named after an action movie hero: Snake Plissken, Kurt Russell's character in Escape from New York. Due to Kojima's admission that Escape from New York is one of his favorite films, later revisions of Solid Snake would be based on the Plissken character.

Metal Gear, initially released in 1987 on the MSX2 home computer, introduces Solid Snake, the rookie recruit of the elite special-forces unit FOXHOUND. Snake is sent by team leader Big Boss into the rogue nation Outer Heaven to rescue his missing teammate Gray Fox and discover who or what the "METAL GEAR" mentioned in Gray Fox's last transmission is. After rescuing a member of the resistance, Snake discovers that he has been set up; the leader of Outer Heaven is actually Big Boss, who intends to use Metal Gear—an experimental, nuclear-armed mecha—to establish Outer Heaven as a nuclear power. After destroying the Metal Gear itself, he then confronts Big Boss and defeats him.

The NES port of Metal Gear was an unexpected million-seller when it was released in North America. The sequel, Snake's Revenge, was developed without the involvement of the first game's director, Hideo Kojima.

Snake's Revenge sets Lieutenant Solid Snake at the head of a team of FOXHOUND infiltrators. Snake must infiltrate a new base to investigate rumors of the development of a new Metal Gear. He discovers that not only is the enemy constructing mass-produced units of the original "Metal Gear 1" model, but that a new prototype known as "Metal Gear 2" is being developed at the heart of the main base. Snake must finish his mission alone, as the rest of his team is killed or captured, but defeats the enemy commander (who is revealed to be a massive, cybernetically-enhanced Big Boss) and destroys the new Metal Gear 2.

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Solid Snake's character portrait in Metal Gear 2 (upper left) was based on actor Mel Gibson.

Kojima has told a story in several interviews about riding the train home and running into one of the staffers working on Snake's Revenge, and being asked to rejoin them and help make an authentic sequel to Metal Gear. Upon agreeing to this, the game they produced was Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Metal Gear 2, initially released only in Japan for the MSX2, follows after the original Metal Gear rather than Snake's Revenge; indeed, all later games ignore the events of Snake's Revenge, relegating it to non-canon status.

Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake sees Solid Snake once again called up to infiltrate a heavily-fortified enemy base, this time in Zanzibar Land. Zanzibar Land has aggravated an international oil crisis and declared themselves a nuclear power by kidnapping Dr. Kio Marv, the creator of the formula to OILIX (a bio-engineered algae that produces an oil substitute), and Dr. Pettrovich Madnar, the developer of the original Metal Gear. Snake infiltrates the base and retrieves Dr. Marv's OILIX formula (albeit not Marv himself, who is tortured to death). However, he discovers that Pettrovich and his former comrade Gray Fox have defected to Zanzibar Land, and that Zanzibar Land is led by none other than Big Boss. Snake destroys the new Metal Gear D, confronts and kills Gray Fox in a fist fight in the middle of a mine field, then kills Big Boss with a makeshift flamethrower in a final confrontation between the two.

Metal Gear Solid series

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A screenshot of Solid Snake from a preview trailer of Metal Gear Solid 2 during the Tanker mission. Here he is seen hiding under a cardboard box.

Following the release of Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Solid Snake did not appear in another game until 1998 (a full eight years later), when he re-emerged as the protagonist of the PlayStation game Metal Gear Solid. The game, which debuted at E3 1997 to great fanfare, soon became an international hit and garnered critical acclaim worldwide.

The opening of Metal Gear Solid sees Solid Snake pulled out of retirement by Colonel Campbell to deal with FOXHOUND. Under the leadership of Liquid Snake, FOXHOUND goes rogue, seizing Shadow Moses Island, the home of an American nuclear weapons disposal facility. Snake infiltrates the base and meets up with Meryl Silverburgh, a rookie soldier, and Dr. Hal "Otacon" Emmerich, the designer of Metal Gear REX. Snake defeats each member of FOXHOUND one by one, destroys Metal Gear REX, and confronts Liquid Snake. Liquid Snake reveals that he and Solid Snake both are clones of Big Boss, from the "Les Enfants Terribles" project in which one clone was created superior to the other one. He then challenges his brother to show who is truly superior, a confrontation which ends in Liquid Snake dying by the FOXDIE virus which had previously been implanted in Solid Snake. Snake then escapes and continues with his retirement in Alaska.

In addition to expanding Solid Snake's backstory, the game established his characteristic voice (being the first Metal Gear game to feature voice acting) and appearance (based on the character design by Yoji Shinkawa). This Shinkawa-designed Snake, characterized by his dark grey bandana and "sneaking suit", would serve as the template for all future incarnations of Snake in later Metal Gear games. According to Shinkawa, his physique was based on that of action star Jean Claude Van Damme, while his facial appearance was originally inspired by actor Christopher Walken.

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Solid Snake from the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 4, here he is seen using the Octocamo camouflage system while aiming the SIG GSR

The first reappearance of the Metal Gear Solid Snake was in the 2000 Game Boy Color game Metal Gear: Ghost Babel, which was released in the US as Metal Gear Solid. This game, set after the original Metal Gear, is a non-canonical side-story which follows Snake's attempts to infiltrate Galuade, a fortress built on the remains of Outer Heaven, in the hopes of defeating the rogue Black Chamber and destroying the latest Metal Gear called Metal Gear GANDER.

