Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Gameplay

The gameplay of Snake Eater is similar to that of previous games in the Metal Gear Solid series. Snake, controlled by the player, must move undetected through a hostile, enemy-filled environment. Although Snake acquires various weapons (ranging from handguns to rocket propelled grenades), the emphasis is on using stealth to avoid confrontations. A number of objects and gadgets can be found along the way to aid in this, including motion detectors to track hostile soldiers, and the Metal Gear series' trademark cardboard box, which Snake can hide under to avoid visual detection.

Despite the fundamental similarities, Snake Eater introduces many new aspects of gameplay not present in previous Metal Gear games, including camouflage, a new hand-to-hand combat system called "close quarters combat" or "CQC", a stamina gauge, and an injury-and-treatment system.

Approximately two-thirds of the game is set outdoors in a Soviet Union rainforest, and using this varied environment to its fullest potential is often the key to success. Of the new features, particular emphasis is placed on camouflage and using the jungle environment itself (for example, climbing trees or hiding in tall grass) to avoid being seen by the enemy. The advanced radar from previous games has been removed in favor of a simple motion detector and sonar system more suitable for the game's time period.

A percentage value called the "camouflage index" gauges Snake's exposure, on a scale from negative values (highly visible and attracting attention) up to 100% (completely invisible to the enemy). In order to minimize visibility, the player must switch between different camouflage uniforms and face paints to blend in with the environment; for example, wearing a bark-patterned uniform while leaning against a tree, or wearing striped face paint while hiding in tall grass. Other devices for camouflage, such as a fake gavial head to decrease chances of being detected in water, are also available.

The basic close combat from previous installments has been heavily refined and expanded into the CQC system. When unarmed or using a one-handed weapon, Snake can grab opponents and put them in a chokehold, at which point a variety of actions can be performed, such as choking the enemy unconscious, slitting the enemy's throat, or interrogating them at knifepoint to obtain information. The context, pressure applied to the button, and movement of the analog stick determine the action performed.

While previous games used only a simple life bar, Snake Eater also keeps track of injuries over the entire body. For example, a long fall could fracture Snake's leg, slowing him down until the injury is properly treated with a splint and bandage. Unless these injuries are treated, Snake will not be able to fully recover his health for some time.

The location brings in the need to rely upon native flora and fauna to survive. This is manifested in a stamina gauge, which constantly depletes during gameplay. Failure to restore the gauge by eating has detrimental effects on gameplay, such as decreasing Snake's ability to aim his weapon and being heard by the enemy due to Snake's loud stomach grumbles. Food can be stored in the backpack until it is needed. However, some types of food rot over time, and consuming rotten foods may result in Snake developing a stomach ache, causing the stamina gauge to deplete faster.

The PlayStation 2 versions of Snake Eater include a minigame titled "Snake vs. Monkey", in which Snake has to catch Ape Escape-style monkeys. In addition to containing tongue-in-cheek humor, bonus items usable in the main game can be unlocked by progressing through various stages.

Characters

The protagonist of Snake Eater, Naked Snake (David Hayter/Akio Ōtsuka), known as Big Boss in subsequent games, is a young former Green Beret assigned to the CIA unit FOX. During his mission, Snake is assisted by fellow FOX members over his radio: Major Zero (Jim Piddock/Banjō Ginga), commander of FOX and a former member of the British Special Air Service, who provides Snake with mission advice and battle tactics; Para-Medic (Heather Halley/Houko Kuwashima), who provides medical information, as well as advice on flora and fauna; and Sigint (James C. Mathis III/Keiji Fujiwara), who provides weapon and equipment information.

The two primary antagonists of the game are Colonel Volgin (Neil Ross/Kenji Utsumi), an electricity-controlling GRU colonel and member of the extreme Brezhnev faction, who are attempting to overthrow Nikita Khrushchev to seize power for Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin, and The Boss (Lori Alan/Kikuko Inoue), former mentor to Naked Snake and co-founder of the FOX unit. The Cobra Unit, a Special Forces unit led by The Boss, is composed of The End (J. Grant Albrecht/Osamu Saka), a venerable expert sniper credited as the "father of modern sniping"; The Fear (Michael Bell/Kazumi Tanaka), who has supernatural flexibility and agility; The Fury (Richard Doyle/Masato Hirano), a disfigured former cosmonaut armed with a flamethrower and a jetpack; The Pain (Gregg Berger/Hisao Egawa), who can control hornets to both defend himself and attack his enemies; and The Sorrow (David Thomas/Yukitoshi Hori), the spirit of a deceased medium.

