The Metal Gear series was very nearly done and dusted as a 2D game by 1990, according to Hideo Kojima speaking at this year's Develop conference. That was until PS1 came along with its fancy polygons.
"I made Metal Gear 1 and 2, and at that point the series, for me, was complete and it was finished, and I started working on other adventure games," Kojima says. "Back then Metal Gear was always intended to be a hide and seek game," he explains. The original idea was always to have players hiding and that the viewpoint would change. However, "back then we didn’t have 3D polygons, we had to do everything in 2D. So for Metal Gear I had no choice but to use game design where you’re doing it from up above".
The ability to create games in 3D brought Kojima back to Metal Gear: "For me, Metal Gear as a series was complete, finished to me, but that point I thought I would be able do what I originally intended to do with these polygons in real time. For example, if you are hiding under a table you can change the point of view, or hiding in a locker you can let the player see how it looks from inside the locker".
