Metal Gear series

Metal Gear (メタルギア) is a critically acclaimed series of stealth games created by Hideo Kojima. The games are developed by Kojima Productions and published by Konami. In the series, the player takes control of a Special Forces Operative (Solid Snake in most games) repeatedly facing off against the latest incarnation of the eponymous superweapon "Metal Gear"; a bipedal mecha walking tank with nuclear launching capabilities. The series is famous for pioneering the stealth game, for its lengthy cinematic cutscenes, intricate storylines and its exploration of the nature of politics, warfare, environmentalism, censorship, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, loyalty, reality, subjective vs. universal truths and other philosophical themes. The series has accumulated great success, selling over 26.5 million copies.

Overview
Each game involves protagonist Solid Snake (or someone else called Snake) sneaking around maps and avoiding soldiers. He is armed with various weapons, most of which exist in the real world. At certain points in the game, he has to fight various bosses who usually have different superhuman or supernatural abilities. In most games, the penultimate boss is the latest incarnation of the weapon Metal Gear, with following bosses being one-on-one confrontations with that game's main antagonist.

Hideo Kojima originally planned to release the third Metal Gear game, to be called Metal Gear 3, for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer in 1994. However, due to the declining support of the 3DO hardware, development of the game shifted to the PlayStation shortly after the 3DO version of Policenauts was released. Kojima retitled the game Metal Gear Solid, choosing this over the working title Metal Gear 3. This was due to the fact that he believed that the first two MSX2 games in the series were not well known at the time. He used the word "Solid" because thanks to 3D computer graphics, he could now create a "solid" game world, although he also partially attributed the title's inspiration to Solid Snake. Sequels to this game generally use the Metal Gear Solid title and generally follow a new numeral progression. However, the first two MSX2 games are still a part of the Metal Gear canon.

Main series
The main series, considered part of Metal Gear canon, consists of the following games (in release order).

Metal Gear
In the year 1995, a gigantic fortress known as Outer Heaven, founded by a legendary mercenary is constructing a gigantic weapon of mass destruction. The U.S. Government decide to contact Special Forces Unit FOXHOUND. Big Boss, commander of FOXHOUND, sends in his most trusted agent, Gray Fox. However, before any information could be gathered, Gray Fox disappears with his last message simply reading "Metal Gear..." It's up to rookie FOXHOUND recruit Solid Snake to infiltrate Outer Heaven and put a stop to the construction of the world's most powerful weapon.

Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake
Four years later, Solid Snake has gone into retirement. But all is not well, as the creator of a new species of algae known as OILIX, which could produce petroleum-grade hydrocarbons with little expense and effort, has been kidnapped by the renegade nation Zanzibar Land, which has become the only country left with nuclear strike capability via Metal Gear D. New FOXHOUND Commander, Colonel Roy Campbell has no option but to call Solid Snake out of retirement. Snake has to sneak into the fortified nation, rescue Dr. Kio Marv and retrieve the OILIX program, and take down the men behind the terrorists...

Metal Gear Solid
In the year 2005, during a routine training mission on a remote nuclear disposal facility on Shadow Moses Island, FOXHOUND and the Next-Generation Special Forces (also calling themselves the "Sons of Big Boss") being led by Liquid Snake rebel against the U.S. Government, demanding the remains of the legendary mercenary Big Boss. Roy Campbell, former commander of FOXHOUND calls Solid Snake out of retirement one more time, to infiltrate the stronghold, find out if the terrorists have the capabilities of firing a nuclear missile via Metal Gear REX, and stop them if they do. His other objective is to rescue the two hostages: the DARPA Chief Donald Anderson and ArmsTech President Kenneth Baker. The fate of America rests on Solid Snake's shoulders.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Solid Snake and Otacon, after surviving Shadow Moses, form Philanthropy with the intention of flushing out and eliminating the imposing threat of Metal Gears. In the year 2007, information has leaked that the Marines have built a new Metal Gear to combat the over abundance of Metal Gears. Infiltrating the tanker the new Metal Gear RAY is being transported on, Snake is assigned to take photographic evidence of the new Metal Gear. As he finishes his mission, however, the tanker is blown up and sunk by Revolver Ocelot, taking Snake with it.

