December 16, 2023, marks the 8th anniversary of Kojima Production's founding. Let us remember that in 2015, Hideo left Konami and opened his own studio. She has already released Death Stranding and is currently working on its sequel and a mysterious project known as OD. In this article, on the occasion of the birthday of the cult developer’s studio, we have collected interesting facts about Kojima.
Metal Gear sequels
Original Metal Gear 1987 - the very first project of Hideo Kojima to reach release. And this is one of the few games in history that has two official sequels at once. In April 1990, Snake's Revenge was released on the NES. It was developed without Hideo's participation and was unsuccessful. Therefore, the publisher, Konami, decided to release another second part of the cult stealth action game, but under the leadership of Kojima. HisMetal Gear 2: Solid Snake was released on July 20, 1990, and today it is considered canon.
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| The original Metal Gear was one of the first representatives of the stealth action genre |
LEGO game levels
The original Metal Gear Solid was created in the second half of the '90s when developers just began experimenting with a fully three-dimensional environment. It was not always clear to programmers and level designers how this or that level in the game functions. And Kojima decided to recreate them using LEGO bricks. Such a visual demonstration of the environment helped his team. It’s interesting that Hideo still uses a similar approach.
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| Kojima has a special feeling for LEGO constructors and often shows purchased sets on social networks |
Latest Metal Gear Solid
After the release of each new part of Metal Gear Solid, Kojima stated that this was the last game in the series to which he was involved. Moreover, Hideo was not lying; it really seemed to him that that was all. But after a while, the developer had new ideas and thoughts that he wanted to implement in a video game format.
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| The last Metal Gear game Kojima worked on was Phantom Pain. The upcoming remake of the third part is being created without the involvement of Hideo |
Game based on "The Matrix"
In 2005, Hideo Kojima was approached by the then-Wachowski brothers with a proposal to make a game based on The Matrix trilogy. There is speculation that they liked Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes. Let us remember that in this remake of the first part, time dilation was actively used, as in the battle scenes with the participation of Neo. However, things did not go further than talk.
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| Three video games were released based on the Matrix trilogy, but none of them were successful. |
Kojima is a genius, but only for us
The “Kojima is a genius” meme became popular in 2015, shortly after the release of Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain and the publication of the video of the same name blogger Gufovsky. After Hideo’s forced departure from Konami and the closure of Silent Hills, words about his genius became, in a way, support for the developer. It is noteworthy that it is Russian-speaking users who use this wording. Our compatriots write “Genius” in Cyrillic under every post of a game designer on social networks. Hideo himself sincerely does not understand why he is so popular in Russia. In the West at the beginning of the 2000s, another meme was widespread: “Kojima is God.”
Anton Logvinov accused Hideo of plagiarism
Although Russian gaming journalist Anton Logvinov has repeatedly confessed his love for Metal Gear Solid, at E3 2008 he reproached Hideo for plagiarism. According to him, the main musical theme of the second game in the series is reminiscent of Georgy Sviridov’s compositions “Troika” and “Winter Road”. Judging by the video, Kojima was truly amazed. However, in this case, this is a reproach to the composer Norihiko Hibino, who wrote the soundtrack for the second, third, and fourth parts of MGS.
Kojima hid his profession for a long time
In Japan, arcade machines and home consoles became widespread back in the mid-80s. However, for many years, working in the gaming industry was not considered a prestigious profession. To avoid awkward situations, Kojima lied to others and said that he was a financier. But one day one of his friends introduced Hideo to the guests at his wedding as a talented guy who for some reason plays video games. This caused loud laughter from those around him.
Kojima still wants to make movies
The hero of our article dreamed of becoming a cinematographer since childhood. He made his first attempt to make his own films while still in high school. However, due to many reasons, Hideo connected his life with games. At the same time, in 2021, a new division, Kojima Production, was opened, which specializes in film and music. Perhaps in the future, we will see feature films from Hideo.
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| Although one of Kojima Production's divisions specializes in film, the film based on Death Stranding will be filmed at A24 studio |
They wanted to sue Hideo but changed their minds
In 2015, Canal Plus Group, which owns the rights to the film Escape from New York, planned to sue Hideo for plagiarism. However, Kojima was saved by personal connections. The director of the film, John Carpenter, intervened in this case and dissuaded Canal Plus management from filing a lawsuit. The reason seems funny: “Hideo is a good guy” (verbatim quote from an interview with The Hollywood Reporter).
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| Snake's resemblance to the main character of Escape from New York is obvious. But Kojima did not hide his sources of inspiration and left many references to this film |
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Do you think Kojima is a genius? Or, in your opinion, are his achievements overrated? Share your opinion in the comments!
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