Was Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes Really THAT Bad? 

Fun Fact: This game was directed by Ryuhei Kitamura. Best known for directing Godzilla: Final Wars, Versus and Midnight Meat Train.

its time to talk about the Legacy of Kain Series mate

The Twin Snakes was my first exposure to MGS1. I’ve since played the original and loved it, but The Twin Snakes still holds a special place in my heart to the point it’s my go to version. I guess it depends on which one holds more nostalgia for you.

As far as I’ve been concerned, the original MGS is still a perfectly viable option to experience the story of the first game. I do hope Twin Snakes gets released on a modern platform, though. If only for the sake of it not being stuck on the purple lunchbox for the rest of time.

Nothing can replicate the cold, dark, almost mechanical atmosphere of the original ps1 classic

Rob Paulson was also the voice of Raphael in the OG TMNT, so he already had plenty of experience voicing a ninja 😂

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="992">16:32</a> Too late, you already mentioned Rising, you have to review it now.

What some people seem to forget is that these cutscenes were at Kojima's request. Kitamura had done faithful recreations of the original cinematics but Kojima wasn't happy since he hired Kitamura for his style of movie making (over the top action movies, specifically the film Versus). Edit (post GmanLives reply): i reiterated your statement because of the people who still to this day state that The Twin Snakes ignores Kojima's 'vision' for what MGS1 should be. I've changed 'everyone' to 'some people' to better reflect this. No, it's not a defence of the changes, but a reply to an argument I've heard so many times.

“Crawled in through the second floor vent near the helipad by the hanger” guilty of said maneuver

According to David Hayter, Snake himself, the reason why they re-recorded the dialogue was because the GameCube's audio system was more advanced than the PlayStation's and they had originally recorded the dialogue in an apartment instead of a soundproof room. If they had used the original audio, we would have heard all the traffic that was going on back then.

Saw a theory that MGS1 on playstation is the real events that occur on Shadow Moses while Twin Snakes is an exaggerated story used for VR training purposes for Raiden. One of the pieces of "evidence" people used for this is that one of the weird prisms you'd see in like target practice VR Training missions is hidden near the top of Rex's hanger and you can see it in first person view. It also makes a bit of sense considering Raiden mentions the loads of VR, I seem to recall he said he did VR training of the Shadow Moses incedent, and it kinds takes the place of Ghost Babel which drops that bombshell on you at the end too.

Snake cartwheel flipping around the doorframe is insane and will forever live rent free in my head

People say this was the first version of MGS 1 to have FPS view but that’s wrong. It was in MGS Integral

I honestly believe it's like asking someone what the best Zelda game is. The answer is usually "which one did you play first"

I enjoyed The Twin Snakes. I rented it as a kid and played through it entirely. I mean the PS1 version is such a sacred cow that I think most MGS players would say it's better, and it is, but TTS wasn't nearly as bad as some people make it out to be, at least imho. It definitely could've been improved upon though, I would love to see a remastered version that goes through and fixes some of the complaints about it.

Twin Snakes was the first MGS game I played, so it holds this special place in my heart and had eventually made my way to the OG... idk, I see why people have problems with Twin Snakes... But I don't. I love it. My first introduction to MGS, so I have no real comparison give a "yeah but the OG" because the OG to me is the lesser game. My expectations were set with Twin Snakes.

Twin Snakes is what happens when you combine MGS and the matrix stunts. People drew the line at unrealistic and unnecessary stunts, but clones, mind powers, and bi pedal nuclear weapons are perfectly fine

I love the original and twin snakes. It’s a different experience and capable of being side by side with the original. Don’t let RU-vidrs that follow trends discourage you from playing this game. Super fun.

*gman in 20 years* "But first I have to shout out today's sponsor, Viagra! If you want a full review, ask your mom...."

One thing I did like about TTS is that the bosses all had unique boss fight themes. Cyborg Ninja is by far my favorite track in the game.

The biggest problem for me were the performances. They paled in comparison compared to the OG PSX version. The voice actors sounded like they didn't want to be there.

"You must be a real threat in the muktuk eating contest..."

I never played the original. I started with MGS 2. So this was how I got to experience the original story, as such this game holds a special place in my heart and is one of my favorites in the series. I played this thing over and over and over again. This one, MGS 3, and MGS 5 easily make my top three

During the time Twin Snakes came out I was really into DMC so I thought it was the best thing ever to make MGS even more of a goofy anime game like DMC. It was only years later did I know most of the fandom hated TS. Still dont know why, still dont care, I think its a neat game.

The gray fox hallway scene wasn’t necessary I agree…. But man it’s still cool as fuck on its own

This was my first exposure to Metal Gear and for that I am forever grateful. Say what you will but this will always be a classic to me.

