Metal Gear Solid Touch (US)
by Matt Fox
April 10, 2009
Overview
Battle a multitude of different enemies from the MGS4 series in this latest installment from Konami Digital Entertainment. As Snake, you must fight your way through numerous war zone areas as you use a "duck and cover" technique to advance yourself through a game that becomes more challenging with each new level.Features
Metal Gear Solid Touch doesn't come with a whole lot of features in it. You basically get three guns and that's about it. It has a few "neat" little elements in the gameplay like the ability to shake the screen to dislodge debris that has accumulated there and the sniper option that allows you to quickly zoom in and out when taking down faraway enemies. Other than the in-game features, MGST also has a bonus menu in it that allows you to purchase different wallpapers for your phone as you progress through the game. This is accomplished by collecting "Drebin Points or DP," which you use to buy the wallpapers in the Drebin Store.Breakdown
The Good:
If you are a die hard Metal Gear fan, there is some fun stuff in this game that will definitely appeal to you. The graphics look great and the sounds and music are straight from the series we've all come to know and love over the years. From a sound point of view, this feels exactly like a Metal Gear game should feel.
There are tons of levels with each one getting harder and harder each time. The game gets seriously tough toward the end. Impossible? No, but hard nevertheless. The game also features a "Survival" mode that challenges you to survive as many levels as you can without the use of a continue. Challenging, but fun.
MGST also comes with unlockable wallpapers and a history page of almost every Metal Gear Solid game that's come before this one. A nice little addition for us die hards out there.
The Bad:
The gameplay...sigh. Let's just get one thing straight, I love Metal Gear Solid. Easily my all time favorite game ever, Metal Gear Solid for the original Playstation. I can't even tell you how many hours I've spent playing that game over and over again. So when I say that this game is a very disappointing let down, you know where I am coming from. I even had that terrible Metal Gear Solid VR Mission..yes, yes..I know. I'm ashamed too.
Back to the gameplay, it's pretty bad. The controls work like this: you swipe you finger across the screen toward the enemy, then you tap to fire once you've locked onto him. Sounds simple, yes? Not really. It's really slow. When you slide your finger across, it takes longer than it should and when you get to higher levels, time is everything and you get overtaken more times than you'd like to. Pinching to zoom in and out doesn't feel as smooth as it should either. Any other game and I could over look this, but this is Metal Gear from Konami. After years of re-inventing gameplay on numerous different consoles, it's first attempt on the IPhone/IPod Touch is just disappointing.
The lack of different weapons (there's only three) and the stagnant gameplay itself is also another downfall to this game. It's basically Time Crisis with a prettier interface. Snake never moves from behind the barrier. You pop up, shoot, and crouch down to take cover. It gets kind of boring after a while and with a $7.99 price tag you need to ask yourself, is this enough for my money. I say absolutely not, and I bought VR Missions, so there you go.