Other characters include Dr. Sokolov (Brian Cummings/Naoki Tatsuta), a rocket scientist whom Snake must rescue; EVA (Suzetta Miñet/Misa Watanabe), Snake's love interest, American defector, and KGB agent sent to assist him, and a young Ocelot (Josh Keaton/Takumi Yamazaki), commander of the elite Ocelot Unit within Volgin's GRU.

Virtuous Mission

Metal Gear Solid 3 is set before the events of first Metal Gear during the Cold War in 1964, where a CIA agent, codenamed "Naked Snake", is sent to the jungles of Tselinoyarsk, in the USSR. Aided over radio by Major Zero, Para-Medic, and his former mentor The Boss, his mission is to rescue a defecting Soviet scientist named Sokolov who is secretly developing an advanced nuclear-equipped tank called the "Shagohod". The mission goes smoothly until The Boss defects and provides her new benefactor, Colonel Volgin, with two Davy Crockett miniature nuclear shells. Sokolov is captured by Cobra Unit and Snake is heavily injured and thrown off a bridge by The Boss, allowing Volgin and his cohorts to escape with Sokolov. Volgin detonates one of the nuclear shells to cover up its theft, which is subsequently blamed on The Boss. Snake is recovered using the Fulton Recovery System.

Operation Snake Eater

Having detected the U.S. aircraft which deployed Snake flying over Soviet soil, the Soviet Union declares the United States responsible for the nuclear attack, tipping both nations to the edge of a nuclear war. In a secret conference between U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, a deal is hatched to prove the U.S.'s innocence and restore peace. The United States agrees to stop Volgin's renegade faction, destroy the stolen Shagohod and eliminate the American defector, The Boss.

A week after being rescued from the region, Snake is redeployed into the Soviet jungle as part of "Operation: Snake Eater", to fulfill the United States' promises. During the mission, he gains the assistance of another American defector, ex-NSA agent EVA, who defected a few years earlier (though she is informed she would be helped by ADAM, who defected with her). After numerous encounters with the elite Ocelot Unit (led by a young Revolver Ocelot), and defeating nearly every member of Cobra Unit, Snake succeeds in locating Sokolov and the stolen Shagohod, only to be captured in Volgin's military fortress, Groznyj Grad. After listening to Volgin brutally beat Sokolov to death, Snake is tortured by Volgin and loses his eye while protecting EVA from Ocelot, who was attempting to kill her upon suspecting her of being a spy; Snake ultimately escapes.

When he returns to the facility to destroy the Shagohod, Snake is once again confronted by Volgin and learns of "The Philosophers". Made up of the most powerful men in the United States, Soviet Union, and China, they were an Illuminati-like organization who control the world behind the scenes. However, after the end of World War II, they began to fight amongst themselves, and the organization broke down. The Philosopher's Legacy, a fund the organization had jointly amassed to finance their wars ($100 billion), was divided up and hidden in banks all over the world. Volgin had illegally inherited this money, and Snake learns that the U.S. is attempting to retrieve it.

Snake continues his mission, destroying the facility and the Shagohod tank, while engaging Volgin, who is killed by a bolt of lightning during the battle. Snake and EVA travel to a lake, where a WIG ground effect vehicle is hidden. Before they use it to escape the region, Snake confronts his old mentor, The Boss, whom he must assassinate to complete his mission. After an emotional battle, Snake overcomes his feelings and kills The Boss, emerging victorious. He and EVA escape to Alaska, and spend the night together as they make love. During the night, EVA disappears, and leaves behind a tape revealing herself to be a Chinese spy sent to steal the Philosopher's Legacy for China. The tape continues, and EVA reveals that The Boss did not defect to the Soviet Union; rather, she was under orders to pretend to defect so she could infiltrate Volgin's ranks and find the location of the Legacy, which could be brought back to America. The final part of her mission was to sacrifice her honor and die at the hands of Snake, under the guise of a traitor, to prove the U.S.'s innocence in Volgin's nuclear attack during the Virtuous Mission.

