Thread:Weedle McHairybug/@comment-1191892-20200203180054/@comment-1191892-20200203185611

Naw, they don't have to be direct, it's a scale. You can be sublte in how you approach it, it's just the general idea of recognising there is a world outside of the fictional one in some way, that there's something beyond the fourth wall. It's less breaking it and more bringing things inside it in that case, but it's still fourth wall humour since as an audience member you have to know the context of an in joke. For example, the thing about Big Boss' sniping experience works on its own, but it's pretty clear it's actually referring to the player's "experiences" of sniping while they were playing as the current character's son (well, technically his brother, clone and all).

And the fact that the series never addressed Snake's Revenge or the bad NES conversion of Metal Gear doesn't mean it can't make reference to Kojima's attitude towards Portable Ops, that's a total nonsequitur.