10 Video Game Companions So Strong You're Just Getting In The Way

This notion cuts to the very core of what Metal Gear Solid 2 is, given that the game's story and how it was subsequently received by fans are entirely concerned with how much more awesome protagonist-turned-sidekick Solid Snake is than the sequel's new hero Raiden.

Though we play as Snake during Metal Gear Solid 2's tanker prologue, the overwhelming majority of the game puts players in the shoes of wet-around-the-ears rookie agent Raiden - a fact Kojima impressively concealed from fans pre-release, as caused quite the meltdown when it finally hit stores.

Raiden is joined by a few support characters, though, including Iroquois "definitely not Solid Snake" Pliskin, who late in the game finally drops his disguise and helps Raiden out in full-on Solid Snake Beast Mode.

And if the first Metal Gear Solid proved anything at all, it was that Solid Snake is basically a licensed s**t-wrecker - a literal one-man army who effectively stopped an entire terrorist operation on his lonesome.

And so, between Snake straight-up boasting to Raiden about his infinite ammo and generally showing himself to be a supreme badass in the latter portion of this game, it's tough not to see Raiden as inferior.

This isn't to call Raiden useless, because he's absolutely shown to be a capable soldier as the game progresses, but stood next to a literal legend, and one who the narrative intentionally compares him to constantly? Snake could've taken Solidus on his own.

Kojima gives this a bit of an ironic turnaround in Metal Gear Solid 4, though, where protagonist Snake is now aged and decrepit, while Raiden is an awesome cyborg-ninja companion.