Solid Snake

Solid Snake, the legendary mercenary who has thrice saved the world from the menace of Metal Gear.

Solid Snake is the main character in the Metal Gear saga. He is known as "the man who makes the impossible possible" and is a mystery and myth to much of the world. He is a highly trained, elite soldier with a personal preference for parachuting, husky racing, SCUBA diving, free climbing, rappelling, small and medium range handguns (though well-versed in all types of munitions), and various hand-to-hand combat techniques. Snake is also an avid smoker, who is seen smoking cigarettes on numerous occasions when not under player control. He can use cigarettes during the game, principally to detect device triggering lasers.

Background
Snake was born as a result of the Les Enfants Terribles project in 1972, which was an attempt to create the perfect soldier by cloning the "Greatest Warrior of the 20th Century", Big Boss. The minds behind the project did not wish for a truly identical clone however, instead desiring a phenotype in which all the 'superior' genes were expressed. So it was that Solid and Liquid Snake were created, one expressing all of Big Boss' dominant genes, the other all of Big Boss' recessive genes. Solidus Snake on the other hand, the third brother eventually born of the project, was a "well balanced masterpiece", having been manipulated in such a way that he expressed both dominant and recessive genes in equal measure.

Details of his early life are largely unknown, the only clue being Snake's own comment that he was "raised by many people." In 1991, Snake infiltrated western Iraq during the Gulf War with a troop of Green Berets, and was later drafted into FOXHOUND

The Outer Heaven Crisis
Solid Snake's first mission for FOXHOUND was Operation Intrude N313, the Outer Heaven Crisis of 1995. His mission objectives were to infiltrate Outer Heaven, rescue hostage Gray Fox (also a member of FOXHOUND), destroy Metal Gear and eliminate the man pulling all the strings in Outer Heaven. That man turned out to be the commander of FOXHOUND, and the world's greatest soldier, Big Boss. They fought long and hard, until Snake finally emerged the victor.

After the Outer Heaven incident, Solid Snake decided to leave FOXHOUND. Later he was scouted by the CIA and spent six months as a deep cover agent before he became dissatisfied with the system and left. He then became a mercenary for hire, and after earning enough money, he went into semi-retirement in the Canadian wilderness.

The Zanzibar Land Uprising
Then, in 1999, Snake's former commander, Roy Campbell, called upon him again for another operation in Central Asia. Apparently, a new highly armed nation titled Zanzibar kidnapped Dr. Kio Marv, inventor of the oil refining microbe, OILIX. Snake's mission objectives were to infiltrate the seemingly impenetrable wall that surrounded Zanzibar and recover Dr. Kio Marv. He succeeded in both tasks, and deep in the heart of Zanzibar, he once again destroyed the re-built Metal Gear. Afterwards, he fought hand-to-hand combat with his best friend Gray Fox in the middle of a minefield. After the apparent death of Gray Fox, Snake retrieved the OILIX manufacturing process and went head-to-head with the man in control of Zanzibar, Big Boss. He had survived the battle in Outer Heaven and created Zanzibar in order to make a world rife with conflict and war; a world in which soldiers such as him would always have a place. He then revealed to Snake that he was his father. Snake was startled by this unbelievable news, but he was still able to fight Big Boss in an epic battle to the death, despite this knowledge. Snake emerged the victor, but he would be haunted by his patricide for years after. After the Zanzibar Land Uprising, Snake returned to North America and retired to an Alaskan wilderness retreat, Twin Lakes, to try to forget his war-torn past and recover from post-traumatic stress disorder.

The Incident at Shadow Moses
''"Snake listen up. It all went down five hours ago. Heavily armed soliders occupied Shadow Moses Island, a remote island off the coast of Alaska."