Snake is awarded the title of "Big Boss" and given the Distinguished Service Cross for his efforts by President Johnson in front of his FOX Unit and other officials; however Snake has become so distraught and demoralized after EVA's revelation that he leaves almost immediately after getting his medal, hardly acknowledging Major Zero, Para-Medic and Sigint. Later, he arrives at an anonymous grave, The Boss's, just one of thousands located in Arlington National Cemetery. Laying down The Boss's gun and a bouquet of lilies upon the nameless gravestone, he scans the endless rows before him, salutes, and sheds a single tear, knowing that The Boss's true patriotism will be known by only EVA, himself, and others who knew of her mission.

After the credits roll, Ocelot is heard talking to the KGB Chief Director over the telephone. After suggesting that the KGB use the knowledge of both the Virtuous Mission and Operation Snake Eater to blackmail the United States during future negotiations, he then calls another, unidentified man. Ocelot informs him that the microfilm stolen by EVA was a fake and that half of the Philosopher's Legacy is now in America's hands, with the other half held by the KGB. It transpires that Ocelot has been triple-crossing everyone from the very beginning. He then reveals that he is in fact ADAM, that he is talking to the director of the CIA, and that he has been working for the said agency all this time.

Development

Originally, the game was supposed to be developed for the PlayStation 3, but due to the long wait for the PS3, the game was developed for the PlayStation 2 instead. From the outset, the game's director Hideo Kojima wished to drastically change the setting from previous games. He stated that the jungle setting is what both his development team, and the Metal Gear fans, wanted. However, he acknowledged that the elements of a jungle environment, such as the weather, landscape and wildlife, were features that would present problems during the game's development. Whereas in previous installments the player starts out close to, or even within, the enemy base, Kojima wished Snake Eater to be more realistic, with Snake starting out miles from civilization and having to work his way to the enemy encampment.

Kojima commented that the outside environment was very difficult to create. He explained that the reason previous games were primarily set indoors is because the current consoles were not powerful enough to portray a true jungle environment. In contrast with urban environments, the jungle does not have a flat surface. The protagonist in Snake Eater has to cross uneven terrain, including rocks, dirt mounds, and treestumps. As a result, the collision engine used in previous installments could not be used, and a new one had to be built from scratch. Setting up the motion capture technology so players could walk over these mounds was a problem during development.

Many fans wanted Snake Eater to use a 3D camera, but this was ultimately not implemented in the game. Kojima views Metal Gear Solid, Sons of Liberty and Snake Eater as a trilogy, and wished to keep the camera the same as the previous two in order to keep the feel of the three games the same. He did, however, acknowledge that the current trend for video games is to use the 3D camera. The camera was later implemented in an updated version of Snake Eater titled Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, and further installments in the franchise.

Kojima designed boss battles of Snake Eater to be totally different from those in previous Metal Gear games, or any other games. He said that the boss battle with sniper The End best represented free, open gameplay in the game. The battle takes place over a large area of dense jungle, and the player must search extensively for The End, who attacks over long range from an unknown position. This battle of attrition can last for hours, and contrasts with other boss fights in which the enemy is right in front of the player and in view the whole time. In addition, the player has the ability to both avoid this boss battle altogether by killing The End earlier in the game; or save and quit during the fight, wait a week, and reload the game to find The End having died of old age. Kojima commented that features like this do not appear in other games.

Music

The musical score of Snake Eater was composed by Harry Gregson-Williams and Norihiko Hibino, who provided material for both cut scenes and the game itself. Hibino wrote the game's opening theme, "Snake Eater", a distinctly Bond-like vocal track which also appears in the game proper, as performed by Cynthia Harrell. Composer and lyricist Rika Muranaka provides a song called "Don't Be Afraid" which is played during the ending for the game. The song is performed by Elisa Fiorillo.

In a break from tradition, one of the ending themes of the game was not an in-house production, but Starsailor's "Way To Fall". Hideo Kojima later revealed in his blog that he originally wanted to use "Space Oddity" and "Ashes to Ashes" (by David Bowie) for the ending themes because of the space development theme of the game, but during the game's development that theme lost its significance. One of his colleagues then advised him to listen to Stellastarr, but Kojima heard Starsailor. He liked the song "Way To Fall", and chose it as an ending theme.

Reception

Snake Eater was a commercial success and sold 3.6 million copies worldwide by August 2005. Although this is considerably lower than Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, which has sold 7 million copies to date, critics were pleased with the new protagonist, Naked Snake—who strongly resembles the series protagonist Solid Snake—after fans were disappointed by Raiden in MGS2. Some critics, who found the lengthy dialogues and multitude of plot twists in Sons of Liberty to be detrimental to the game experience found the storyline of Snake Eater a pleasing throwback to the original Metal Gear Solid, with less of the "philosophical babble" present in Sons of Liberty.

