History YMMV / MetalGearSolid

-->'''Liquid:''' ... Fox...!?
-->'''Snake:''' Die.

** The first floor of the nuke building. Naomi uses [[ItMakesSenseInContext nanomachines inside your body]] to make it so you're incapable of using [[NoItemUseForYou any weapons or explosives]] while on this floor out of fear you might damage one of the warheads in storage stray shot. ''The Twin Snakes'' applies this rule to your nonlethal weapons as well. Unfortunately, the enemy adheres to no such rules and will gun you down given the chance using shotguns which will knock Snake flat on the ground which will get annoying very fast. Finally the room fills with poison gas when an alert is raised, which means that even if you get away from the enemy you might choke to death before the security level drops back to the caution phase. Getting the gas mask makes dealing with the gas easier, but you can't even get your hands on that item until you've gone through this room at least once.

* ThatOneLevel: The communications tower. Right when you enter it a camera sees you [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard even if you throw a chaff grenade]], and you then have to make your way up to the top of the tower while being shot at repeatedly by guards. With the exception of boss fights, there have been no forced combat sections up to now. Once the player reaches the top, they have to rappel down the tower with finicky controls while being shot at by Liquid and potentially getting hurt by steam, and cross a bridge which has three alert guards at the other end, happy to tear Snake to pieces. The next tower is much easier to get up, but players will either have to lose four chaff grenades or try and tank hits from the turrets mounted to the wall...right before the aforementioned Hind D fight.

** Sniper Wolf due to her AbsoluteCleavage.

* TastesLikeDiabetes: The good ending has almost nothing but sappy lines between Snake and Meryl.

* AccidentalInnuendo: In the Spanish translation of the game, Gray Fox's banter "that's good, Snake! Hurry up and catch me!" was translated as "¡Bien hecho Snake! ¡Snake date prisa y cógeme!". While "cógeme" means "catch me", the word has been used as slang for "fuck me" in countries like Argentina and Mexico, meaning that one could interpret the translation as Fox asking Solid Snake to [[FoeYay have sex with him]]. Granted, ''Metal Gear Solid'' was already rife with HoYay, but nevertheless.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment:
** Taking into account Snake's physical state by ''Metal Gear Solid 4'', there's this bit from Campbell just after you reach the helipad, provided you clear the Dock without much hassle:
--> '''Campbell:''' Excellent Snake! Age hasn't slowed you down one bit!
** Naomi Hunter calling Snake out for smoking and pointing out he could develop cancer becomes this in ''Metal Gear Solid 4'' when [[spoiler:it's revealed that Naomi had been diagnosed with terminal cancer]].
** If you call Master Miller on the Codec during the interludes between your torture sessions, he'll appeal to your HeroicResolve and tell you that you are no ordinary soldier and he doesn't want you to crack or tell Ocelot anything. [[spoiler:The revelation that he was really a disguised Liquid Snake means that he was ''really'' just hoping you'll give Ocelot an excuse to torture you to your limit, and is actually an example of Liquid's own sadism and petty grudge against Snake.]]

** In-game dialogue surrounding [[spoiler:FOXDIE]] describes it as [[spoiler:an airborne virus that can cause heart problems and organ damage in the infected and can be deterred by continuously wearing a mask]]. 22 years after the game's release, the world would see [[spoiler:the outbreak of [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic a pandemic]] surrounding another airborne virus that can cause heart problems and organ damage in the infected, with health officials advising continuous mask wearing]].

*** The initial release of [[Website/GOGDotCom GOG version]] had the game indefinitely ''crashed'' when you game overed due to rendering bug, however this has been fixed in an update.

* MagnificentBastard: Liquid Snake. Revolver Ocelot doesn't get there until [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty the next game]].

* RecycledScript: Several plot elements and set pieces used in ''VideoGame/{{Metal Gear|1}}'' and ''VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake'' reappear in ''Metal Gear Solid'' with no comment from anybody. Meanwhile, the game's script itself is [[InvokedTrope intentionally]] recycled for ''Metal Gear Solid 2''.

* MemeticMutation:
** '''[[http://33.media.tumblr.com/b16cc091553e8e15304af939ec1aab26/tumblr_nri7buBrpx1rrw561o1_500.gif REMEMBER THIS]] [[Webcomic/{{Hiimdaisy}} THIS IS IMPORTANT]]'''
** "Five-five sixers and pineapples."
** "A surveillance camera?"
** "[[IncomingHam BRRRRRRROOOOOOOOTHEEEEEEEERR]]."
** "Snake, did you like my sunglasses?"
** "This is just like one of my Japanese animes!"
** "Tu veux qu'on se tire l'oreille ?"[[note]]"You want us to pull each other's ears?"[[/note]] has become a legendary line in the French dub.

