Hideo Kojima Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Hideo Kojima (小島秀夫 Kojima Hideo, born August 24, 1963) is a Japanese video game designer. He is the creator of a number of successful games, including the Metal Gear series, Snatcher, Policenauts, and the polemic Boktai. His games are highly regarded for their gameplay and storylines, often covering serious and relevant themes and issues.
Born in Setagaya, Tokyo, he later moved to Kobe at the age of three. Initially having ambitions of becoming a film director, he joined video game publisher Konami's MSX division in 1986 as a designer.
The first game he worked on was Penguin Adventure, as an assistant director. The first game he actually developed was Lost Warld, a Mario-like war game, in 1986. However, it was cancelled by Konami.
His first released game was Metal Gear. It was released in 1987 to critical success, although due to the MSX's obscurity, the initial MSX version of the game was barely well-known in Japan and Europe and many people (especially Americans) didn't play the game until it was ported to the NES, which was a heavily compromised version without Kojima's involvement. The game featured Solid Snake, a rookie soldier who has been sent to the fortified state of "Outer Heaven" to stop a nuclear equipped walking tank known as "Metal Gear". The game was unique by being the first successful stealth-based game, in which the player is encouraged to avoid visual contact with the enemy as opposed to engaging in direct confrontation (this was done due to the graphical limitations of the MSX, since the hardware couldn't handle scrolling very well, nor display too much moving objects at once). He later released the critically acclaimed Snatcher, a text-based adventure with a cyberpunk setting and Cold War themes, in 1988.
Kojima later designed in 1990, remade Snatcher in 1992 for the PC-Engine under title of Snatcher CD-ROMantic (which would become the basis for the subsequent versions of the game) and designed Policenauts, a very cinematic adveture game set in a space colony (often regarded as a "spiritual sequel" to Snatcher), in 1994; Snatcher and Policenauts were both huge successes in Japan. He also produced a series of adventure games based on the Tokimeki Memorial dating sim series dubbed the ¨Drama Series¨, which were made on the same game engine used by Policenauts.
With the release of Metal Gear Solid in 1998 for the PlayStation, Kojima became an international celebrity among gamers. Noted not only for its well-designed gameplay, Metal Gear Solid was also highly regarded for its characters and storyline, which featured themes of nuclear proliferation and genetic engineering.
In early 2000, Kojima released the first details of the sequel to Metal Gear Solid, , for the PlayStation 2. The game's highly detailed graphics, physics, and expanded gameplay quickly made it one of the most anticipated games ever. However, when the game was released in late 2001, it was heavily criticized for its character changes, twisting plot, and its bizarre storyline and ending. Although it received universally high marks for its gameplay and graphics engine, the poorly received storyline leaves it marked as a disappointment to many gamers.
Before MGS2's release, Kojima produced the game and anime franchise Zone of the Enders in 2001 to moderate success. In 2003, he produced Boktai: The Sun Is in Your Hand for the Game Boy Advance. In this, players take the role of a young vampire hunter who uses a solar weapon which is charged by a photometric sensor on the game cartridge (forcing them to play in sunlight). He also began work on , a GameCube remake of the first Metal Gear Solid with all the gameplay features of Metal Gear Solid 2 and with cutscenes redirected by action/horror film director Ryuhei Kitamura. It was released in 2004.
Kojima is currently working on several projects. The first, and most profilic, is for the PlayStation 2, which (unlike the other games in the series) is set in the year 1964 and involves wilderness survival. It is due for release in late 2004.
The second is Boktai's sequel, for the Game Boy Advance. Due out in summer 2004, it makes more extensive use of the cartidge's sunlight sensor and allows players to combine various new solar weapons.
The third is Metal Gear Acid for the upcoming PlayStation Portable handheld. This turn-based game is less action-oriented than the other Metal Gear games and focuses more on strategy.
Hideo Kojima is currently Vice President of Konami Computer Entertainment Japan, Inc.
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