Critical response

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater was critically acclaimed, and was given high scores by some of the most prominent gaming critics. On the review aggregator GameRankings, the game has an average score of 91.77% based on 86 reviews. On Metacritic, the game had an average score of 91/100, based on 68 reviews. Gaming website IGN awarded a 9.6/10 and Edge rated it 8/10. GameSpot, who granted it an 8.7/10, commented that the game is "richly cinematic" and "a great achievement." GameSpy hailed it as "probably the best Metal Gear Solid game yet", and Eurogamer called it "overwhelmingly superior to MGS2: Sons of Liberty" in their review.

Reviewers had mixed opinions about the game's camouflage system. Edge commented that "laying, camouflaged, in short grass inches away from a patrolling enemy is a gripping twist on stealth," while GameSpy criticized it as "just a number to monitor and not a terribly interesting one." Out of the variety of new features, GameSpot called it "the most important and best implemented." The game has also been criticized for its low frame rate, which has been reduced to 30 frame/s (compared with 60 frame/s in Sons of Liberty).

The cut scenes of Snake Eater have been called "visually exciting and evocative, beautifully shot" by Edge. However, they commented that the script "ranges from awkward to awful" and criticized David Hayter's performance as Snake, concluding that "Snake Eater's speech is not up to the standard of other games, let alone cinema." GameSpot said that some of the humor "falls flat, as if lost in translation from Japanese" and "should appeal to... hardcore fans but... takes you out of the moment."

Awards

Since its release in 2004, the game has received numerous awards. Notable ones include "best overall action game", "best overall story" and "best PS2 use of sound" in IGN's Best of 2004 awards, and "best story", "best sound effects" and "best new character" in GameSpot's Game of the Year 2004 awards.

Snake Eater's theme song won the "Best Original Vocal Song - Pop" from the Game Audio Network Guild at the Game Developers Conference in August 2005, while the game itself won the award for "Best PS2 Game" at 2005's Game Convention in Germany. David Hayter, voice of Snake, was nominated for the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences award for "Outstanding Achievement in Character Performance."

Legacy

Snake Eater was developed as a prequel to the entire Metal Gear series, and was followed by several direct sequels: Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, and Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain. In 2011, Kojima revealed that he floated the idea of a Metal Gear Solid 5 set during the World War II invasion of Normandy, showing The Boss and Cobra Unit's assistance in the fight. However, the team was hesitant about such a big project and Kojima later felt that "simply dropping MGS5 on the younger staff members was a bit heavy."

The game has since been listed on several "Best of ..." lists by video-gaming publications. In 2009, IGN placed Subsistence at number 3 on its "The Top 25 PS2 Games of All Time" list. GamePro listed Snake Eater and Subsistence at 8th place on its list of "The 36 Best PS2 Games" in 2010. That same year, IGN ranked Snake Eater 2nd on its list of the "Top 100 PlayStation 2 Games", and said that it had "the best story in the franchise." In 2013, GamesRadar placed the game at number 22 on its "The 100 Best Games of All Time" list. That same year, the game's story was ranked 10th place on GamesRadar's list of "The Best Videogame Stories Ever". In 2015, the game placed 2nd on USgamer's "The 15 Best Games Since 2000" list.

Releases

Snake Eater was first released in North America; the Japanese release was held back for almost a month after that. The Japanese version featured several additional downloadable camouflage pattern that were not available for the North American version, some which were only downloadable through data from Metal Gear Solid 3-related soundtrack CDs. A limited "premium package" edition of Snake Eater was released alongside the standard version in Japan. The premium package comes with a DVD disc featuring all the promotional trailers shown prior to the game's release (including a proof of concept video shown internally within Konami), two booklets and a painted 1/144-scale model of the Shagohod. A special limited edition CD was given away to those who pre-ordered the Japanese version of Snake Eater, which included several tracks from the game's soundtrack, as well as computer screensavers and additional camouflage for the main game. The pre-order package allowed cell phone users to access a special site featuring image and music downloads.

