Even though the trailer for Konami’s remake of Metal Gear Solid 3 is just over two minutes long, it’s packed with easter eggs and nods to the original game if you look hard enough. Some of them may be blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments, but don’t worry! We’re here to help you spot them all. These are the 11 details you may have missed when watching the trailer.
Shagohod Incoming
One of the coolest details was just under a minute into the trailer, when the green parrot (more on that later) is swooping above the canopy of the forest, a dead frog in its claws. But it’s what’s in the distance that’s interesting, because when lightning lights up the sky it’s possible to make out the shape of the Shagohod being airlifted by several Mil Mi-24 Hind Helicopters. This is a direct reference to what happens in the game, as Volgin readies the Shagohod to take over the USSR. While it’s too far away to see it in detail in the trailer, we’ll definitely be getting much more up close and personal with it in the Metal Gear Solid 3 remake.
Friend of The End
The green parrot that has more air time in the trailer than Snake himself has to be the feathered-friend of ancient sniper The End. Anyone who played Snake Eater will remember how the parrot acted as The End’s spotter, waking him when Snake approaches.
Some days you just have to feed on a tree frog. The parrot appears to agree, clutching a tree frog which it carries through the dark sky before landing on a floating log in the middle of a lake. Moments later, a huge snake bursts from the water and snaps at the parrot, which narrowly escapes, minus a few feathers.
Crocodile Rock
Just as the snake pounces on the parrot, it is attacked by an Indian Gavial, which if you remember can be captured and eaten in Metal Gear Solid 3. It’s hard to make out in the trailer, but a screenshot released alongside the announcement gives us a better look at the croc and its pointy snout. It’s also the basis for one of the most amusing cosmetics in the game, the Crocodile Cap, which when worn in the water can trick enemies into thinking you’re a deadly animal, instead of just the world’s deadliest man.
Here Comes The Fear
Going back to the bosses of Metal Gear Solid 3, there’s a dead Poison Dart Frog early on in the trailer, which can be found in game and actually help you in a fight against The Fear — a member of the Boss’ Cobra Unit, who poisons Snake with a venom-coated crossbow bolt.
During the battle Snake is able to drop poisoned (or rotten) food like the Dart Frog, which The Fear will eat if he runs low on stamina. This in turn poisons him, which makes him vomit moments later, seriously depleting his stamina further still.
The Food Chain
The entire trailer is one extended sequence of the food cycle. Small ants eat into a frog, which then gets picked up by a bird, which then gets attacked by a large snake, which then gets into a fight with a big crocodile. All of it leads to a reveal of the pointy top of the food chain, Naked Snake.
The visualization of the food chain in the wilds of nature is a recurring motif in the Metal Gear series, something we saw in Metal Gear Solid 4 as a snake is seen eating a guinea pig in the opening of Act 2. Metal Gear Solid 3 also made this metaphor a gameplay feature as Snake is forced to hunt and cook his own food while in the wilds of Tselinoyarsk.
Attack of the Giant Ants
Digging a little deeper into the different animals on the screen, however, you’ll find that each creature is a nod to something from the original Metal Gear Solid 3. For example, the first animal is a line of ants marching toward their food.
If you listened to every codec conversation in the original Metal Gear 3, you might remember hearing movie-buff Para-Medic talk about the movie “Them”, which features ants “so big they filled up the entire screen. The whole movie theater was screaming.”
Death From Above
As the camera zooms through mangroves and pans in on Snake, the light shines through the trees in a way that is reminiscent of Ponizovje South, one of the coolest areas in Metal Gear Solid 3. Set along a winding river, Snake must ford a river while avoiding GRU soldiers buzzing through the skies on flying platforms. He can do this by ducking under the water’s surface or eventually finding rocks and boats to hide behind. Wading through the river and its trees was a highlight of Metal Gear Solid 3’s level design and represented creator Hideo Kojima’s vision of wanting the player to feel like they were traversing a real forest.
Fenced In
The river and the trees from Ponizovje South is just one of the familiar locations in the trailer. Earlier, the Green Parrot flies through an electrified fence, similar to the ones that guard Bolshaya Past South area. While the teaser is purely cinematic, it’s a good indication of what real areas in the game could look like in this remake.
The four screenshots that accompanied the trailer give us a better look at the areas of the game, including one where a backpack is hanging from a tree – which most will remember from the beginning of the original game, when Snake has to retrieve his belongings after halo jumping behind enemy lines.
Tiger Stripes
Even though it’s dark and Snake is caked in mud, you can just about make out the uniform he’s wearing, which is the tiger stripe camo you begin the game with. Of course, one of Metal Gear Solid 3’s most interesting features was the ability to unlock and switch camos to suit your environment, or wear totally inappropriate attire like the tuxedo, and we hope everything makes it into the remake.
Delta Force
The title for the remake won’t be Metal Gear Solid 3, however. Konami is calling it Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater.
It’s unclear exactly why Konami chose to subtitle the remake with Delta. It’s the fourth letter in the Greek alphabet, which doesn’t make much sense as it’s a remake of the third game in the Metal Gear Solid line, and the fifth game overall in the Metal Gear franchise.
The title could be a reference to the United States Delta Force, a counter-terrorism unit famous for its covert enemy operations, which lines up nicely with the plot of the game, but also applies to all of the games in the series. Finally, Metal Gear character Roy Campbell famously is a former Delta Force member but he does not appear in MGS 3.
Hopefully, Konami explains the reasoning behind the new subtitle, but even if it’s just there to sound cool, that’s part of the Metal Gear ethos too, so it works.
Oh, and one other cool detail about the delta logo – when it disperses the leaves turn white and then red, which is a nod to the final battle in the game.
Snake Eater
The teaser ends with a brief snippet of Metal Gear Solid 3’s famous theme ‘Snake Eater,’ originally performed by Cynthia Harrell. We’ll have to hear the full thing to make a judgment call, but the theme does sound remastered. It’s potentially a new version of the song recorded for the remake. This was something that was teased earlier this year when Donna Burke posted a photo of herself holding a folder titled ‘Snake Eater.’ Burke, it should be said, is a singer who has done numerous songs for the Metal Gear series, including ‘Heavens Divide’ from Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker ‘Sins of the Father’ from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
Did you spot any other references in the trailer? Let us know in the comments below.
Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s Senior Features Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.
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