* BootstrappedTheme: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI1VpElKWF8 "Encounter".]] It's eventually used for the first part of the Snake/Ocelot FinalBoss battle in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' as well as one of the themes for the Shadow Moses Island stage in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl''.

* SignatureLine:
** "A surveillance camera?!"
** "What's with these guys? It's like one of my Japanese anime!"
** "BROTHERRRR!!"

* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Although [=PS1=] games haven't aged well at all, the title is considered to be one of the best-looking games on the console, due to its realistic lighting and high level of detail. It was even one of the first games ever to avert GoingThroughTheMotions in cutscenes, with characters expressing unique and highly specific body language throughout cutscenes depending on what they're doing or talking about, which was something that was incredibly rare before the advent of motion capture.

** One of Kojima's original ideas for this game was to make GameOver into a FinalDeath, either by deleting your save file or making the game disk unusable. Almost twenty years later, the UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 game ''VideoGame/HellbladeSenuasSacrifice'' uses a similar concept for its FinalDeath mechanic, where dying too many times will erase your save file entirely.

*** Mei Ling originally quoted only Chinese proverbs in the Japanese version. She would say the original proverb in phonetic Chinese and then repeat the same proverb in Japanese. This proved to be rather difficult to localize, since she simply ended up saying the same thing twice in English, so Jeremy Blaustein expanded Mei Ling's expertise to include Western literature and proverbs as well. This is one of the few changes retained in the remake ''The Twin Snakes''.

*** Snake's explanation about how Liquid would be "chopped up faster than an onion in an infomercial" had he ejected from the Hind was not in the Japanese script. The Japanese script, as well as the rewritten English script for the GC version, was more technical in nature, simply stating that Liquid would be chopped up by the rotor blades.
*** In the Japanese version, Dr. Clark's gender was alluded to only once, when Naomi responds that it was Gray Fox who killed Dr. Clark (she uses 彼 "kare", a masculine pronoun). The English version added in more references to Dr. Clark being a male. Dr. Clark's gender was retconned in later games. The novelization, which was released a couple of weeks prior to ''Metal Gear Solid 4'', lampshades this by having Colonel Campbell simply assume Dr. Clark is a man, only for Naomi to quickly correct him.

* {{Woolseyism}}: Most of the script was modified during the localization into the English version. [[https://www.polygon.com/2019/7/18/20696081/metal-gear-solid-translation-japanese-english-jeremy-blaustein Jeremy Blaustein himself eventually wrote an article about the entire localization process and his thought process behind a lot of decisions that eventually went into the final script.]] Ultimately, his intent was to preserve the spirit of Kojima's story while keeping the dialogue natural for English speakers. However, as he himself notes, Kojima apparently did not see it the same way, and was angry that his script was "tinkered with", and would become significantly more involved with the localization process for future games:
** Mei Ling originally quoted only Chinese proverbs in the Japanese version. She would say the original proverb in phonetic Chinese and then repeat the same proverb in Japanese. This proved to be rather difficult to localize, since she simply ended up saying the same thing twice in English, so Jeremy Blaustein expanded Mei Ling's expertise to include Western literature and proverbs as well. This is one of the few changes retained in the remake ''The Twin Snakes''.
** [[spoiler:Before dying]], Psycho Mantis says that using his power to help someone for the first time ever "[felt] kind of nice". In the Japanese version, he says "It feels so... nostalgic".[[note]]Which is a reference to his mom dying from childbirth, [[NoInfantileAmnesia an event he at least recalls the emotions of]].[[/note]]
** Ocelot's line about making bullets go wherever he makes them was not in the Japanese script. It's totally in-character, though.
** Snake's explanation about how Liquid would be "chopped up faster than an onion in an infomercial" had he ejected from the Hind was not in the Japanese script. The Japanese script, as well as the rewritten English script for the GC version, was more technical in nature, simply stating that Liquid would be chopped up by the rotor blades.
** In the Japanese version, Dr. Clark's gender was alluded to only once, when Naomi responds that it was Gray Fox who killed Dr. Clark (she uses 彼 "kare", a masculine pronoun). The English version added in more references to Dr. Clark being a male. Dr. Clark's gender was retconned in later games. The novelization, which was released a couple of weeks prior to ''Metal Gear Solid 4'', lampshades this by having Colonel Campbell simply assume Dr. Clark is a man, only for Naomi to quickly correct him.
** Liquid's reference to Big Boss always telling him that he was a failure as his reason for hating Big Boss was not in the Japanese version. The original script, as well as that of ''The Twin Snakes'', simply had him exclaiming outrage that Big Boss seemingly chose him, knowingly, to be the inferior one.
** Liquid's mention about Big Boss being in a coma, when explaining the history of the Les Enfants Terribles project, was also a Woolseyism. Originally, he simply stated that Big Boss was sterile. Like Mei Ling's use of Western quotes, this was retained in ''The Twin Snakes''. Unlike other changes, it would actually [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain then get retconned into canon]].

