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• Contested Sequel: Portable Ops bears the distinction for being the only mainline MGS game not directed by Kojima himself and has a peculiar position in the series' canon as a result. Initially advertised as the "missing link" between the events of Snake Eater and the original Metal Gear, it essentially tied up all the loose ends between those two games (showing how Big Boss first formed FOX-HOUND, met Roy Campbell and Frank Jaeger, and obtained the funds for Outer Heaven) and even foreshadowed the events of Guns of the Patriots. But despite the generally positive reception it received during its release, Kojima was unsatisfied with MPO and went on to direct the next PSP game in the series, Peace Walker, which he wrote as a direct continuation of Snake Eater, ignoring everything that happened in MPO aside from a single reference in which Kazuhira tells Snake that they can finally "leave all the crap in San Hieronymo behind."
• Crowning Moment of Awesome: Cunningham, a FOX operative condemned to a desk by the CIA, has just told Snake that he's been manipulated the whole time, and that through his machinations, Snake will go home a hero when Cunningham launches a Davy Crockett and destroys the entire base, thus killing all the soldiers and friends Snake has made during the game. Considering the ideas of loyalty and responsibility that have been brewing since he killed The Boss, Snake turns down Cunningham's treacherous offer, pulls a gun on him, and tells the man he's going to stop him.
  Snake: "I'm doing this out of loyalty to myself - I'm NOT going to live my life the way The Boss did."
• Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: What the Russian soldiers are willing to do for Big Boss in the ending.
• Crowning Music of Awesome: See here.
• Fan Nickname: In certain communities MPO is often referred as "PoOps" as a derisive nickname.
• Fridge Logic: One of the better ideas in this game is also one of the most flawed. Specifically, the player can capture enemy soldiers and bring them over to their side, and they even retain their old uniforms, letting them pass by soldiers dressed in the same uniform (there's more than one military faction in San Hieronymo). Seems fair, right? Except that this also means there's no allowance for variation at all. A female officer can't fool a male officer, but can fool other females. For that matter, an officer will stick out like a sore thumb to regular balaclava-wearing grunts, and vice-versa. This unpolished idea was removed entirely in the game's sequel, Peace Walker.
• Fridge Brilliance: Sokolov's survival was explained in the Metal Gear Solid 4 Database by claiming that he took a False Death Pill during his interrogation by Colonel Volgin, which was given to him by The Boss.
  • The cell where Naked Snake is locked in at the beginning of the game seems ridiculously easy to escape from, especially considering the room next to it just happens to have a CQC Enhancer suit that conveniently fits Snake. However, the one who was in charge of keeping Snake locked-up was none other than Cunningham, who was secretly trying to undermine the FOX unit's competence. What better way to undermine the organization he's working for than by secretly aiding an enemy?
    • Actually, Cunningham wasn't responsible for the easy escape. The game explains that the cell in question formerly contained Roy Campbell, who unscrewed the vent in question, but was unable to actually use the escape method in question due to being relocated to a different cell before he could even get the chance to use it. Cunningham was probably responsible for unscrewing the other vent and leaving the MK22 and CQC Enhancer suit with Snake's size, however.
  • In the manual for Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake, Campbell's bio mentioned that he was, during this time, the only officer to remember the FOXHOUND of the Big Boss days, which made absolutely no sense when the FOXHOUND biography explained that it was formed in the early nineties, which meant that FOXHOUND was around for, at the absolute earliest, nine years. This game explains what exactly the bio meant by that.
• Paranoia Fuel: Gene's powers create this out of nothing!
• Scrappy Mechanic: Whose bright idea was it to have your teammates die permanently in combat? Fortunately, this was remedied to be more tolerable in the sequel.
• So Okay, It's Average: At worst, the game is regarded as enjoyable or at least accepted as part of the series, except it delivered far less than was promised.
• Tear Jerker: The Heroic Sacrifice in the ending.
  • See the Mauve Shirt entry for another.
• Jerkass Woobie: Cunningham is pretty much a big jerk and somewhat two-faced towards FOX and the CIA, but considering what he had to put up with (being forced into a desk job after his leg was amputated, not to mention learning that the CIA basically left The Boss to die, which in his views was an insult to the memory of the Mother of Special Forces), it's kinda hard to blame him for what he did.