*Even* in rising you are grounded, in its own context. Yes, Raiden can cut trough tank and run on the walls. But things all the bosses do? Summon army of small robots, telekinesis or well, being a robotic T-Rex. Snake is John Mclane fighting X-men, Raiden is Batman fighting Kriptonians.

Legacy of Kane really needs a remaster or a remake... I played those games so much as a kid

Twin Snakes' cutscene direction always seemed to take after MGS2s. The thing is, the reason why Raiden does ridiculous action movie flips is because he's a soldier who was trained virtually. His concept of war is disconnected from reality, so he DOES see battle as an over-the-top action movie, or a video game. The villains in MGS2 can perform superhuman feats because they essentially have access to magic in the form of technology. When we're introduced to Snake in the Big Shell, all he does is fire his gun at Vamp and then sits down for a breather. Not to mention, when folks use MGS2 as a barometer for series "logic", it's misguided, since the entirety of MGS2 is likenened to a "bad dream" multiple times. This culminates in a finale in which all notions of logic, spacial reasoning, and traditional storytelling are thrown out the window. MGS1 presents us with a believable if campy world from beginning to end. MGS2 starts the same way, but like a frog slowly coming to boil, ramps up the insanity and makes you question what, if anything, has REALLY been happening. That's why MGS2s cutscene direction never worked in Twin Snakes for me. The game doesnt *earn* that suspension of disbelief the way Sons of Liberty does. It feels like emulation of another work without understanding that work. That said, I do think Twin Snakes is an absolute blast even if the design and direction isn't nearly as cogent as the original game.

Fun fact; the song "best is yet to come" the language of the lyrics is gaelic, singer is Irish.

The thing about the original game’s encounter with the Cyborg Ninja was that they set it up almost like a “horror/slasher film” (with clear callbacks to the movie Predator) and it was INCREDIBLY EFFECTIVE. Also, I don’t know WHY the audio, sound design, and VA is so INFERIOR to the original in numerous places. I still appreciate Twin Snakes, though.

That "mid-air, mind you.." has to be a Seinfeld reference 😂

I played this as a teen. It was great back then. The cutscenes were awesome.

I never understood the hate for the ocelot fight because in the original game, he dodged a tank shell

I'm in the category of people who have ONLY played Twin Snakes and have never played MGS1 but this video genuinely made me want to play MGS1. I never realized how different the art direction is between them and yes, per this video, MGS1 has way more character and stylized visuals. It really makes TS look drab by comparison. Also, I never thought about how the first person aiming lets you cheese so many sequences. Will definitely be playing MGS1 the next time I revisit this series

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1290">21:30</a> - Snake! Hurt me! A lot - PLEASE! MORE SNAKE! HURT ME MORE DAWG!

The twin snakes took my metal gear virginity. I never knew of the series then. It took me years to play the original ps1 game, which I didn’t even know it was a remake of. When I played the original I hated it. But eventually when I became a more skilled player, it grew on me and I love em both equally. That’s my story

This comment section is confirming that people are so easily broken and have zero expectations. "Well some of it is stupid, so ALL of it should be stupid!" I swear if Gandalf appeared in a Metal Gear game, you idiots would clap like seals.

No you didn't use the DSP clip. That was genuinely hilarious and caught me off guard

Snake 360 no scoping Sniper Wolf during a cutscene haunts me to this day

Speaking of music, MGS series moved into generic spy flick territory starting with MGS2 and Harry Gregson-Williams becoming the main composer. The original MGS soundtrack feels more like Angelo Badalamenti and the whole game gives Lynch vibes with anxiety and melancholy looming somewhere close. It’s too bad this feel got mostly lost with other installments.

This is a game cube classic 👏

Meryll would get *wrecked*

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="2190">36:30</a> the better way to see average price of sales is to go to the filters and set it to "Sold Items" and you can see what the game actually sells for, not just what people list it for. It's a much more accurate representation of the games value.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="718">11:58</a> and <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1990">33:10</a> reverb fart

The amusing touch of adding the DarkSydePhil Fappening incident in a couple of times isn't lost to me, since how much he hates kojima because of how many times he died in his games.

I love it when eternal darkness is brought up. I truly wish we had more tubers playing it, or doing a retrospective on that masterpiece.

She metal on my gear until my snake solid

I remember playing the original MGS was in a short demo at my local Kmart, but never got to play it through completely until Twin Snakes... This review kinda makes me feel like I played it illegitimately with the new additions they added from MGS2. So the next time I play it, either I hold back with the first-person shooting, or just download the PS1 version on the Switch. As for the over-the-top cutscenes... it can be kinda argued the cutscenes in the later games practically match it almost.

