In 2023, celebrity culture is as popular as ever, and has dripped into all mediums. Hideo Kojima is that name in gaming, and he is a man shrouded in mystery. His iconic projects and skilled directing exhibit a rich history in gaming, and we now celebrate his 60th Birthday.
Hideo Kojima made Metal Gear Solid a household name, with its off-the-wall characters, insane plot devices, and gaming mechanics. He has blown our minds with his credible work and it is good to know his mysterious ways and approaches to gaming are still as strong as ever in 2023.
Heavily Celebrated and Well-Known Throughout the Gaming Community, a True Living Legend.
Anyone who has heard of Hideo Kojima would know him from the series Metal Gear Solid where he really made his name. Getting to experience the first Metal Gear Solid for the PlayStation is a memory that will always stick with me, and it is why it holds a special place in mine and many other’s hearts.
Getting to experience a game where one of the characters (Psycho-Mantis) read my memory card as a child was a frightening, yet intriguing experience. The first of many experiences that led me to realise I wasn’t just playing any old video game, at this point I was enjoying the mind of Hideo Kojima alongside many others my age.
With Metal Gear Solid for the PlayStation 1, I can only speculate this was also the first experience of gaming for many, being a fully-fledged movie-like experience. Seasoned voice actors, suspense, multiple endings based on game choices, violence, twists, and humour all wrapped in a stealth game like no other. Truly a masterpiece!
To then go on and have four more AAA titles all exploring the vast backstory of Metal Gear Solid just added to the already beloved series. Which in turn left us wanting more, however, his legacy hasn’t been an easy ride, Enter Konami!
Back in 2014, we were gifted a Hideo Kojima special that was something nothing has truly come close to, even in 2023. A demo mysteriously appeared on the PlayStation store simply titled P.T (playable teaser). The game demo started off with a figure rising from the floor to enter a hallway with pictures and typical things you would come across in a home. The hallway would then continuously loop, but every time something was different.
You would continue the looping and start to witness horrific scenes, and although there was a sense something was after you, when you looked, and nothing would be there. After multiple hours of trickery with the new PlayStation 4 hardware and bizarre gaming mechanics, some wizards managed to finish the demo in full and escape the looping hallway.
What we were given after that can still be considered one of the biggest crimes in gaming. We were given a teaser trailer that closed with the title, Silent Hills. This is where it was announced Hideo Kojima, alongside horror maestro Guillermo del Toro and acclaimed horror manga artist Junto Ito, were on board to create a game straight from the depths of hell.
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Unfortunately for us and the world, in 2015 Konami, the company that held the rights to both Metal Gear Solid and the Silent Hill franchise, decided to put their efforts into mobile-based games and gambling machines. The corporation closed down Kojima productions as well as Metal Gear Solid 5 from having a sufficient end ,causing Kojima to close the game early and leave it on a cliff-hanger.
However, despite all of this, it didn’t stop the train rolling, and with it Hideo Kojima was back in the saddle and ready to move right on!
In 2015, shortly after everything went down between Kojima and Konami, his company Kojima Productions was picked up and well at work with their new project titled Death Stranding. We got a trailer with the previously cast lead of Silent Hills, Norman Reedus, and a CGI-heavy trailer with ominous stuff going on that left us thinking this is well and truly the work of Hideo Kojima.
The game was finally released in 2019, and true to form it was a mysterious yet engaging title that had us all questioning its meaning. The sequel is currently in production and is highly anticipated.
So Happy Birthday Mr Kojima! May your brilliant mind work wonders in the gaming community for years to come, and here’s hoping one day you can finish what you started by giving us the horror game you deserve to create.
What are your thoughts on Hideo Kojima? Are you excited about Death Stranding 2? Or do you wish for that Silent Hill game? As always, let us know in the comments!
