Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima recently revealed that he considers the series’ radio communication system to be one of his greatest inventions ever. While this may seem rather mundane by today’s standards, the game’s designers made the case that this Metal Gear feature was a game-changer.
Hideo Kojima is one of the most famous Japanese game developers in the industry. He started his career at Konami in the 80’s, responsible for several hit games such as the entire Metal Gear series, Policenauts and the famous P.T. Prototype. However, Kojima all but left the gaming industry in the early 2000s. Just before the release of Metal Gear Solid 2, Kojima was agonizing over the events of 9/11 and the fact that the game featured the World Trade Center. Doubts about the response to the release nearly caused him to abandon the game and leave Konami. Luckily, he continued his career, working there until 2015, when he left to start Kojima Productions, the independent studio where he currently works.
Now, Hideo Kojima is taking some time off from the development of Death Stranding 2 to commemorate one of his greatest past achievements. In a recent tweet, Kojima affirmed that the radio communication system is one of his best inventions in game design. The idea came while developing Metal Gear Solid, as he wanted players to sneak into areas alone. This is partly due to the technical limitations of controlling multiple NPCs in action. Therefore, using voice support is a convenient option since players will be guided using only audio, which is easier and less expensive to implement than a full-fledged team system.
The radio system was quite functional and, according to the designers, it was based on the communication system used by special forces in similar situations at that time. Using it, Metal Gear Solid’s character arcs and story can be developed while providing important gameplay information to players far and wide. It’s an elegant solution, used throughout the franchise and then copied by many similar games in the genre.
Still, Kojima’s creativity seems far from over. His latest game, Death Stranding, is being made into a movie, and he’s already made bold promises to do so. For example, the game developer claims that the Death Stranding movie will be very different from the game. According to Hideo Kojima, most game movies try to cater to the needs of the game, but end up being lackluster adaptations. So, he wanted to take a direction and show people something that hadn’t been tried before.