19 Things We Learned From The Metal Gear Solid Series

6. Hideo Kojima Will Regularly Take Some C4 To The Fourth Wall

If Kojima could reach directly out of the screen and throw dirt in your face to simulate some areas of the game, he would. Lord only knows what he's going to do with the upcoming virtual reality-headset race. 1998's Metal Gear iteration featured some fantastically subversion of common gaming tropes, by having a boss who could read your mind by way of interpreting the signals coming from your controller. The solution was to actually get off your behind and change the controller port in real life. Pure genius. Later you were given the information to 'check the back of the CD case' for some information, which left thousands of players dumbfounded, as again Kojima was referring to the case in real life. These elements would make a return in Metal Gear 4 and Ground Zeroes respectively, however a great twist in 4 is that you cannot change the controller port, being the device is wireless. However if you try and reassign the controller through the PS3's PS Button menu, you'll get some genuinely fantastic unique dialogue.

5. That "Because Nanomachines That's Why" Is The Answer To Everything

"Nanomachines son!"

This brilliant barb from boss Senator Armstrong at the climax of spin-off Metal Gear Rising is the perfect catch-all summary of the latter half of MGS 4's plot thread-tying lore. In something of a Midichlorian-type move, Kojima implemented this incredibly wide answer-providing net over the entire series through the climax of MGS 4. Got a character who is dying of cancer, yet needs to remain alive? Nanomachines are keeping them strong. Perhaps someone has the reality-bending ability to jump extremely high or catch bullets? Nanomachines. Hell, want to simultaneously provide the greatest piece of fan-service ever created whilst also ticking the box of 'Complete Insanity'? Just fetch back someone who should have died decades ago. How? Why? Nanomachines, that's why.