** The SniperDuel against a [[WorthyOpponent Sniper Wolf]] in the middle of a freezing Alaskan blizzard.

-->'''Liquid''': ... Fox...!?
-->'''Snake''': Die.

** Psycho Mantis for his clearly supernatural abilities in comparison to his allies, his ingenious boss fight and fourth wall breaking, and his strangely heartwarming final speech. [[spoiler:''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' even brought him back as a OneSceneWonder, in addition to making the Screaming Mantis boss fight a big reference, to say nothing of his appearance in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'']].

** Liquid's mention about Big Boss being in a coma, when explaining the history of the Les Enfants Terribles project, was also a Woolseyism. Originally, he simply stated that Big Boss was sterile. Like Mei Ling's use of Western quotes, this was retained in ''The Twin Snakes''. Unlike other changes, it would actually [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain then get retconned into canon]], although since it’s this franchise, it’s not so simple.

** The fact that Liquid [[spoiler:disguised himself as Master Miller]] may now call to mind Miller's rather [[MemeticMutation memetic]] line from ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVGroundZeroes'': he played Snake like a ''damn'' fiddle!

* {{Woolseyism}}: Most of the script was modified during the localization into the English version. [[https://www.polygon.com/2019/7/18/20696081/metal-gear-solid-translation-japanese-english-jeremy-blaustein Jeremy Blaustein himself eventually wrote an article about the entire localization process and his thought process behind a lot of decisions that eventually went into the final script.]] Ultimately, his intent was to preserve the spirit of Kojima's story while keeping the dialogue natural for English speakers. However, as he himself notes, Kojima apparently did not see it the same way, and was angry that his script was "tinkered with", and would become significantly more involved with the localization process for future games.

* AccidentalInnuendo: In the Spanish translation of the game, Gray Fox's banter "that's good, Snake! Hurry up and catch me!" was translated as "¡Bien hecho Snake! ¡Snake date prisa y cógeme!". While "cógeme" means "catch me", the word has been used as slang for "fuck me" in countries like Argentina and Mexico, meaning that one could interpret the translation as Gray Fox asking Snake to [[FoeYay have sex with him]]. Granted, ''Metal Gear Solid'' was already rife with HoYay, but nevertheless.

** Two words: '''Psycho Mantis'''. A very, ''very'' strong contender for the best boss fight in video game history. You fight against the world's most powerful psychic, who continually [[BreakTheFourthWall Breaks the Fourth Wall]] by reading your memory card (''"You like Castlevania, don't you?"'') and makes the controller move "on its own" by using the Rumble feature. You have to BreakTheFourthWall yourself to beat him [[spoiler:by plugging your controller into the 2nd port to nullify his mind-reading powers.]]
** Also the SniperDuel against a [[WorthyOpponent world-class female Kurdish sniper]] in the middle of a freezing Alaskan blizzard.
** Solid Snake versus Metal Gear REX piloted by Liquid Snake. Especially in ''Twin Snakes'', [[spoiler:with the entire cutscene showing Fox's heroic LastStand.]] Then the fist fight against Liquid himself atop the burning wreckage of REX. ''Then'' Liquid chases you out of Shadow Moses on a Jeep, survives machine-gun fire and the resulting crash, and [[spoiler:only dies from a bloody ''virus'' of all things.]]

* ContinuityLockOut: Many a player will be confused with the incidents of [[VideoGame/MetalGear Outer Heaven]] and [[VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake Zanzibar Land]] if this game's their first. Kojima added dossiers in the main menu to bring newbies up to speed, and Snake's in-game dialog does a good job of expositing without being too obvious, unlike in later games.

** Psycho Mantis for his clearly supernatural abilities in comparison to his allies, his ingenious boss fight and fourth wall breaking, and his strangely heartwarming final speech. [[spoiler:''Metal Gear Solid 4'' even brought him back as a OneSceneWonder, in addition to making the Screaming Mantis boss fight a big reference, to say nothing of his appearance in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'']].