For the European release, Konami added several new features, including the "European Extreme" difficulty setting, a "demo theater" which allows players to view all cutscenes at any point after viewing them once during the main game, and a Duel Mode, where players can replay boss battles from the main game, in addition to extra facepaints based on European flags and two new "Snake vs. Monkey" levels. Most of the downloadable camo patterns that were available for the Japanese version were also released for the European version, with only a few exceptions.

Subsistence

Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence was released in Japan on December 22, 2005, later in North America on March 14, 2006, in Europe on October 6, 2006 and in Australia on October 13, 2006. Subsistence continues the Metal Gear Solid series tradition of follow-up expanded versions. While previous releases, such as Metal Gear Solid: Integral and Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance included skill challenge missions and/or side story missions, Subsistence eschews the extra single-player missions to include updated versions of the series' first two games, Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, a brand-new competitive online mode, and a fully 3D, user-controlled camera in the main portion of the game. Because of all the additional content that was added, the Subsistence edition was split into two discs: the first disc contains the main game only (including the cutscenes viewer), while the second disc features the online multiplayer mode and all the other supplemental content.

Subsistence's online multiplayer component, titled Metal Gear Online, consists of five tournament-style game modes, each with a capacity of up to eight players. This mode pits players, each playing as a generic soldier against each other in deathmatch battles and variations of capture the flag, using stages, items, maneuvers, and units (such as the KGB, GRU or Ocelot Unit) from the main game. Depending on server settings, each round the highest-scoring player in each unit automatically assumes the role of one of the main characters (or Reiko Hinomoto from Rumble Roses), along with unique abilities and/or items. For example, the highest scoring player on the GRU team would assume the role of Major Raikov, leader of the GRU, next round. Konami's Metal Gear Online service for the PlayStation 2 closed in Japan on December 26, 2006, followed by in North America on April 2, 2007 and in Europe on October 30, 2007, although a fan community has revived it by emulating the servers. As noted above, the online mode, after one of the players unlocks an animal codename, also allowed for the player to play as either Reiko Hinomoto or Rowdy Reiko from Rumble Roses (depending if the player in question was of red team or blue team, respectively). According to Metal Gear series creator Hideo Kojima, he added the characters into the game as secret characters in part due to opportunity: Kojima had earlier been offered a deal with Rumble Roses producer Akari Uchida to make a crossover between Metal Gear and Rumble Roses. However, the Metal Gear development team at the time refused to work with them. Kojima eventually accepted the offer when trying to decide on secret characters for the online mode for Subsistence to tie up loose ends. He also admitted that he originally considered offering Tomonobu Itagaki, at the time the producer of the Tecmo fighting game series Dead or Alive, the opportunity of using one of his characters as a secret character.

In addition to the older games and the online mode, Subsistence includes many of the features that were introduced in the Japanese and European releases. It includes the downloadable extra camouflage and face paint designs and "Snake vs. Monkey" stages previously exclusive to the European release, the European Extreme difficulty level, parody cut scenes and trailers from the official website, and connectivity with Metal Gear Acid 2. The Japanese version also includes a URL for a hidden website that allows the download of OtaClock, a PC and Mac clock program that features Metal Gear Solid series recurring character Otacon. This website is now publicly available.

"Limited Edition" copies of Subsistence also include Existence, the game's cut scenes edited into a three-and-a-half-hour feature film with additional scenes and remastered sound. The North American "Limited Edition" package was only available to consumers who pre-ordered it before the game's release. The three disc edition is the standard release of Subsistence in Europe to make up for its later release in the region.

A bonus documentary DVD video titled Metal Gear Saga Vol. 1 was bundled with pre-orders for Subsistence in North America and with the European Platinum reissue of Snake Eater released in Germany on March 23, 2006. The disc includes a five-part, 30-minute featurette about the entire Metal Gear series interspersed with an interview of Hideo Kojima, as well as trailers for various current Metal Gear games.

Subsistence received marginally higher review scores than the original Snake Eater, averaging 94% on Metacritic. Reviewers commented that the introduction of the 3D camera removed the "only grade-A problem" and makes the gameplay feel "less restrictive and more natural." The online mode is considered "impressive for a PS2 game", though "[Snake Eater]'s distinctive gameplay conventions do not entirely lend themselves to the online action-gaming experience." Subsistence received IGN's award for "best online game" for the PlayStation 2 in December 2006.

