Metal Gear Solid: Will The Franchise Be Solid Without Hideo Kojima?

     This month we have gotten an official confirmation that game developer and producer Hideo Kojima and Konami are splitting up. If you've been somewhere in space for the past year or have been an employee of Konami the writing on the wall has been huge. We got the message that Kojima was planning on moving away from Konami for a while. It was apparent in interviews, the cancellation of Silent Hills, Metal Gear Solid V, both The Phantom Pain and Ground Zeros being Kojima's last titles, Kojima shutting down his studio, and let's not forget an New York Times journalist pretty much spilling the details.
      So apparently Kojima and Konami have already moved on to better things. Kojima is starting a new independent studio with Guillermo Del Toro and Sony and Konami is already staring the ball rolling by looking for a new director for the next Metal Gear Solid game. The problem is can Konami find someone to do the series justice. Can they even find someone who will make the games just as good as Kojima?
      If you are new to the Metal Gear Solid series, you need to know one thing. It is Kojima's child. It is his artist masterpiece. With Kojima's departure you have people worried or whether the series can go on or at least be as good without Kojima being a part of the project.

      Ironically they have done something like this in the past. Konami had made a American only sequel to one of the Metal Gear games in 1990, Snake's Revenge. Kojima had absolutely no involvement in making the game. A matter of fact he didn't even know about it until a developer working on the game told him about it. The game didn't fair well as the company made it by completely taking out everything that worked with the first game and just mad a generic shooter, pretty much like Contra, except not good. Luckily this made Kojima to make a true sequel, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake for the MSX2 computer.

     I would like to believe that Konami had learned their lesson since then, considering the fact that they made sure Kojima has been involved in every Metal Gear title since then, and this would be the exact time to show it. Will they pull it off? It is a possibility they could or it's a possibility that they won't. One thing is sure is that whatever director they go with it will be tricky and they will have their work cut out for them. Again, it is hard to imagine the series without  Kojima being involved. It's almost like Nintendo without Shigeru Miyamoto or Wes Craven without the Nightmare series. For one thing, we will know that the series will be different. Hopefully it will not be that different. Hopefully a good different.

Characters We Probably Won't See As DLC in Super Smash Bros... Maybe

     It's December which could mean only one thing, no not Christmas, the Super Smash Bros themed Nintendo Direct is almost here. Nintendo announced that for the month of December, there will be a Nintendo Direct dedicated to Super Smash Bros. We could be treated to new characters or new stages for upcoming DLC. Since the recent announcement of Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII being added to the roster, you could almost add any popular character to the list, that's ever been on a Nintendo console or handheld, almost. While these characters might be cool to be added, they most likely won't. Goku and Shreik need not apply.


King K. Rool

 

If you don't know King K. Rool was the main antagonist for the Donkey Kong country series as well as Donkey Kong 64. He would torment the Kong family by stealing DK's bananas in the first game and would later on kidnap DK and Diddy in the later sequels. In Donkey Kong 64 he even went so far as to threaten to blow up Donkey Kong's home DK Island. When Rare was purchased by Microsoft that was the last we've seen of K. Rool and his Kremling klan, I mean clan, as the more recent Donkey Kong games moved on to more enemies that DK had to defeat. So, when Smash Bros was released for the 3DS, we were treated with seeing some familiar characters returning, the Kremlings in Smash Run. With the inclusion with Kremlings, it would seem more likely that their ruler would be making a long deserved comeback since Donkey Kong 64, right. Well he did, as a costume for the Mii brawler. Since K. Rool's appearance had been reduced to a costume, it is most likely that he might not be added.

Crash Bandicoot


Yes, the former Sony mascot has been in a couple Nintendo titles. Crash and Mario had an intense rivalry during the late 90s and early millennium as both of them adventured into 3D for the PlayStation and Nintendo 64. His inclusion would have been huge as their rivalry during those times almost as big as Sonic's who is in the game. As with all things popular they become unpopular and the Crash series fizzled out with lower sales. We haven't seen Crash in anything since his last game in 2010 so we most likely won't see him in Smash either.

Banjo-Kazooie


If you were a kid in the early 00s and didn't have Banjo-Kazooie for the N64, your parents didn't love you. Banjo-Kazooie were characters in their own game during Rare's golden era of making games for the N64. Them being added like a lot of the characters here would be just for nostalgia reason, which are justifiable. They had a ton of games that made for Nintendo before Microsoft bought Rare. For that reason, they are most likely not going to be added unless Microsoft wants to loosen their grip and loan them out for a while?

Heihachi Mishima


Unlike the other characters listed, Heihachi, and other Tekken characters were actually considered to appear in Smash Bros, but due to software limitations during the developing stages for Smash Bros on the 3DS, as well as Masahiro Sakurai not know what to do for a movelist, Heihachi was dropped. That's probably why we got Ryu instead. Sakurai did give him a nod by making him a costume for the Mii fighter instead.

Ridley


OMG, he is not going to be in the game as a playable character. Give it up!