Metal Gear Solid Main Theme
From the Metal Gear Wiki
The Metal Gear Solid Main Theme is a musical piece synonymous with the Metal Gear Solid series. It is made up of two musical themes. The first "motif" was written by Tappy Iwase, who was requested to write the theme by Hideo Kojima, and appeared in Metal Gear Solid. It was later remixed by Harry Gregson-Williams for Metal Gear Solid 2, and the melody was partially used in other MGS games (such as The Twin Snakes and Metal Gear Solid 3).
The theme for Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, composed by Akihiro Honda & Kazuma Jinnouchi, originally included TAPPY's motif, but it was later removed due to criticisms surrounding the song (see below).
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[edit] Appearances
In Metal Gear Solid, the theme appeared in the early trailers for the game, and if the player was playing on his third play-through, they would be rewarded with the theme playing in place of The Best Is Yet To Come. In Metal Gear Solid 2, it appeared in early trailers and played during the game's opening title sequence and during the tracks Comradeship, Prelude to Denouement and Freedom To Decide (from The Other Side Soundtrack CD).
In Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance, the piece was re-done as a "skater-punk" song for the Skateboarding mini-game which was featured in the American and European versions of the game. Also, for The Twin Snakes (the remake of the original MGS) the piece was once again used in early E3 trailers and was used in-game during certain alert themes, and during the ending chase sequence between Solid Snake and Liquid Snake.
In Metal Gear Solid 3 the second theme was introduced, but the first motif appeared at the end of the new piece. The motif appeared in early trailers once again, and appeared during the tracks "Fortress Sneaking", "Debriefing" during the end credits after Starsailor's "Way To Fall" and in the song "Old Metal Gear" re-done as a lounge piece (which played at the beginning of the cut-scene with Granin.)
Listen to the Main Theme from the MGS3 OST.
[edit] Controversy
Shortly before the release of Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, someone on the internet discovered a song by Classical Russian composer Georgy Vasilevich Sviridov, named The Winter Road. The Metal Gear community was in an up-roar at how similar the song was to the MGS Theme, and requested the song be shown to Hideo Kojima. Eventually, a YouTube video emerged of a group of people showing the song to Hideo, with Hideo giving a very surprised reaction [1]. Eventually in an issue of the videogaming magazine "EGM" it was revealed via an interview with Norihiko Hibino that the theme was indeed changed due to the fact that "Konami had legal problems with Russian composers who said [they] stole their music".[2].
The motif was removed from the MGS3 theme on the 20th Anniversary Music Collection (the song switches to "The World Needs Only One Big Boss!" from Metal Gear Solid 2, at the point the melody originally began).
As aforementioned, the original Portable Ops theme featured the motif. The song was, however, still used in the game though without the motif, therefore consisting entirely of original music, and appeared on the Portable Ops soundtrack as Show Time.
Code extracted from Super Smash Bros. Brawl showed that this theme was originally supposed to be among the "My Music" tracks, but was later removed, possibly as a result of the controversy. The theme was also not included in Metal Gear Solid 4, although Harry Gregson-Williams' new motif (originally used in MGS3) was remixed by him as an independent song, carrying the title Metal Gear Saga.
[edit] Soundtrack Appearances
- Metal Gear Solid Soundtrack
- Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty OST
- Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater OST
