Metal Gear is an overhead action-adventure stealth game developed by Konami and published by Ultra Games for the NES, ported from Hideo Kojima’s 1987 MSX2 original. Players guide Solid Snake through the fortress Outer Heaven — avoiding guards’ sightlines, gathering weapons and keycards, and using a radio transceiver — to rescue captured operatives and destroy the enemy’s superweapon. It is a progenitor of the stealth genre.
How To Play Metal Gear
Control
Action
D-Pad
Move Snake in four directions; navigate menus and tune the transceiver
A Button
Fire equipped weapon / use item
B Button
Punch (melee attack)
Select
Open weapon / item menu
Start
Pause / transceiver / status
About Metal Gear
Release date
Famicom (JP): December 22, 1987 · NES (NA): June 1988 · NES (EU): 1989
Developer
Konami
Publisher
Konami (NA: Ultra Games)
Platform
NES / Famicom; originally MSX2, plus Commodore 64, MS-DOS
Sheldon has spent over a decade immersed in retro gaming, from NES classics to arcade gems. He's deeply passionate about preserving gaming history and helping others rediscover these timeless titles. When he's not gaming, Shaun writes about the evolution of video games and their cultural impact.
