The wrong Metal Gear game

One Christmas Eve I held what was clearly a wrapped single-disc PSX game in my hands. This was a problem. I stared at that green sparkly paper for a good five minutes as I began to process another unforgivable episode of parental neglect and disappointment. See, I had asked for Metal Gear Solid for Christmas, which I knew was a double-disc game. As I sat there staring at this wrapped piece of disappointment, I was lost in a haze of wondering how my parents could fail me again? I specifically talked at great length about Metal Gear Solid. I went on lengthy diatribes about it, with endless caveats, irrelevant analogies, and sentences that took minutes for me to say. Weren’t they listening? How could they even think that a single-disc game was worth my time?

I exhaled heavily, ready to see some fucking game that I had no interest in, and tore open the wrapping paper to find Metal Gear Solid…VR Missions. I shook my head and said “this isn’t what I asked for.” What a foolish and unappreciative brat I was.

While I’d eventually con some family member into buying me Metal Gear Solid months later, I ended up devouring VR Missions. So, by the time I fired up MGS for the first time, I knew how to do everything already. It was kinda worth it. In the full version, I was able to directly engage with the aesthetic and narrative elements of the game, never once needing to worry about learning the mechanics. I knew how every gun worked, and how to move around stealthily. Also, those Gray Fox missions were pretty neat. VR Missions also provided a foundation for MGS2’s themes of VR and “reality” to take root by the time I got to that game.

Parental units, I forgive you. But just for this.

Claire Jackson, Staff Writer