-Colonel Campbell ''

And so it was at the beginning of the 21st century... Shadow Moses, a small nuclear disposal facility in Alaska's Fox Archapeligo is attacked and captured by the GENOME Army led by members of FOXHOUND. Once again Snake is called out of retirement. His mission is to first single-handedly infiltrate the nuclear weapons disposal site and rescue the two hostages, DARPA chief Donald Anderson and the President of ArmsTech, Kenneth Baker, and then to eliminate the terrorists and prevent a nuclear launch. He is not completely alone, however, his Support team consisted of Campbell (also called out of retirement), Naomi Hunter, Mei Ling, Master Miller and Nastasha Romanenko.

While there, Snake discovers that the leader of FOXHOUND's codename is Liquid Snake. When Snake attempts to rescue Donald Anderson (who later turns out to be Decoy Octopus) and Kenneth Baker they both mysteriously die of a heart attack. He also has a mysterious run-in with a cyborg ninja who, after Snake battles and defeats him, reveals himself to be the remains of Gray Fox. Snake then makes friends with Otacon, a man who inadvertantly creates Metal Gear REX, the newest and most deadly incarnation of Metal Gear. Snake also befriends Meryl and starts to care for her a lot; some may even say he falls in love with her. Snake then successfully manages to eliminate all members of FOXHOUND and is then told by Liquid that he and Solid Snake are in fact brothers; clones of Big Boss as part of the Les Enfants Terribles project. Then Snake destroys Metal Gear REX with the aid of Gray Fox. Liquid and Solid then battle atop of REX. When Solid wins he then escapes from Shadow Moses with Meryl.

After the events of Shadow Moses, Naomi was placed under arrest and locked up in a high security facility. Snake, the only man being able to, infiltrated the facility and rescued Naomi.

The Tanker incident


After the events of Shadow Moses, Nastasha Romanenko and Otacon formed an Anti-Metal Gear Group known as Philanthropy. Otacon recieved an anonymous tip from someone calling themself "E.E." (the initials of Otacon's younger step sister) that a new Metal Gear, codenamed Metal Gear RAY, was being developed by the Marine Corps., and was being sent via a Marine vessel disguised as an Oil Tanker.

Snake quickly made his way through and found his way down into the holds where RAY was being held. Shortly after taking photographic evidence of Metal Gear RAY, Revolver Ocelot appeared and claimed to be taking RAY back "to it's rightful owners." He is then posessed by Liquid Snake's arm, which was attached to replace the arm he lost in Shadow Moses. Solid Snake then jumped from his hiding place and confronted Liquid but it was too late; Liquid climbed aboard Metal Gear Ray and sank the tanker with Solid Snake still inside. Luckily, Otacon was waiting by the Manhattan shore with a small boat, which he used to rescue Snake and replace his body with that of Liquid Snake's, leading people to believe that Solid Snake was dead. Solid Snake was also entirely blamed for the incident leading Olga Gurlukovich and Fortune to blame him for the death of their fathers (Colonel Gurlukovich and Commander Scott Dolph respectively).

The Big Shell Takeover
Another two years later, Snake disguised himself as Iroquois Pliskin and infiltrated the Big Shell. Rumors of another Metal Gear, Arsenal Gear, were spreading like wildfire. There, he met Raiden and eventually met his other brother, the final of the three Sons Of Big Boss, Solidus Snake. He also once again met Olga and explained to her that it was infact Revolver Ocelot who killed her father, Colonel Gurlukovich. Snake later helped Raiden, Otacon and Emma Emmerich (Otacon's Sister) install the re-programmed computer virus, a digital counterpart of FOXDIE, into GW (Arsenal Gear's AI system), shortly before Emma dies after being stabbed by Vamp. Then once aboard aboard Arsenal Gear, Snake and Raiden make their way through fighting the army of Arsenal Tengu soldiers. Once they reach the end Fortune challenges Snake to a fight claiming he killed her father. He signals for Raiden to carry on as he fights her. He then tells her that it was Ocelot who killed Scott Dolph and that they should work together in order to kill Ocelot. Later on, ontop of Arsenal Gear, Ocelot is once again posessed by Liquid Snake and steals RAY, Snake breaks free of his handcuffs he's wearing and leaps after Liquid, afixing a tracker onto his RAY. He then goes to Manhattan to see Raiden after he has defeated Solidus, and tells him that himself and Otacon are going to find the Patriots.