The way someone explained the Twin Snakes was basically Otacon's perspective on how Shadow Moses went down.

I liked twin snakes a lot. It was actually my first mgs1 experience. But I can understand the criticism. This is what I’m afraid MGS delta will turn into. Pretty new coat of paint but nothing done to the level design to make up for the improved controls. Wish delta would go in the direction of the RE4 remake (and 2). Now that was a true reimagining improving the experience 👏

My headcanon is that twin snakes is a vr mission that raiden plays thru during his training thus explaining the acrobatics

I get your gripes, G-Man, but as an elementary schoolboy, this was gold to me, I wouldn’t change my 1st experience with MGS if I could!

Sniper wolf death scene was the most disappointing scene for me. So impactful in the original, and was genuinely upset when i first saw it. Twin snakes, felt rushed, music was all over the shop and those wolves just rocking up (including a baby wolf) just made it weird.

It may not be a perfect remake by far, but it still has it's charms! I see it as a sort of "encore" to the original, a remake you'll play to see what all changed between console generations. I like a lot of the changes and while it is still washed out compared to the gorgeous colour of the original, it still looks good. Also worth noting is how the devs were seriously crunched which explains the lacking features, one thing I would have loved to see was the planned GBA connectivity! Stellar review as always BTW!

My theory is twin snakes is a VR mission being done by Raiden. That’s why the cutscenes are all flippy ninja fights

In my opinion it really fumbled the vibe in certain scenes like sniper wolfs death. Gameplay wasn't translated well also. The original voice acting can never be topped and twin snakes sorta was wonkey. It's okay but I much prefer the OG

You know the Tranq M9 would have been a great new game plus unlock. Keeping the first play though truer to the original while expanding options with replays like the Bandanna and Stealth camo.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="243">4:03</a> Clip from Rush Hour 2. The BEST film in the Rush Hour Trilogy.

I will reiterate what some guy commented on a different video: _Twin Snakes is the Hot Shots 2 parody version of MGS1_ If you think of it in that vein then it has SOME value. If you think of it as an actual remake of MGS1 then it's the biggest piece of s__t ever made.

This needs waaaayyyyyyy more memes to be watchable

This has always been a guilty pleasure. I actually kind of love it, but recommending someone play it over the original? Heresy!

Gman. Been a subscriber a long time. I signed up to mark exams for the summer and I would not be getting through the literal hundreds of scripts I've to mark without your videos on in the background. Thank you dude. Great to see a channel go for so long and keep the standard up.

Twin Snakes Snake is lore accurate Snake. At least according to the books.

My head-canon is Twin Snakes is Raiden's VR Training.

I can understand why purists don't like Twin Snakes, but personally I dig the over the top cutscenes and such. Snake's supposed to be a legendary soldier: a sort of Captain America of his universe. To have him do the sort of thing you'd find Christian Bale's character in Equilibrium doing sold his skills helped build his legend. Not to mention, it's not like that cutscene with the Ninja at the start got rid of his mystique. Seeing him carve up the same guards you've been sneaking around like he's a Japanese Michael Myers was terrifying.

Twin Snakes was great. Kojima wanted a specific director for the scenes to truly live to his vision and they were still very good the cinematic with Cyborg Ninja is so much better than the original

I rember loving how they re-used haunting echoes of The best is yet to come in MGS4 during the segment where Snake returns to Shadow Moses and the base having been abandoned since. Really cause a giant pang of nostalgia for a nerd who got and played the original MGS when it came out back in 98, and I do believe it was intentional on Kojima's part to use the music to make the long time fans feel and experience the same haunting memories as Old Snake must have felt by revisiting the area of those events. So yeah, really strange that they didn't use the song in Twin Snakes.

Twin Snakes is basically the MGS movie we would have gotten from whatever major Hollywood director they would inevitably attach to it. It’s the Bayheimer version of Metal Gear.

I also read that Kojima wanted new voice actors for this remake, but David Hayter (OG voice of Solid Snake) stepped in and used his money to bring back most of the original cast.

So one thing to note. The main reason why some of the audio in mgs1 sounded different was due to the fact when they were trying to find a recording studio in l.a. they accidentally rented out a mansion and so the acoustics were out of this world and why it had amazing echoes.

Wasn't the OG title "How to NOT remake a classic?"

Love your videos mate ! ❤ I hope you'll one day consider playing or reviewing " Vampire Night " for the ps2.. it really has some unique features that I haven't seen in any other ps2 game at the time.

