The Context: While heading for the communications tower, Snake and Meryl come across an elegant office where the telekinetic mind reading Psycho Mantis awaits. Equipped with a gas mask and a distortedly creepy voice, Mantis became one of the franchise's most iconic characters - and one of gaming's most celebrated characters - but it's not just his personality that did it. The Fight: Even before the battle begins Kojima has tricks up his sleeve, as Mantis - via the technology of a controller equipped with rumble functionality - has the player place it on the floor so that he can move it while making telekinetic motions on-screen. And then after that he searches your memory card, pointing out other Konami published games that you have played. Once the battle begins things only get weirder as the screen temporarily goes pitch black with the word "Hideo" visibly green in the top left corner of the screen. When the game does return to normal however, it's still not clear how to actually damage Mantis as he can see and dodge your every move. If the fourth wall wasn't already shattered, here it just gets tossed off the planet entirely as the solution to damaging him requires the player to plug the controller into a different slot. Obviously Mantis isn't reading what the player is thinking but rather the inputs on their controller. With that key to success in mind, the rest is all about learning how the dodge all of the various office items - such as paintings and vases - that Mantis tosses at you, and non-lethally punching out Meryl whenever he manipulates her body. Creativity and brilliance don't even begin to describe this battle. It's simply Kojima doing what he does best; taking advantage of the interactivity that video games offer to concoct revolutionary gameplay.