Guns of the Patriots
Snake will be returning in the PS3 debut of Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots. He will be using the Solid Eye Technology (which Otacon possibly invented). Whether this is connected with the Solid Eye announced for Metal Gear Acid 2 is unknown.

On September 15, 2005, Kojima Productions released a trailer of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, their upcoming PlayStation 3 title, at the Tokyo Game Show as part of their Metal Gear Saga presentation. The exact time period of the game is unknown, as the trailer shown at the Tokyo Game Show only states that Metal Gear Solid 4 takes place "several years after Big Shell"). In the trailer, Snake appears to be suffering from a respiratory illness, as he is seen collapsing to the ground in a coughing spasm, which he stops with the use of an immediate injection of medicine into his jugular vein. This may be a hint that Snake's health will play a vital role in the game. It is also possible that the FOXDIE virus has activated due to the wildcard value set by Naomi for Snake's incubation period (as documented in the short story, In The Darkness of Shadow Moses). Another possible reason could lie in the rapid aging caused by Solid Snake's genes.

Also of note is the fact that Snake is shown wearing an optical eyepatch, called the Solid Eye System, which enables him to have an electronic radar of the surrounding area, enemy locations, etc. The Solid-Eye also serves to show more resemblance in Solid Snake to Big Boss.

The kanji-like symbol on Snake's vest is called an Otakon (オタ魂), which is a portmanteau of Otacon's name with the kanji character (kon or tamashii) for spirit; beneath it is the phrase "to let the world be". The symbol is Otacon's personal logo and will appear on equipment designed by him.

Metal Gear Acid
Solid Snake is the main character in Metal Gear Acid. He came out of retirement to help the FBI in a mission to obtain the Pythagoras data but then begins to find out that he has worked at BEAGLE before as Hans Davis. Because of the stroyline involved his character is not the same in the other Metal Gear games. For more information see Hans Davis.

Super Smash Bros.
Solid Snake has been confirmed as a character in the upcoming Super Smash Bros game for the Nintendo Wii. It has been said that Snake will most likely use explosives and the famous box

Behind The Scenes
He is voiced by Akio Otsuka in the Japanese releases of the Metal Gear Solid series, and by David Hayter in the English releases. Hideo Kojima based Solid Snake on a number of different characters, including Snake Plissken from the film Escape from New York.

Snake's real name, David, which was revealed in the original Metal Gear Solid, is a reference to two fictional characters: David Bowman from 2001: A Space Odyssey and Dave Forrest from Policenauts (which was also created by Kojima). While Snake shares the same given name with the English voice actor, Hayter, this was not intentional (contrary to popular belief) and is merely coincidental. In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, he uses the alias Iroquois Pliskin, which is a reference to Snake Plissken. The name "Iroquois" has a double meaning. The Iroquois were a confederacy of Native American tribes headquartered in New York. The word "Iroquois" was also a Huron word meaning "Black Snake".

Metal Gear 2, set in 1999, features an older-looking Snake than seen in Metal Gear Solid, set in 2005. However, there are numerous inconsistencies between the Metal Gear Solid trilogy and the previous incarnation of the series. Also, the portraits used in Metal Gear 2 were based on real actors, and the characters were redesigned for later games. In Konami's Japanese cell phone re-release of Metal Gear 2, Snake's portrait is brought more in line with his presentation in Metal Gear Solid.

After a largely non-playable appearance in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and a virtual absence in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (wherein he appeared only in the bonus minigame, Snake vs. Monkey), a much older (aged look is due to the fact that he is a clone, undergoing advanced cellular degeneration) Snake will appear in the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, in which he will once again be the main character.