GAME(S): Merry Gear Solid/Merry Gear Solid 2

It's been quite a while since I have played one of my favorite seasonal games. It's the MERRY GEAR SOLID SERIES! That's right, this holiday season, it's about MERRY GEAR. Not that incredibly lethal bipedal nuclear missile launching tank, METAL GEAR!

METAL GEAR SOLID is one of my favorite games and every time when Christmas is nearing I like to open up a parody game called MERRY GEAR SOLID. Created by Arthur Lee and Duncan Roberts, Merry Gear Solid is an obvious parody of the original Playstation game but modeled with an entire Christmas themed story around it. There are two games in this series: the first is titled Secret Santa, and the second is titled The Ghosts of Christmas Past. Both games capture a sense of the original stealth game requiring the player to sneak through the building unnoticed, but they also make many references to the real video game series and even break the fourth wall intentionally [with a couple of C4 Explosives.]

Merry Gear Solid: Secret Santa:
The first game uses the basic sneak-by "guards" and knock on walls mechanics with an overhead view of the map. It also uses a similar Item/Inventory system that the original MGS uses. Items hidden throughout the building allow the player to sneak past the children in order to reach the Christmas Tree and deliver the presents undetected. You will play as Santa Claus himself in this title.

Merry Gear Solid 2: Ghosts of Christmas Past:
The second game is actually made better. It is more fleshed out, is slightly more complicated, has more features than the first game, and plays almost as a full-length game of its own. MSG2:GoCP uses the basic sneak-by "guards" and knock on walls mechanics with an overhead view of the map, with a similar Item/Inventory system as the original MGS game, but this time it also features the Radar Map in the corner of the screen that shows you the enemies' field of vision. MGS2:GoCP also features even more items than the first game, Boss Encounters, and plenty of references to the actual Metal Gear Series and some of Hideo Kojima's other works. In this game you will play as snake, dressed up like Santa Claus.

I found out about these games years ago and since then I've played them during the Christmas Season. I downloaded played through the second game first and eventually I downloaded and played through the second one. Although I played the second game before the first, I was still able to enjoy the story. Even though MGS:Secret Santa is short, details from that game are crucial to the story of MGS: Ghost of Christmas Past, so I highly recommend playing the games in order. Although, I also highly recommend playing the REAL METAL GEAR SOLID GAMES first to get a greater laugh out of all of the jokes they throw at you. Unless you follow Kojima's works closely, most of the allusions will fly over your head. Regardless, I trust that you may still find the game enjoyable whether or not you've played the Metal Gear games.

Snake? Snake?! SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!!!!!

Both games, as well as some other games, can be downloaded for free from this website: http://www.superfundungeonrun.com/?page_id=256