History YMMV / MetalGearSolid

** The Psycho Mantis fight was groundbreaking and full of HolyShitQuotient at the time, but most new players nowadays don't get what was so mindblowing about it.

** 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 Liquids' own sadism and petty grudge against Snake.]]

** 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''.

* BrokenBase: Worthy and improved remake or insult to a masterpiece? Its exclusion from the ''HD Collection'' caused these debates to flare up again over whether Kojima was in the right or not to exclude at least ''some iteration'' of the original game (though the [=PS3=]-exclusive ''Legacy Collection'', which included the original, quieted the debate for some).

* BetterThanCanon: The re-dubbed script has some improvements. Snake is more expressive and dialed down some of the gruffness as with later games, Mei Ling's somewhat forced accent is removed and she sounds much more natural and youthful, Gray Fox voiced by ''Creator/RobPaulsen'' is more menacing lacking the raspy voice, and most characters sound more professional in the intervening years since the original.

** The death of the Cyborg Ninja in the Japanese version is this, after the death of Creator/KanetoShiozawa.

* 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/SuperSmashBros Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]''.

** Sniper Wolf for her engaging [[SniperDuel Sniper Duels]] and emotional death scene, to the point that Crying Wolf is fought in the same location in ''Metal Gear Solid 4''.

* GenreTurningPoint: Before ''Metal Gear Solid'', action games traditionally had nothing more than ExcusePlot. This began changing after the game became a critical and commercial smash hit, with its story particularly being pointed out for praise, and noticeably making the gameplay and action segments more intense than almost anything else on the market. For games as a whole, the production values, strong voice acting (at a time where most voice acting in games ranged from mediocre to awful) and gripping story showed the potential video games had for cinematic storytelling, and brought a possibly permanent shift in the acceptable [[GameplayToStoryRatio Gameplay to Story Ratio]].
* GeniusBonus: Sniper Wolf's use of "Saladin" for Big Boss is both this and a bit of AccidentallyCorrectWriting; it was an epithet given to a well-known Muslim Sultan of Egypt in the Middle Ages who fought against Crusaders. It's actual meaning (Sallah Al-Din, "The Rightness of Faith") means little for Big Boss. The fact that Saladin was perhaps the most famous Kurd in history makes Wolf's use of it poignant.

** The death of the Cyborg Ninja in the Japanese version is this, after the death of Kaneto Shiozawa.

** When Psycho Mantis reads your memory card in ''The Twin Snakes'', one of the games he can read is ''Super Smash Bros. Melee''. Snake would show up in the third game four years later.

** In the original, but not ''The Twin Snakes'', Psycho Mantis will have a comment if you have ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight'' on their 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''.

** '''[[http://33.media.tumblr.com/b16cc091553e8e15304af939ec1aab26/tumblr_nri7buBrpx1rrw561o1_500.gif REMEMBER THIS]] [[{{Webcomic/Hiimdaisy}} THIS IS IMPORTANT]]'''

** The stealth gameplay may seem rather crude and simplistic compared to later entries in the genre, especially to players who have only played the likes of ''{{VideoGame/Hitman}}'' or ''VideoGame/SplinterCell''. The story, which was highly praised at the time, nowadays is considered by the standards of modern gamers as an InfoDump train wreck with way too much ParrotExposition; though it can still hold up as part of the overarching mythology of the series, and is still fondly regarded by many fans of the series.

* SugarWiki/SuperlativeDubbing: The game is still praised for having one of the best English dubs in the history of video games. Even back in the late '90s where most English dubs and voice talent were based in Japan, ''Metal Gear Solid'' was already ahead of its game with an [[UsefulNotes/UnionsInHollywood Los Angeles union cast]] and some of the greatest performances ever to grace UsefulNotes/TheFifthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames.

* BrokenBase: Worthy and improved remake or insult to a masterpiece? Its exclusion from the ''HD Collection'' caused these debates to flare up again over whether Kojima was in the right or not to exclude at least ''some iteration'' of the original game (though the [=PS3=]-exclusive ''Legacy Collection'', which included the original, quieted the debate some).

** The Psycho Mantis fight was groundbreaking and full of {{HSQ}} at the time, but most new players nowadays don't get what was so mindblowing about it.
* SugarWiki/SuperlativeDubbing: The game is still praised for having one of the best English dubs in the history of video games. Even back in the late '90s where most English dubs and voice talent were based in Japan, ''Metal Gear Solid'' was already ahead of its game with an [[UsefulNotes/UnionsInHollywood LA union cast]] and some of the greatest performances ever to grace the UsefulNotes/TheFifthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames.

* RecycledScript: Several plot elements and set pieces used in ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' 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''.

* PolishedPort: The [=PC=] version is a port of the Japan-only Metal Gear Solid: Integral and features updated graphics, improved sound quality, and a number of extras not present in the original [=PS1=] version. The game is known to have some graphical hick-ups on modern [=PC's=], but these are easily remedied through some unofficial patching.

* SugarWiki/SuperlativeDubbing: The game is still praised for having one of the best English dubs in the history of video games. Even back in the late 90s where most English dubs and voice talent were based in Japan, ''Metal Gear Solid'' was already ahead of its game with an [[UsefulNotes/UnionsInHollywood LA union cast]] and arguably some of the greatest performances ever to grace the UsefulNotes/TheFifthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames.

