Metal Gear creator was “yelled at” for pushing boundaries

The vision of highly-praised video game designer, Hideo Kojima, wasn’t always appreciated throughout his illustrious career.

In a recent interview with Destructoid, the man behind the Metal Gear series said (via his translator, Kojima Productions’ associated producer Sean Eyestone): “It’s always been my approach to look at what technology is available to me and push games as far as I can to get them out of their traditional boundaries.”

Talking in particular about the first Metal Gear Solid, Kojima added: “Looking back on it, a lot of people talk about that, people look back on that with respect and people praise me for that, but at the time there were a lot of people pissed off at me for it” he laughed, “saying ‘this isn’t the way you should make a game!’ and even a lot of people on my team within Konami said ‘this isn’t what a game should be.’ But actually I really enjoyed being yelled at for that because I like doing something different, so I’m not going to change that, so I hope you look forward to more exciting things like that going forward.”

As we know, Kojima then silenced his critics as the Metal Gear series has become one of the most highly-acclaimed franchises in gaming history. Specifically speaking, a lot of appreciation has been directed towards the series’ innovative boss fights which often break the ‘fourth wall’. “I didn’t really have a concrete idea in my mind of ‘this is what a boss battle should be,’ I just wanted to do something new, something exciting.” Mr. Kojima said, “I just thought ‘this would be a really cool way to make a boss,’ and even now that’s still the way I approach the bosses.”