Slots are amazingly popular worldwide. It doesn’t really take a genius to figure this much out – really, all you need to do is visit any online gambling site and see just how many online slots there are available, especially in comparison to all the other games. Hell, you don’t even need to actually sign up to any online casino – a look at this slots website is all you need to learn just how popular modern slots are in the West! There are no slots in the traditional sense in most Eastern territories, as casinos tend to be banned in many of them, but Pachinko machines are basically Asian slots and are a huge part of Japanese culture. Just like how there’s numerous online slots based on different Western franchises like Marvel or “Game of Thrones”, there’s plenty of Pachinko machines that are based on famous Japanese franchises. And while they generally enjoy tremendous success, the announcement of a single Pachinko machine caused a massive uproar among fans. But why? People love Pachinko machines, and they love licensed machines even more, so why did this one in particular outrage people so much? The story is actually quite fascinating.
In order to understand that, we need to learn a bit more about the history of Konami, who are one of the biggest Japanese video game publishers of all time. They’ve been publishing games since the very first cartridge-based home consoles like the NES, with massive smash hits such as “Castlevania”, “Contra” and “Metal Gear”. But it wasn’t until the PlayStation 1 when Konami began enjoying MASSIVE, worldwide success. “Castlevania: Symphony of the Night” helped create an entirely new genre of games, dubbed Metroidvania by fans (a portmanteau of “Castlevania” and “Metroid” – the other game which helped make the genre); “Silent Hill” pretty much single-handedly established the rule that horror games are most effective when they delve into the world psychological horror, and “Metal Gear Solid”… Well, that’s the main star of our story. “Metal Gear Solid” is one of the most important videogames of all time. It wasn’t the first game to have Hollywood-style cinematic cutscenes, a cohesive plot with many twists and turns and extremely good voice acting, but it was definitely the one that perfected it. It’s the grandfather of modern games as we know them.
From then on, every single instalment of the “Metal Gear Solid” series has been making revolutions in gaming in one way or another. “Metal Gear Solid 2”, while disliked at release, was way ahead of its time and is currently regarded as the very first example of postmodernism in videogames. “Metal Gear Solid 3” went back to basics and further perfected the cinematic storytelling of the first game, telling a heartfelt story of a soldier forced to assassinate his mentor and mother figure because of petty politics in the midst of the Cold War. It was a heartfelt, emotional story that continues to resonate with gamers to this day, more than ten years after its release.
But something very weird happened during the development of “Metal Gear Solid V”. The details of the scandal are unknown, but sources claim there was a “power struggle” between Konami higher-ups and “Metal Gear Solid” creator Hideo Kojima. As a result, Kojima was forced to leave the company following the release of his latest game (which was released in an incomplete state, with more than a third of its planned content missing and many of the missions requiring multiple playthroughs). Konami promised that despite Kojima’s departure, this wouldn’t be the end of “Metal Gear Solid” and that, even though rumours claimed the opposite, they wouldn’t be pulling out of the videogame business. Kojima took his core team members with him and formed his own studio, leaving Konami desperate to hire a new team to develop “the next Metal Gear”, and that’s the last we heard of it.
So, why have I been telling you all of this? What does the history of “Metal Gear” have to do with Pachinko machines, anyway? Well… It’s because Konami did, in fact, recently announce the next “Metal Gear”… And it’s going to be a Pachinko machine. More accurately, it’s going to be a Pachinko remake of “Metal Gear Solid 3”. Let me put this another way – Konami’s response to fan demand for a new game in their favourite franchise is to release a slot machine. Think about it this way – imagine if suddenly HBO decided to fire David Benioff and DB Weiss (the creative directors of “Game of Thrones”), cancel the show and then release a Red Wedding slot machine. “Game of Thrones” fans everywhere would be rioting… And honestly, one look at YouTube is enough to let us know that “Metal Gear Solid” fans aren’t particularly happy about their current situation either.
At this rate, things aren’t looking particularly peachy for fans of the franchise, who have been having a very rough time after the release of the last game in September of 2015, and it doesn’t seem to be getting better anytime soon. A part of me hopes that Konami will make it up to us and will announce a brand new “Metal Gear” game soon enough… But I doubt it. In any case, this whole situation has provided us with a very good lesson on how NOT to make a licensed slot. Stay on your fans’ good side, developers. They pay your salary.
