The Metal Gear series has been referenced several other fictional works. This article lists some of these references.
Comics[]
- FoxTrot: Jason mentions in a Christmas season Sunday strip that he attempted to ask for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots for Christmas, although he never received it and was considering asking for it again. When asked if it was because it was beyond his age range by his friend Marcus, Jason explained it was actually because when he asked his father, Roger Fox for the game, he misinterpreted his request, and instead bought him four solid metal gears, and implied that this was a common trend due to receiving a Walk the Line CD when he asked for cash in the past.
- Mega Man by Archie Comics: Although the comics themselves do not reference Metal Gear, a special Halloween edition had Roll trying out Halloween outfits, with one of the costumes being based on Naked Snake from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, with her quote while adopting the costume being a reference to his statement upon retrieving his backpack at the start of the game.
- Marvel Comics Presents Vol. 2: A picture of Naked Snake briefly appears behind Deadpool in Issue #10.
- IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog: Whisper's former mercenary team, the Diamond Cutters, have multiple references to the Metal Gear franchise. The team's name is a reference to the Diamond Dogs and their headquarters resembles Mother Base as seen in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Additionally their uniforms, skills, and most of their species reference the members of FOXHOUND from Metal Gear Solid. Slinger the Ocelot wields revolvers like Revolver Ocelot, Mimic the Octopus is a shapeshifter in reference to Decoy Octopus (although his true nature as a backstabber is closer to that of Ocelot), Whisper the Wolf is a sniper like Sniper Wolf (although her more quiet disposition is similar to Quiet from The Phantom Pain), Claire Voyance (a Howler Monkey) is a psychic like Psycho Mantis, and Smithy the Lion is a large individual who wields a Gatling gun like Vulcan Raven. In Sonic the Hedgehog: Tangle and Whisper #4 a recording of Slinger is seen using Ocelot's signature hand gesture while saying "You're pretty good!".
FoxTrot.
Roll's Naked Snake outfit by Ryan Jampole.
A picture of Naked Snake appears in Marvel Comics Presents Vol. 2 #10.
Slinger using Ocelot's trademark hand gesture and catchphrase in Sonic the Hedgehog: Tangle & Whisper #4.
Films[]
- David Hayter utilized his experience with Metal Gear Solid to write the screenplays for X-2: X-Men United as well as X-Men Origins: Wolverine. A notable example is the depiction of the character William Stryker, who in the comics was originally a fundamentalist Christian preacher gone mad, while in the films, he was depicted as a renegade paramilitary officer.
TV shows[]
- South Park: Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes was referenced in the Black Friday Trilogy.
- Spaced: Bilbo is seen wearing the T-shirt which was included as part of the premium package edition of Metal Gear Solid.
- Supergirl: The episode Manhunter, which delved into J'onn J'honns' backstory, featured Kara's adopted father encountering J'onn within a jungle environment that resembled Dremuchij, Tselinoyarsk from Metal Gear Solid 3.
- Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle; for the dub of episode 10 Twilight the Demon King says part of Kazs' line when he was en route to the second mother base after his rescue by Venom Snake, "Why are we still her, just to suffer?"[1]
Video games[]
- 11-11 Memories Retold: Late in the game, the player walks through a World War 1 battlefield riddled with the ghosts of fallen soldiers. If the player passes through without touching any ghosts, they earn the achievement "The Sorrow", referencing the boss fight in Metal Gear Solid 3 that inspired the scene.
- Batman: Arkham Knight: Aside from several of the game mechanics from the Arkham series being derived in part from Metal Gear, one of the Joker game over sequences has Joker (who is a post-mortem hallucination induced by Batman due to Fear Gas exposure) putting his hand over his ear in the same way as the Codec and yelling "Bats" in much the same way as the series' Game Over sequence.
- Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII: In the story mode of the game, there is a mission called "Solid Cait." In this mission, the player plays as Cait Sith. They must sneak through the Mako Reactor 0 without being caught. Both the name of the mission and the overall objectives are a clear reference to Solid Snake and by extension a large part of the gameplay of the Metal Gear series.
- Final Fantasy X-2: When encountering a Snake-type enemy, Rikku, who has a massive fear of snakes, will recite the game over sequence from the franchise.
- Final Fantasy XV: In the DLC story Episode Prompto, the titular character is forced to infiltrate an arctic facility within Niflheim and eventually has to take out his creator as well as a doomsday weapon while escaping on a jetski in the climax with a female ally, similar to Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes.
- Frogger: The Great Quest: There is a boss called Metal Chicken Ray, a giant robotic chicken referencing Metal Gear RAY. The game was produced by Konami.
- Genshin Impact: The player can unlock an achievement by defeating the Jadeplume Terrorshroom enemy while it is performing an attack during its activated state. The achievement is called "Nanomachines, Son!", a reference to Senator Armstrong's line during his boss fight in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
- Henry Stickmin:
- The call sound effect can be heard in the first option screen of Infiltrating the Airship.
- The iconic cardboard box used for stealth sequences in the series is also one of the options in Fleeing the Complex. The Alert sound can be heard when the box is presented.
- Multiple references are included in Completing the Mission's "Master Bounty Hunter" route; Frog says "You kept us waiting, huh", a codec conversation is shown as part of the opening cutscene, John Pilskin (codename: "Frog") is directly patterned off of Solid Snake, and one fail scenario is a direct reference to MGS's game over screens.
- The title of the initial cutscene of this route is a reference to the subtitle "A Hideo Kojima Game" that was present in every title this famous director worked in.
- The beginning cutscene is a reference to the opening cutscene of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.
- In the CorrupTick fail screen, "Fission Mailed" is a reference from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.
- The Fulton choice in Capital Gains is the exact same one from Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.
- LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4: Playing as Severus Snape and putting a barrel over him unlocks the achievement "Solid Snape", acting as a pun on Solid Snake, as well as referencing the use of cardboard boxes in the franchise (although in this particular case, it's based more on the use of the drum can in Metal Gear Solid 4 and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.).
- Metroid: Other M: Commander Adam Malkovich will sometimes recite the franchise's game over sequence if Samus ends up killed. The Colonel character in the ending of the game bears a slight resemblance to Roy Campbell from Metal Gear, albeit with a bald head. In addition, Samus's relationship with Adam in that game was reminiscent of The Boss and Naked Snake's relationship in Metal Gear Solid 3.
- Paper Mario: Color Splash: In the Cobalt Fort chapter, while hunting down blue toads, the player can find one of them inside a cardboard box, with his admitting upon being found that he was trying to be stealthy, alluding to the use of boxes in the franchise.
- Silent Scope 2: Dark Silhouette: Snake's Revenge is directly referenced in this game.
- Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward: If the player examines some cardboard boxes inside the Control Room, the character Phi will jokingly comment that they could use the boxes to sneak past guards.
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies: The self-styled reporter Myriam Scuttlebutt constantly hides herself by wearing a cardboard box. When this character is first met as a seemingly shuffling box, one of the main characters expresses his fear that a snake could be inside, by screaming "SNAAAAAAAAAAKE!!", referencing both Solid Snake, as well as as series's trademark game over. The character also has a habit of hissing, akin to a snake. Additionally, at one point the player character comments that Myriam has her "tactical espionage action down to a science".
- The "silencer corpse" in the construction site in Silent Hill 3 is noted as being a reference to the Metal Gear Solid series in the official strategy guide by Dan Birlew.
- Yakuza 4 has an incidental conversation where one of the characters, Saigo, boasted about punching to death a bipedal war machine, with the other, Akiyama, being more interested in them even existing at all, an obvious reference to the eponymous mechas in the franchise.[2]