Metal Gear Acid was a fine game, successfully translating the stealth action of Metal Gear into a turn-based card battler. But, as a launch title for the PSP, there’s a sense it could have used a teeny bit more time in the oven.
Just over a year later Metal Gear Acid 2 arrived and is everything the original should have been. The card battling is more streamlined and flexible, the graphics have a beautifully stylised semi-cel-shaded look, and the general aesthetic is truly unique within the franchise.
Like its predecessor Acid was produced without the direct involvement of Hideo Kojima, with writing done by series veterans Shinta Nojiri (also directing), Tomokazu Fukushima, Shuyo Murata and Noriaki Okamura. These are essentially the unsung heroes of the Metal Gear franchise, all of whom have contributed a lot of excellent material without much recognition by fans.
I get a nerdy thrill out of picking up their quiet recurring elements that have wormed their way into various Metal Gear titles. For example, the “Koppelthorn” engine is a big part of the Snake Tales episode “External Gazer”, is mentioned in Ghost Babel, and “Dr Koppelthorn” plays a role here.
Clearly, the Acid 2 writers have a lot of interests in common with Kojima, though there’s a preoccupation with identity and purpose filtered through quantum physics that’s unique to this series. I love this stuff, and it’s a nice proof that it’s at least possible to make something distinctly Metal Gear-y without just running a Kojima tribute act.
I also enjoy Venus’ character, as it’s a fun contrast to team up Snake with someone so bloodthirsty and willing to violently terminate enemies.
That said, I do have some bones to pick with Acid 2. The game features around 500 distinct cards to play and a lot of them feel completely redundant. There are multiple “traps” that activate when an enemy steps on a specific tile that felt useless, various modifiers that are only useful in very specific circumstances, a bunch of joke cards that don’t do much, and several weapons that just straight up aren’t useful.
Theoretically some of these cards could be more useful in the PvP Wireless Battle multiplayer mode, though even on launch I doubt many people were delving too deeply into that. In singleplayer it just makes sense to load up your deck with as many direct damage cards as you can rather than explore the possibilities of the more esoteric cards, particularly as one flubbed move can put you in an almost unwinnable state.
I also think the inclusion of various boobalicious videos of models lounging around in their underwear fondling guns to straight-up softcore porn music hasn’t aged particularly well (to say nothing of the Dead or Alive level jiggle physics on the women in the game), but I guess at least they needed something to show off the ludicrous Solid Eye 3D cardboard headset.
Quibbles aside I had a great time with Acid 2 and only with this mini-spinoff series had gotten a third instalment where they could refine the gameplay a teeny bit more. It seems doubtful that this would ever get an official re-release, but it played and looked great on the Steam Deck.
I also have the old Java versions of Metal Gear Acid loaded up on a dumbphone somewhere. Maybe now the PSP bigger brothers are played I’ll finally give them a whirl…
Pixel Hunted 