Two years later, as U.S. President James Johnson is taking a tour of the Big Shell (created to clean up the oil spilled by the tanker), terrorists calling themselves the "Sons of Liberty", being led by a man calling himself Solid Snake, take over the Big Shell, demanding $30 billion. New FOXHOUND operative Raiden is sent in to eliminate the terrorist threat and rescue the President.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
At the end of World War II, the world was split into two, marking the beginning of the Cold War. In the year 1964, FOX operative Naked Snake is sent into Tselinoyarsk in a Virtuous Mission to rescue Russian scientist Nikolai Stepanovich Sokolov who was working on the Shagohod, a terrifying new weapon that's capable of launching a nuke from anywhere on the planet. Just as Snake is about to complete his mission, his mentor The Boss defects to the Soviet Union, taking Sokolov and two miniature nukes with her.

One week later, Snake is sent back into Tselinoyarsk to once again rescue Sokolov, defeat the members of The Boss' Cobra Unit, destroy the Shagohod, and to kill his former mentor The Boss.

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
In 1970, the FOX unit has broken their allegiance with the CIA and gone renegade. Taking control of the San Hieronymo Peninsula and stealing a powerful new nuclear weapon, the group kidnap Big Boss (Naked Snake) in order to find the remaining half of the Philosophers' Legacy. Big Boss and Major Zero have been charged with assisting in the revolt. With the help of fellow prisoner Roy Campbell, Big Boss sets out to convince the Red Army soldiers to join them and rise up against FOX and clear their names.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
The year is 2014 and the restriction of military intervention on foreign soil has been eased, fuelling the need for private military companies to fight proxy wars for business purposes. Nanotechnology has become prominent, both to enhance the capabilities and enforce the loyalty of mercenaries. The nanomachine system that the PMCs use is called "Sons of the Patriots" or "SOP." The five largest of these PMCs are owned by a single mother company named Outer Heaven with Liquid Ocelot as the CEO. Amassing an army rivaling that of the United States, Liquid Ocelot prepares to launch an armed insurrection by taking control of the SOP. With the world once again in crisis, Old Snake (a rapidly aging and disillusioned Solid Snake) is deployed by Roy Campbell to terminate Liquid Ocelot once and for all.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
In 1974, Naked Snake/Big Boss had stationed his "Soldiers Without Borders" in Colombia, South America, where he was approached by visitors (Ramón Gálvez Mena and Paz Ortega Andrade) from Costa Rica, a "Nation without a Military." In the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis, as Latin America became a key to maintaining the power balance between East and West, Costa Rica had miraculously managed to maintain its peace and neutrality. However, in various regions of the country, a mysterious armed force seemed to be engaging in specific activities. Now, to preserve peace in this nation without a military, the "Militaires Sans Frontières" move into action. In time, they would come to be known as the founders of "Outer Heaven."



Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
This game will star Raiden. The game takes place nine years after the events of Liquid Ocelot's Insurrection and will be released on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in early 2013.

Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes
The next canonical installment of Metal Gear series currently under development which will be released for PC and current generation of video game consoles. It is also the prequal of Metal Gear Solid 5.

Non-canonical games
These games are not considered part of the Metal Gear canon, largely due to no involvement of Hideo Kojima or no direct statement saying that they are canon.


 * Snake's Revenge
 * Metal Gear: Ghost Babel
 * Metal Gear Ac!d
 * Metal Gear Ac!d²
 * Metal Gear Solid Mobile
 * Metal Gear Acid Mobile
 * Metal Gear Acid 2 Mobile
 * Metal Gear Solid Touch