Review Requests, my brother from another Australian mother: Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy Headhunter X-Squad Brute Force Syphon Filter series

True story: before the release of MGS2 there was a website that was briefly open allowing fans to enter their names, which would then go on to be names on soldier's dog tags in MGS2. Well my friend got into the website and just spammed the hell out it with hundreds of weird names. And that's why so many of the MGS2 soldiers have so many odd names.

In Twin Snakes, Vulcan Raven doesn't knock you down when he shoots you like in the original, so its actually possible in the remake to face tank him.

Your complaint about the visuals is exactly how i felt about the Shadow of the Colossus remake. It was too clean.

I grew up playing the original on PS1 relentlessly, and Twin Snakes was one of the first games I played on GameCube. I guess I’m definitely the minority but I actually liked Twin Snakes a lot more than the original.

Remember how painful and gruesome it was to see Big Boss got his eye shot off in MGS3? The sheer helplessness adding to the pure misery of his situation? How they acknowledged the pain and threat even after it happened? Nah, screw that! Let's have Snake jump around on missiles like he's Neo

I had always seen Twin Snakes as being Raiden's VR training that they reference in solid 2.

and reverb fart.

I consider it to be better than the original. The hate on the "stupid and unrealistic" cutscenes I think is hilarious. Because backflipping on a missile is not ok, but bees lifiting a guy into a helicopter in Snake Eater is.

I have my original copy of MGS on my PS1, that yearly a mate comes from Perth to NSW and stays for a week, and we play through it. You just can't beat that 1998 experience man.

G-man hit the nail on the head with the comparison of the original and the small things like the life bar and all the other stuff about it feeling like it was grounded in reality and how only a couple bullets could kill you a couple of bullets could kill your enemies. It felt very realistic while still being over the top… epic story

No, it's not bad. Next question.

I never thought someone would be complain about having MORE gameplay options.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="245">4:05</a> “aaah slow down baby..”

Fun fact, the guy who directed the remade cutscenes in this game was the same guy who directed Godzilla Final Wars, Ryuhei Kitamura.

No Tourettes Guy soundbites in this but the DSP cutaways made up for it

Now THIS is more like it G Man 👍🏻

Fun Fact: The Director of this Game was Ryuhei Kitamura. He is a japanese Director of, mostly action films, like Versus, Azumi and other Stuff. And he is known for outlandish Action Sequences with guys flying all over the place just like in those Cutscenes. For example, the guy made a Godzilla movie called Final Wars and in one Scene a group of five genetically modified Humans with Laser Rifles take on a 400 Foot tall Shrimp by flying and jumping around like crazy, the whole background set explodes like in a Michael Bay Movie and some Hard Rock Music is playing while all of this happens. And that's like 3 or 4 Minutes in this crazy ass movie. Oh and the Soldiers win btw.

Actual in game footage are still my favorite running gag

Well, if you think the cut-scenes in this are unrealistic... the first game wasn't exactly by the book on realism either. Let's just say that if you fire a stinger missile at a helicopter in real life, it doesn't take several of them to cause a chopper to crash. One is usually quite enough. And sure, while the Hind D is notorious for being heavily armored to the point where it's sometimes considered a flying tank, it mostly just have good protecton against small arms fire. A stinger missile will cut through a Hind like it was made of paper. The more common limitation for stingers is against jet aircraft since a stinger doesn't have a relatively long range or speed, so jet fighters can dodge them or just straight outrun them if they have enough head start. Also to disable the crew by chucking a fragmentation grenade into a tank, you also don't normally require several grenades. It's really cramped conditions inside of a tank so a single frag will easily turn the entire crew to paste.

I'd argue that Twin Snakes is more tonally in line with the following games than MGS1 itself was. MGS 2, 3, and 4 all have moments at least as ridiculous as the rocket backflip. I don't think that the voice direction was quite as good as the original but thats really my only complaint with it. Both it and the original are worth playing.

i never thought i'd see so many twin snakes apologists in one place like this, true insanity LMAO.

I was always baffled with one choice in this game. It has a bunch of dumb flips and acrobatic moves to the point of parody. But in the snowfield in MGS1 Snake leaps out of the of a tank shot and lands a sick recovery slide. The move makes sense, works and looks great. In Twin Snakes, Snake just stands there and gets blasted back against the blastdoor. I never understood the decision to remove the only original "flip scene" Edit: <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1067">17:47</a> oh hey you mentioned it before I got there!

Rose-tinted glasses: The Review.

Letting Kitmura be director for the cutscenes is like letting Zack Snyder direct a Studio Ghibli movie.

Twin Snakes is amazing and you need to just chill

I like to believe that the reason Snake could pull all those crazy acrobatics in the remake was because of the stimulants Naomi injected him. He was like a coked up frog in there.