Quite a few months ago, there was some speculation on a new Metal Gear game when the insignia that resembled the power button on the Xbox 360.  With that in mind, 360 owners rejoiced at the possibility of Metal Gear Solid 4 hitting the system.  It turned out that all the speculation was ridiculous.  The “!” that everyone thought had to do with a Metal Gear Ac!d game ended up being an upside-down “i” for the iPhone.

Seeing as how I use a prepaid phone plan because I don’t know the first thing about these contracts, I checked out the App Store to see if I can pick it up on my iPod touch.  And guess what?  It works, but how’s the game?  Here’s my review.

Note that since this is a SmashPad blog post, this review wasn’t steadily looked at by the entire Gamer 2.0 staff for the sake of keeping the blog an opiniated outlet from us to you.

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When first booting the game up, you’re greeted by the wonderful Konami and Kojima Productions logos, giving gamers the illusion that this is indeed a legit game.  But don’t let this or the wonderful-looking screenshots fool you, Metal Gear Solid Touch plays like just another iPhone/iTouch game.

The game’s story is basically a slimmed down narrative of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.  Snake’s been fighting for years, and the wear and tear has taken control of his body, making him look extremely old.  Players will immediately notice that the extremely long cutscenes from MGS games prior to this one have been removed, being replaced by pictures of MGS4 environments and narrative text.

After reading the blocks of text that cover seemingly high quality photos of in-game coverage, you go into MGS Touch’s main mode of play, which plays exactly like any flash game.  Snake is set in various locations from MGS4, and behind a wall, he has to shoot down as many enemies as he’s assigned to.  So if you’re supposed to kill 18 enemies to beat a level, the level ends after killing that required number of enemies… or you can end it yourself by dying (or hitting the home button).

That brings us to what’s probably the most interesting part of the game–the controls.  There’s a cursor at the middle of the screen that you control simply by moving your finger across the touch screen.  For increased comfort, you don’t even have to touch the cursor directly, you can simply slide your finger along the screen to move it.  When you have the cursor at any dedicated part of the screen, you can fire unlimited rounds from your machine gun by tapping on the touch screen.

When shooting, Snake becomes vulnerable to enemy attacks because he’s exposed from the wall he hides behind.  When not shooting (which you can do by not touching the touch screen), Snake can hide behind the wall and avoid enemy fire.  Enemies have a circular gauge around them that changes quickly from white to red–when the gauge turns red, they’ll attack and quickly disappear when finished, so the best strategy when playing the game is to shoot everyone down just as their gauge is white.

To keep things from getting stale, there are multiple kinds of enemies in the game.  One is a big robot that can’t receive any damage unless its legs are blown off.  Other enemies include minions of Liquid himself, and the game handles “boss” battles by forcing you to be quick with your fingers on your iPod or iTouch.

When looking at screenshots, it’s easy to think that this game was going to be a visual powerhouse, but honestly–it isn’t.  The flat MGS4 JPEG environments give the game an illusion of being 3D, when everything is really 2D.  It all makes since, because the iPhone and iPod touch aren’t even near the PSP when it comes to visual presentation.  The more complicated things are on-screen, the more complicated things would be during gameplay.

Sound is pretty standard.  You hear gunshots, you hear epic sounding music that you’d hear on 24 when on a mission, and all the essential nuances to make you think you’re playing a Metal Gear Solid game.  Odds are you’ll probably using headphones, and that’ll actually enhance the experience even more, but if you own an iPhone or a 2nd generation iPod touch, you really don’t need the headphones to enjoy the way the game sounds.

The release of Metal Gear Solid Touch came quite quietly.  While it may be because a lot of great games have come out on all the main platforms, it’s probably also because this game really isn’t that great.  The Apple App Store allows touch enthusiasts to download any kind of game at very reasonable prices, but MGS Touch comes at a price of $7.99.  And in all honesty, the game is nothing more than a glorified flash game.  With games like Hero of Sparta available in the App Store, the overall quality of MGS Touch is simply disappointing.

GAMEPLAY: 7
Intuitive controls make the game very easy to understand and play. Interesting take on bosses.  A tutorial is included, but it’s all text, and it really doesn’t help anybody.

GRAPHICS: 7
The game looks good.  Does it take advantage of what Apple’s mobile devices can do?  Probably not.

SOUND: 7
Accurate sounds without any slowdown give the game some realism.

VALUE: 2
At $8, you really can be downloading other great games in the App Store.  Or you might as well buy what they’re used for–music.

TILT: 5
The game is an enjoyable mobile game, but that’s all it really is.

5.4 OVERALL RATING

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Related posts:

1. Top 9 of ’09: #9 – Metal Gear Solid Touch
2. E3 2010 Preview: Metal Gear Solid: Rising (Xbox 360, PS3)
3. Review: Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (PSP)
4. Review: Metal Slug XX (PSP)

About This Author: Danreb Victorio

Danreb Victorio is SmashPad's longest tenured staff member and has been writing for the publication since its existence as Gaming-Nation, Inside Gamer Online, Amped IGO, Amped News, and Gamer 2.0. Though SmashPad has gone through many branding changes, Danreb has remained the same--he pushes out content while also improving his craft with every piece that gets published. As a Co-Managing Editor, Danreb, along with Chris Selogy, is in charge of assigning, maintaining, and providing SmashPad's editorial content. Danreb is currently an undergraduate at San Jose State University studying to earn a bachelor of science in magazine journalism. In addition to SmashPad, you can read his work on Yelp.com and San Jose State University's student newspaper, The Spartan Daily.

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