Metal Gear Solid: 16 Mind-Blowing Easter Eggs You Totally Missed

16. The Origin Of The Cardboard Box

Before it became a key gameplay element or something the studio would show off to build hype for an upcoming instalment, the first MGS featured boxes as 'secrets' of sorts you could don to get yourself posted around the Shadow Moses base. However, alongside their hidden purpose was the very fact they were only included as a tribute to Abe Koubou's novel Hako Otoko (translating as The Box Man), where the protagonist lives inside a cardboard box and experiences Toyko from within - the whole thing being a satirical comment on modern society. Kojima was reportedly a massive fan growing up, and elected to recreate the idea of hiding in boxes as a gameplay feature - although surely even he couldn't have foreseen the day where, in Phantom Pain, we're now sticking scantily clad ladies on the side to distract entire platoons of soldiers.