The goal of the touch-screen-based shooter is to create a “simple MGS” to get people interested in the series proper, Kojima says.
If you were already disappointed by Konami’s big reveal that the next Metal Gear wasn’t for the Xbox 360 but for Apple’s iPhone, you probably broke down in tears when you heard that Metal Gear Solid Touch won’t be a typical sneakfest like your average MGS, but a kind of MGS4-themed shooting gallery. Snake stands at the fore of the screen, while players tap to fire at targets and use the touch-screen to zoom in and out with sniper rifles. There’s no stealth, just shooting. Snake’s Crossbow Training, you could call it.
It wasn’t always meant to be this way, however. Kojima Productions’ original plan was to release a stealth-based game on the iPhone, but they realized that might be too overwhelming for the first-time players they were hoping to win over on the platform. So they dialed it down a notch. “It’s a little much to ask of someone trying our games for the first time,” Kojima told Famitsu. “That’s why we made it a simple touch-screen shooting game.”
Simple won’t necessarily mean boring, however, according to the staff of MGST. “Regular game machines have directional pads and buttons that you assign functions to, but having nothing but a touch screen for control actually offers a lot of new things to try,” Yasuyo Watanabe, creative producer for MGST, said.
Ultimately, the goal of the product, in addition to getting a feel for a platform hailed as the future of gaming by its creators, is to get those not-so-hardcore first-timers interested in the more serious Metal Gear games, and games in general. “This game really is nothing more than an entrance for us,” Kojima said. “I’d like people unfamililar with MGS to play it, and maybe develop an interest in MGS4 in the process – and if they if they foster a general interest in games from there, it’d make me all the happier.”
