Product Description

Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel represents a new way to view materials on PSP and is based on the existing Metal Gear Solid comic book.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6599 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Konami
• Released on: 2006-09-22
• Platform: Sony PSP
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Manufacturer's Description
Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel represents a new way to view materials on PSP and is based on the existing Metal Gear Solid comic book, which have been digitally edited into a 3D medium and now feature sound effects, animations and music to bring it to vibrant life.

As viewers progress through the story, they can zoom in and out of the images using the analogue stick to move around the page, and the control buttons to zoom in on specific points of interest. These scanned images are then stored in a library of 100s of similarly noteworthy elements, adding replay value to the story.

Metal Gear Solid Digital Graphic Novel acts as a stunning resource for fans of the Metal Gear Solid series, and is a further showcase of Kojima Productions' ability to produce innovative titles that offer different ways to use hardware.

Customer Reviews

Fan Service
I'm pretty sure everyone knows the ins and outs of the story to the first Metal Gear Solid. This is its 3rd incarnation (4th if you count the fact that Son's of Liberty was meant to be a recreation of the first game to test GW... but that's just fanboy nitpicking) and it's still as gripping as ever. Told as a kind of semi interactive comic MGS:DGN once again pushes the boundaries of storytelling in 'videogames' to a point where you could almost call it a film, it's certainly a new entertainment form.

The Art of MGS comic artist Ashley Wood is brought to life in a kind of semi animated way that brings to mind a very well produced Flash Cartoon with far better artwork. Wood's work goes from impressionistic scribbling, to almost looking like blurred frames from the games cutscenes and often looking a little like the art of regular character and Mech designer for the MGS series Yoji Shinkawa. Once the bullets start flying DGN is a real eye opener, memorable moments include Snake's duel with Ocelot and being chased up the control tower by the guards.

Freed from the constraints of gameplay, the story actually makes more sense, Wood fills in a few blanks in the story line such as the reason for the ninjas actions and Liquid's plans for Snake. Some of the extra scenes fall a little flat though, the expansion of the relationship between Otacon and Sniper Wolf isn't really needed but overall the additions are welcome.

One of the features of the game is a 'Memory building mode' where by searching the frames of the comic of 'VR simulation', the user can find little pieces of infomation that connect together into a massive web of MGS based knowledge. While it's a nice idea, it's terribly implemented. It's impossible to navigate around and considering this is a piece of Metal Gear Fan service, doesn't really contain any infomation that any respecting MGS fan wouldn't already know just from playing the games.

The most exciting thing however is that the memory building 'web' or cube, extends to the beginning of Metal Gear Solid 2 with infomation on Raiden, The Sons of Liverty and Metal Gear Ray hinting that not only will there be a second Digital Graphic Novel but there'll be some connectivity between the two. Even more interesting is the fact that Wood's MGS2 comic fills in even more story from the 2nd (and far more complex) game. It'll be great to see more of Ashley Wood's interpretations on the events of the game.

Unless you're a MGS fan, DGN isn't worth your time but for anyone with more than a passing interest in the games it's a worthwhile purchase.

Manga+Mgs1 storyline= brilliance
Pure Brilliance. i brought this thinking that konami wanted to cash in on the mgs4/mgs:po hype. How wrong i was, ive played through mgs1 a couple of time and this is just a fresh and entertaining way to get "involved" and following the gripping storyline scene by scene.
The drawings are in manga style with smalll animations here and there with ear cathing music and sound effects.
and for under 15 quid then its a bargain!

They changed too much
For me Metal Gear Solid is the best game ever made. I understand that they needed to cut some of the parts that were made for the game and not for the comic, but they changed the dialogue too. Snake appears as a different person, and that is bad. They didn't manage to capture the Shadow Moses feeling either.

On MGS games you always use the cicle as enter button and x as cancel button. When even that has changed it tells me that the crew that makes the real games didn't work much on this one. Hideo Kojima has showed many times that he is not able to say no. He should protect his baby better.

Anyway I just have to recommend everybody to play the original PS1 game. You can play it on a PS2, but you need a PS1 memory-card. The original story is amazing. If you still want to try this one and never played the original, keep in mind that you might be a Metal Gear Solid junkie even if you don't like this one.

There is some really nice looking artwork in there though.