Solid Snake also appears as the playable protagonist of the extensive prologue sequence of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, in which he is sent by the anti-proliferation organization Philanthropy to infiltrate a cargo tanker and photograph Metal Gear RAY, the latest Metal Gear model. During the operation, however, the Metal Gear RAY is hijacked and the tanker destroyed, and Snake presumed dead. Following the incident, "photographic evidence of Snake on the scene" taken by Revolver Ocelot was spread, leading the public into believing Snake sunk the tanker.

The remainder of the game follows the actions of the rookie FOXHOUND agent Raiden (the character now controlled by the player), who has been assigned to rescue the president of the United States and a number of other government officials being held hostage at a remote offshore facility. Solid Snake, who survived the explosion in the prologue, makes periodic appearances throughout the rest of the game (under the pseudonym "Iroquois Pliskin", taken from the name of the character Snake Plissken from Escape from New York) as a non-playable character.

Solid Snake does not appear in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (save for in the Snake vs. Monkey minigame), which is set in 1964 and follows the exploits of the young Big Boss, here called Naked Snake. He is almost identical to Solid Snake in appearance, and even wears his trademark bandana. Like his "son", Naked Snake is also an expert in the arts of urban warfare and espionage, and appears equally battle-hardened and taciturn.

The upcoming PlayStation 3 game Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots once again features Solid Snake as a protagonist, but this time appearing much older than in previous games and sporting a moustache (with the result that he now closely resembles Big Boss). His aged appearance has been revealed to be the result of advanced cellular degeneration caused by the cloning process used to create him. The character design of this new, aged Snake (called "Old Snake" in the game trailers) is reportedly based upon actor Lee Van Cleef.

Metal Gear Acid series

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Snake in Metal Gear Acid 2 wielding the G36C. Artwork by Tsubasa Masao. In both games in the Acid series, Snake suffers from an identity crisis.

Shinta Nojiri, the director of Metal Gear: Ghost Babel, directed the Metal Gear Acid series for PlayStation Portable, and takes a dramatically different tack from the main Metal Gear series. These games, which are not canonical with respect to the main, Kojima-directed series, are side-stories set in a parallel universe. The character designs in the Metal Gear Acid series were done by Tsubasa Masao (character designer of Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner). In Metal Gear Acid, the in-game models do not reflect Masao's anime-style designs, instead closely resembling the designs used in the Metal Gear Solid series. Masao's divergent style does appear in Acid-related promotional art, and the cel-shaded graphical style and more-stylized character designs of Acid 2 adhere closely to his colourful, clearly-inked concept art.

In Metal Gear Acid, Solid Snake must infiltrate the Lobito Physics and Research Laboratory, in order to retrieve "Pythagoras", to satisfy hijackers who have kidnapped presidential candidate Viggo Hach. This mission is complicated by La Clown, an expert mimic who impersonates Teliko (Solid Snake's intended inside contact), and subtle brainwashing that nearly convinces him that he is Hans Davis, a ruthless scientist that worked at the Lobito facility. He overcomes both and contacts the real Teliko, then destroys the latest model of Metal Gear, Metal Gear KODOQUE.

Metal Gear Acid 2 forces upon Snake a different kind of identity crisis. An amnesiac Snake, framed for the death of the president of the Serena Republic, is coerced into teaming up with an agent named Venus to infiltrate SaintLogic Labs to investigate illegal military experiments rumored to be taking place there. The illegal experiments turn out to be a rebuilt Metal Gear KODOQUE and its successor, Metal Gear Chaioth Ha Qadesh, but their destruction is no end to Snake's troubles. It is revealed that he is not Solid Snake at all, but instead a clone based on tissue samples from Lobito Island. After this revelation and his separation from Venus, Snake commandeers the Chaioth Ha Qadesh to launch himself into the ocean, where he is rescued by his "CO" and reunited with his Serena Republic resistance comrades.

Other appearances

Solid Snake has appeared in a number of other games, including other Konami games, and more unusually, under license in games developed and published by other companies, such as Sony and Nintendo.

Hideo Kojima makes a habit of referencing his previous work: in the console versions of Policenauts, a bar named after Solid Snake appears during the opening credits. Moreover, the supplemental title Policenauts Pilot Disk for the 3DO (later ported to the PlayStation as Policenauts: Private Collection) features early conceptual artwork of Solid Snake, Meryl Silverburgh and members of FOXHOUND for the then-unreleased Metal Gear Solid when one looks for FOXHOUND in the interactive glossary. In the second and third games in the Kojima-produced, Konami-published Boktai series, Solid Snake makes cameo appearances, under the name "?". (This is similar to the reuse of the name "Metal Gear" and the presence of a "Meryl Silverburgh" in Policenauts and the Metal Gear series).

Solid Snake also appears in both halves of two different series crossovers. In Evolution Skateboarding, from Konami, Snake, along with Raiden, appears as hidden playable characters. The game includes two levels based on the Big Shell stage featured in Metal Gear Solid 2. (A demo of Evolution Skateboarding is, in turn, included in the PlayStation 2 version of Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance). Ape Escape 3 Solid Snake appears in the mini-game Mesal Gear Solid, where he helps out Pipo Snake via radio.

He has also appeared in a pair of cross-company fighting games. In DreamMix TV World Fighters, a fighting game from Hudson Soft co-produced with Konami and Takara, Solid Snake appears as a playable character alongside other fictional characters from the three companies such as Bomberman and Convoy (aka Optimus Prime). Similarly, in the upcoming Super Smash Bros. Brawl, a fighting game from Nintendo scheduled to be released on the Wii, Solid Snake will appear alongside Nintendo-owned characters such as Mario and Link.