Due to the rather late nature of this email (the time of sending) I intend to keep this one brief.

Only 3 hrs ago Konami released the eagerly anticipated Metal Gear Solid Touch on the iPhone App Store. Priced a only £3.49 and sporting 12 levels of beigey, browny futuristic combatant touch sensitive gameplay you might be forgiven for being excited or at least a little curious.

Well, as always the geekly update is here to do for you what Abraham Lincoln did for the slaves, to set you free from the oppressions of a capitalist economy. Firstly, when I looked at the screen shots for MGST I noticed that they all had one thing in common, a nice looking rendition of Mr. Snake poised behind a few sandbags in the centre of the screen. As it turns out this is because in their ultimate wisdom, Konami decided the best possible way to bring MGS to the iPhone was to effectively create a mercenary themed version of duck hunt where the ducks are camouflage touting AI with a few Metal Gears thrown in for good measure. There are no directional controls only the ability to point and shoot and when you’re not shooting you’re automatically behind cover.

Now, for £3.49 nobody was expecting something as technologically grand or as acclaimed as MGS4 but who said they had to charge £3.49? If Konami had taken this opportunity by the horns and developed a groundbreaking iPhone game people would have comfortably payed at least £5. Instead we are left with the exciting transition of one of gaming’s most accoladed and definitive franchises onto a new platform for the first time in history that barely deserves the attention of this update. Whether you love or hate MGS you have to appreciate it’s achievements and what it brought to the gaming industry as a whole and it’s move to a non Sony console should have been monumental. The trend of excellence and innovation has however, it would seem, been lost in translation.

Geek Out,

P.S. Brevity appears not to be my strongest asset.