Snake's Revenge (NES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

A playthrough of Ultra's 1990 action game for the NES, Snake's Revenge.

Snake's Revenge is one of a couple direct sequels that Konami created to the original Metal Gear game, and though it's not the "canonical" sequel - that honor goes to the MSX2 game Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake - it does fair justice to the original. It's a game that a lot of people like to sneer, but though it has its rough spots, it pulls off its combination of stealth and action well, and it largely adheres to the spirit of the original.

The development of Snake's Revenge reminds me of that of StarTropics. Both were created by Japanese studios specifically for western audiences, but neither were released for the Famicom's domestic market. It's pretty interesting to see how Japanese studios perceive and cater to the American market, and Snake's Revenge makes for a good case study. Take that first image of Snake during the intro - he's the perfect image of 80s Hollywood steroid abuse, and Snake's radio buddy John is the spitting image of Stallone in Rambo III.

Anyways, Snake's Revenge follows the same general format as Metal Gear, but instead of taking place across one huge zone, the game is broken up into isolated areas connected by cutscenes. I personally liked the change since it made the action feel more focused and figuring everything out feels less daunting than in Metal Gear. The change has little impact on the overall challenge and mainly serves to drop the pretense of non-linearity in favor of a more streamlined experience, and I had no problem with that at all.

It looks absolutely fantastic for an NES game. The characters are more realistically proportioned and the increased level of detail makes the smalls sprites easier more readily identifiable. Just check out Snake's muscles - Schwarzenegger would've killed to have such chiseled neon yellow drumstick biceps! The character portraits look great, the backgrounds are detailed, and there are a few impressive setpieces sprinkled throughout. The melodically-driven soundtrack is one of my favorites from Konami on the NES, too. It reminds me a lot of Mission: Impossible and Rollergames, and it goes heavy in the action bits.

The game play is pretty good, overall. The overhead parts control better than they did in Metal Gear, and you again have tons of items at your disposal that provide options in how to deal with different threats. The English makes more sense this time around so there aren't any randomly indecipherable "clues," and even though the straight-line vision of the enemy guards isn't terribly realistic, it is mercifully consistent which helps keep the challenge reasonable.

The game isn't too hard until you get toward the end: the pit-floors, the suicide bombers, and the fight with Big Boss can be trying until you've learned them over the course of countless failed attempts, but its most divisive gameplay element seems to be the side-scrolling platformer segments. Early on, they're fine. The controls are super-stiff - like a hybrid of Castlevania's and Rush'n Attack's - but they get needlessly frustrating later on and end up feeling like unnecessary padding. It's a shame, because they're the only major stumbling point in what is an otherwise excellent game that does the Metal Gear name a true solid.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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