* EvilIsSexy: Sniper Wolf due to her AbsoluteCleavage, and WalkingShirtlessScene Liquid Snake.
* FirstInstallmentWins: For some. It's probably the most consistent fan favorite after ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' and remains in the public conscious more than the other games, which tend to be {{contested sequel}}s.

** Otacon's line about a ball and chain around his legs, and hating his name, suddenly makes perfect sense after playing later entries in the series- particularly ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' and ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain''.
-->'''Otacon''': My name, my father, my grandfather. [[{{Foreshadowing}} ...It felt like all those things were a ball and chain around my legs, dragging me down...]] But now that I think about it, I realize that I was blessed. At least I know who I am...where I came from...
** In-game dialogue surrounding [[spoiler:FOXDIE]] describes it as [[spoiler:an airborne virus that can cause heart problems and organ damage in the infected and can be deterred by continuously wearing a mask]]. 22 years after the game's release, the world would see [[spoiler:the outbreak of [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic a pandemic]] surrounding another airborne virus that can cause heart problems and organ damage in the infected, with health officials advising continuous mask-wearing]].

** Remember when Gray Fox tells Snake "You haven't aged well"? Becomes extremely true by ''Metal Gear Solid 4'' where the genetic alterations made when he was cloned cause Snake to age so rapidly that he looks like an old man.

** One of Creator/HideoKojima's original ideas for this game was to make GameOver into a FinalDeath, either by deleting your save file or making the game disk unusable. Almost twenty years later, the UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 game ''VideoGame/HellbladeSenuasSacrifice'' uses a similar concept for its FinalDeath mechanic, where dying too many times will erase your save file entirely.

** In the original, but not ''The Twin Snakes'', Psycho Mantis will have a comment if you have ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight'' on your memory card. Fast-forward to 2018, and Snake, Simon, Richter and Alucard[[note]]the latter as an assist trophy[[/note]] are all in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate''.
** One Codec call has Snake and Mei-Ling discussing how memories can be theoretically stored into data- or rather, Snake telling her she can't do that. This concept is also discussed between Snake and Naomi when she’s discussing why she got into genetics research. There’s also lots of research in reality dealing with the prospect of genetic memory. Many years later, [[Franchise/AssassinsCreed a certain franchise revolving around digitized memories of long dead assassins]] would be born, exploring that very concept.
** The fact that Liquid disguised himself as Master Miller may now call to mind Miller's rather [[MemeticMutation memetic]] line from [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain MGSV]]: he played Snake like a ''damn'' fiddle!
* ItsShortSoItSucks: The most common criticism of the game, especially at the time. A typical player will finish the game in about 10-11 hours, well over half of which is cutscenes and Codec conversations. This is mitigated by the ranking system, multiple endings, and NewGamePlus bonus items, but that still smacks of FakeLongevity.

** Though the in-game character models are still considered by some to not be up to the standards of the time, even if the visual designs are praised.

* {{Woolseyism}}: Most of the script was modified during the localization into the English version. [[https://www.polygon.com/2019/7/18/20696081/metal-gear-solid-translation-japanese-english-jeremy-blaustein Jeremy Blaustein himself eventually wrote an article about the entire localization process and his thought process behind a lot of decisions that eventually went into the final script.]] Ultimately, his intent was to preserve the spirit of Kojima's story while keeping the dialogue natural for English-speakers. However, as he himself notes, Kojima apparently did not see it the same way, and was angry that his script was "tinkered with", and would become significantly more involved with the localization process for future games. Whether this resulted in a better script due to more faithful dialogue or more stilted dialogue due to Kojima not understanding the nuances of localizing from Japanese to English is, well, [[BrokenBase debatable, to say the least.]]

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: In ''The Twin Snakes'', during the Psycho Mantis scene when he's forcing your controller to move, he begins laughing. A second later, three photos in the back, which show real people in them (specifically, Creator/HideoKojima, Ryuhei Kitamura, the game's cutscene director, and Denis Dyack, head of Creator/SiliconKnights), come to life and begin laughing in extremely high pitched voices that serves as both [[NightmareFuel frightening]] and [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments quite]] hilarious. That's never explained nor mentioned again, though it's not entirely out of the realms of possibility that it's all an illusion created by Mantis.

** Many of the stunts Gray Fox performs during the cutscenes would not be out of place at all in ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance''.

** An accidental result of having Tranquilizer weapons in the game, Snake's [[CoupDeGrace mercy kills]] come off quite a bit worse in hindsight. Sniper Wolf's in particular; even with the cut scene finale to the battle if you never grabbed the regular sniper rifle then you're basically murdering an unconscious woman who needs a bit of medical attention for a collapsed lung and exhaustion from being hit with Tranquilizers while downing pills like candy.