20th Anniversary re-release

On July 2007, Konami re-released all the mainline Metal Gear Solid games on the PS and PS2, along with the PSP game Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, individually and as part of a limited edition box set in Japan commemorating the 20th anniversary of the original Metal Gear. This edition of Metal Gear Solid 3 features the first disc from the Subsistence version and a new second disc containing only the MSX2 Metal Gear games, lacking Metal Gear Online (due to the discontinuation of its servers), as well as all the other content that was present in Subsistence's original second disc (Snake vs. Monkey, Duel Mode and Secret Theater). A similar box set was released for the North American market on March 2008, titled Metal Gear Solid: The Essential Collection, which includes the first disc of Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence along with the original Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance, but lacks the second disc with the MSX2 games from the Japanese 20th Anniversary edition.

HD Edition

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - HD Edition was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles in late 2011. It was released as part of the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, as well as a digital download on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade. The PS3 and Xbox 360 versions runs in a resolution of 720p and aims for a target framerate of 60 frames per second, compared to the PS2 version's maximum of 30 FPS. The aspect ratio has also been increased from the original's 4:3 presentation to a wider 16:9 resolution, giving players a wider view of their surroundings. The HD Edition features some of the content from the Subsistence version, such as the third-person camera and demo theater, but lacks the online multiplayer mode and the "Snake vs. Monkey" minigame (due to this version also being released on the Xbox 360). The two MSX2 Metal Gear games are also included in this version, both accessible from the main menu. A PlayStation Vita version of the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection on June 2012, which features Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3; this version of Metal Gear Solid 3 features limited touch controls to take advantage of the Vita's touch screen, and compared to the PS2 version, the framerate is a more consistent 30 FPS, with less screen tearing.

Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D

At Electronic Entertainment Expo 2010, Konami displayed a technical demo for the Nintendo 3DS entitled Metal Gear Solid 3D: Snake Eater – The Naked Sample. The demo's subtitle "The Naked Sample" was meant to convey its purpose as just a sample of the 3DS hardware, with no plans to bring a game to production at that point. Series producer Hideo Kojima stated at the time that if a Metal Gear game for the 3DS was actually made they would consider some elements from the PlayStation Portable title Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, including the game's cooperative gameplay system. Later in 2010, Konami announced a full Metal Gear title for release on the 3DS, which was revealed at Nintendo World 2011 to be Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D. It was released on February 21, 2012 in North America and March 8, 2012 worldwide.

Due to the limited interface of the 3DS, as well as to take advantage of the touch screen, 3D has vastly unique controls when compared to other games in the Metal Gear series. While the game has been heavily criticized for these control changes, use of the Circle Pad Pro peripheral has been cited to alleviate much of the control issues of the 3DS. This is done by restoring camera movement to the second analog stick, adding ZL and ZR buttons for aiming and attacking, and allowing the face buttons to be used in a manner more in line with all other releases in the Metal Gear series.

3D also has certain optional in-game differences that affect play, such as the concise over the shoulder third-person view and the addition of crouch-walking. Firing in this third-person view substitutes an open cross-hair for the standard down-the-barrel sighting of the standard FPS view. This method of aiming can seem less precise, but does allow for a greater margin of error in accuracy. 3D makes use of the 3DS console's gyroscope, which is used to maintain balance when walking across a bridge or standing on tree branches. The camouflage system has also been updated, allowing the player to make use of the 3DS' camera to make a custom camouflage pattern. The port features numerous graphical improvements over the initial PlayStation 2 version including better character models and the addition of normal mapping. Despite this, the framerate has been criticized for falling far below the other versions of Snake Eater. Snake Eater 3D has met with positive reviews, averaging 77.74% at GameRankings based on 34 reviews, and 78/100 at Metacritic based on 46 reviews.

Novelization

A novelization of Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater, written by Satoshi Hase, was published by Kadokawa Shoten in Japan on January 25, 2014.

Pachislot

KPE, the parlor entertainment subsidiary of Konami, announced a pachislot adaptation of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. It runs on a new type of cabinet known as the "Big Boss", which features a 32-inch LCD monitor in full HD covering its front surface. Scenes from the original video game have been redone in updated CGI (heavily implied to be the FOX engine) to showcase the cabinet's high-end video capabilities. The machine was officially distributed on October 17, 2016 to various parlors nationwide in Japan. Following its announcement, the pachislot version received an overwhelmingly negative reaction from fans, who heavily criticized the decision that a remake of the original game using the FOX engine had been developed into a slot machine, rather than Konami releasing it as a standalone video game and distributing it to a wider audience.