Metal Gear/Trivia

• Adaptation First: The NES version was the first version released in North America, as the MSX2 standard was never available in America. Although technically a port, it has enough differences to be considered a separate game.
• The Danza: Although a coincidental example (since the name was already decided in the Japanese version), Solid Snake shares his real name (David) with his English voice actor, David Hayter.
• Disowned Adaptation: Kojima considers the NES version of the first Metal Gear to be a Porting Disaster of his original MSX2 game.
  • Averted with Snake's Revenge, which he actually considers to be a good game.
• Divorced Installment: Snake's Revenge. Although it lacks the Metal Gear name, it still follows the plot of the first game and has some of the same characters (Snake, Big Boss, and Jennifer).
• Hey, It's That Guy!: David Hayter, the voice of Solid and Naked Snake, wrote (among other things) the scripts for the first two X-Men movies and the Watchmen movie.
  • Hey Its That Guyver. Hayter is credited as Sean Barker (his character in Guyver) in the early trial versions of the first Metal Gear Solid.
• Hey, It's That Voice!: Considering the size of the cast, it's not surprising.
  • Naomi Hunter is Emma Emmerich, and both are Bastila, Shepard, Aayla Secura, Samus Aran, and can also be found... well pretty much everywhere.
  • Liquid Snake was Leonardo. The turtle, not the painter. He was also Kratos (the angel, not the angry, half-naked Greek guy).
  • Colonel Campbell is Grandpa Max, Perceptor and pretty much every old man in the Capital Wasteland, not to mention Hojo. He is also Judicator Aldaris and he would like to remind you that you must Construct Additional Pylons.
  • Mei Ling is Lian Xing, Isabella Keyes and Subaru.
  • Revolver Ocelot, I am not kidding here, also was Elroy Jetson.
  • Solidus Snake was Canderous and Iron Man
  • Sniper Wolf is Poison Ivy and Spider-Woman.
  • Vamp was Green Lantern, Samurai Jack and I kid you not: Static Shock.
    • He was also Marvin. Given Kojima's love of and influence from films, it makes you wonder if it's a coincidence how many times he gets shot in the face.
  • Solid Snake was also Captain America (comics) on the 1990s Spider-Man cartoon.
  • Raiden is Axel, Iruka and Spider-Man
  • The Fear's voice wasn't the first time his voice actor (Michael Bell) voiced someone from a military unit called Cobra. Neither were Volgin or The Pain.
  • In the original, The DARPA Chief was Gray Fox (and Stillman), and both were also the Grim Reaper, Luke Cage and Aku Aku. In The Twin Snakes, the Chief retained his voice actor, but Gray Fox was recast. He was then voiced by the same guy who did Bubsy the Bobcat and Pinky.
    • Rob Paulsen also voiced Raphael, and Gray Fox is killed by Leonardo. Eerie coincidence!
  • The Peace Walker has Bubbles voicing Paz. And when turned on Japanese voice, she's Fate Testarossa. Which makes it more surprising when you realize that she's the Big Bad.
  • President James Johnson, the Fear and the Fury are Vorador, Raziel and Moebius respectively.
  • Let's not forget singing voices, too. The lady who sang Snake Eater - and I Am The Wind from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night? Yep, same person - Cynthia Harrell.
  • Looks like The Boss and Vamp got jobs at Quahog Channel 5 News. Vamp would like to let you know that it's gon' rain.
• Old Shame: Proudly averted. Not only are the earlier games in the series referenced in the Solid storyline, they become large parts of the story, and the original graphics are even used in flashbacks—no re-renders here. True, "Bloody Brad" and "Running Man" aren't given quite as large a remembrance as Gray Fox or Big Boss, but even so, remarkably little of the original games was retconned by later installments.
  • Portable Ops seems to play the trope completely straight however. While elements are referenced in Peace Walker and it is in official canon, Kojima more or less denies its existence, and the game was left off of a recent history of MGS poster. This is understandable given that, like Snake's Revenge, Kojima didn't direct or write it, and by many accounts the game is an inferior entry in the Metal Gear Solid franchise.
• The Other Darrin: The English voice acting agency got a bit lazy when it came to rehiring the original voice actors in spin-off works. Most notably, Solid Snake is voiced by Peter Lurie (ironically the voice actor of Vulcan Raven) when he guest-starred in the third Ape Escape game.
  • They're also not great at continuing the Actor Allusions onto the English localized versions. In the Japanese MGS2 Olga and Solidus were played by Kyoko Terase (Meryl) and Akio Otsuka (Snake) respectively. In the English language versions Olga and Solidus are played by different actors than Meryl and Snake, so the idea that both sound alike is lost. This also happened with the Bonus Boss fight against Meryl in the Substance re-release - Meryl uses the same sound clips as Olga does in her boss fight from the main game, since they shared the same seiyuu, which results in Meryl gaining an inexplicable Russian accent for the fight in the English version.
  • In Metal Gear Solid, Fox was voiced by Greg Eagles, who also did the DARPA Chief. In Twin Snakes, Fox was voiced by Rob Paulsen.
    • The Cyborg Ninja was voiced by Takumi Yamazaki in Metal Gear Solid 2 BD, which was released years after the death of Kaneto Shiozawa.
  • Master Miller's voice actors in the Japanese and English versions are different between Metal Gear Solid and Peace Walker. Justified, as the former was actually an imposter.
    • A meta-example also exists: In the original release of Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Master Miller looked like an Asian American (almost resembling George Takei). However, by Metal Gear Solid, and especially the rereleases of Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Miller looks blond with shades.
  • As of MGS5 the role of Big Boss is now played by Kiefer Sutherland, replacing David Hayter.
• Relationship Voice Actor: In the Japanese version of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Big Boss is voiced by none other than Chikao Ohtsuka, whereas his son Solid Snake is voiced by Akio Ohtsuka, who are father and son in real life as well as in the game. The English version also has this to a slightly lesser extent, as David Hayter and Richard Doyle voiced a centurian soldier and Pious Augustus, respectively, in Eternal Darkness, and Naked Snake and The Fury, respectively, in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.
• What Could Have Been: One of the plans for Metal Gear Solid 5 involved playing a game that featured The Boss storming Normandy. It was put on hold due to the inexperience of the new blood at Kojima Productions, which also resulted in Rising/Revengeance.
  • Whether Snake is the oldest of the LET children is never conclusively established. He and Liquid are twins and it's never stated which was born first. Solidus, on the other hand, who is born after Solid and Liquid, certainly doesn't 'win'.
• The Wiki Rule: The Metal Gear Wiki