** The redone voice acting. A major point of contention were the removal of Mei Ling's Chinese accent and Naomi's British accent, which fans of the [=PS1=] original thought made them really stand out and either sound cuter (Mei Ling) or sexier (Naomi). Retconning the accents was intentional though as the characters' backstories made their original accents moot.[[note]]As the former was born in America, while the latter had been raised in America since her childhood.[[/note]] When ''Metal Gear Solid 4'' later made the American accents canon, [[NostalgiaFilter PS1 purists either blamed the remake for "ruining" Mei Ling and Naomi]], or just went ahead and reluctantly accepted the new canon accents.

** During his DyingSpeech, Vulcan Raven says that [[spoiler: Decoy Octopus, disguised as]] The DARPA Chief "could not deceive the Angel of Death." Years later, The DARPA Chief's voice actor, Greg Eagles, would actually voice [[WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy (The Angel of) Death himself]].

* HilariousInHindsight: Prior to his battle with Snake, Psycho Mantis creates an illusion of a massive firestorm. [[spoiler:Fast-forward to ''Videogame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' and as a young boy he was partnered with a pyrokinetic that could actually conjure such infernos]].
** Many of the stunts Gray Fox performs during the remade cutscenes would not be out of place at all in VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance.

** The stealth gameplay may seem rather crude and simplistic compared to later entries in the genre, especially to players who have only played the likes of ''{{VideoGame/Hitman}}'' or ''VideoGame/SplinterCell''. The story, which was highly praised at the time, nowadays is considered by the standards of modern gamers as an InfoDump train wreck with way too much ParrotExposition; though it can still hold up as part of the overarching mythology of the series.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
** Some consider ''The Twin Snakes'' soundtrack to be superior to the original one. It's certainly ''longer''. Unfortunately, it's not available by retail, though you can find it pretty easily for download.
** Several of its tracks can be found [[AwesomeMusic/MetalGear here]].

** In the Spanish dub of the original [=PS1=] game ([[SugarWiki/SuperlativeDubbing considered one of the best dubs ever made for a video game in Spain]]), translated Snake's "What the...!" into "¡Pero qué coño...!" ("[[PrecisionFStrike What the fuck...?!]]"). Thanks to the performance of Alfonso Vallés (Snake's Spaniard voice actor), the phrase got full blown MemeticMutation status among Spaniard gamers, which it maintains even up to this day.

** In the Spanish dub of the original [=PS1=] game ([[SuperlativeDubbing considered one of the best dubs ever made for a video game in Spain]]), translated Snake's "What the...!" into "¡Pero qué coño...!" ("[[PrecisionFStrike What the fuck...?!]]"). Thanks to the performance of Alfonso Vallés (Snake's Spaniard voice actor), the phrase got full blown MemeticMutation status among Spaniard gamers, which it maintains even up to this day.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Quite a few, which tended to get a lot of references in later games.

* GrowingTheBeard: Before ''Solid'', the ''Franchise/MetalGear'' franchise was a mildly popular stealth action series completely taking cues from other popular action movies of the time. With ''Solid''[='=]s advent, the franchise exploded into a massive juggernaut thanks to its far more complex and deconstructive plot, qualities that later ''Metal Gear'' games would follow.

* BootstrappedTheme: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI1VpElKWF8 "Encounter."]] It's eventually used for the first part of the Snake/Ocelot FinalBoss battle in ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots Metal Gear Solid 4]]'' as well as one of the themes for the Shadow Moses Island stage in ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]''.

** 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/MetalGearSolid4GunsOf ThePatriots'' 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'']].

** 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:''Guns of the Patriots'' 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 ''The Phantom Pain'']].
** Sniper Wolf for her engaging [[SniperDuel Sniper Duels]] and emotional death scene, to the point that Crying Wolf is fought in the same location in ''Guns of the Patriots''.
* EvilIsCool: FOXHOUND completely steals the show. It helps that two thirds of them are [[RecurringBoss Recurring Bosses]], so the audience gets plenty of time to know them.

** Taking into account Snake's physical state by ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'', there's this bit from Campbell just after you reach the helipad, provided you clear the Dock without much hassle:

** Liquid desired to murder Big Boss in revenge for either allegedly being knowingly given the inferior genes by Big Boss or being told by Big Boss repeatedly that he was inferior, and hated Snake partially for stealing that chance. Liquid's voice actor, Creator/CamClarke, later voices [[Disney/TheLionKing a character]] who attempts to avenge his father after discovering that he was murdered by his uncle in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII''.

** Otacon's established backstory and even Metal Gear REX's design take on a darker, more tragic tone in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' [[spoiler:given that not only could REX be based on subconscious memories of Metal Gear Sahelanthropus, but that Otacon's own father planned for him to be a ''guinea pig'' and used on it]].

** Sniper Wolf orders Otacon to be "Quiet!" before [[spoiler: her final fight with Snake after Otacon begs them to not fight through Codec]]. Then ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' arrives, and there is a female sniper codenamed "Quiet", who can also be given the exact same attire Sniper Wolf wears in battle.