Summary
Hideo Kojima began working for Konami in 1986 and would spend the next couple of decades building a reputation for himself as one of the generation’s boldest creators. That partnership was severed in 2015, which led the developer to create his own studio,Kojima Productions, later that year.
Though he is mostly known for his work on the Metal Gear Solid series, Kojima has also directed a handful of adventure games and the genre-defining Death Stranding duology. Playing all of Hideo Kojima’s works would take you a decent amount of time, but if you’re up for the mission, here are all the games he’s directed, from the shortest to the longest.
P.T. is not mentioned because it was only a demo for an unfinished game.
Despite Metal Gear Solid 4 feeling like the conclusion to the series, Kojima still had some juice in the tank and surprised audiences with the announcement of Metal Gear Solid 5 in 2012. Before the big game, audiences were treated to a bite-sized prequel known as Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes.
This abbreviated experience was designed to showcase the potential of the Fox Engine while laying the groundwork for The Phantom Pain. Despite only being a couple of hours long, there are so many different tools and ways to approach your mission at Camp Omega that fans were able to sink dozens of hours into it while they waited for the follow-up.
Metal Gear is the first entry in the iconic Konami series, launching on the MSX2 in Japan before being ported to the NES in North America a year later. It follows Solid Snake during his first mission to a place known as Outer Heaven to locate a missing soldier and uncover the truth about a rumored weapon of mass destruction.
The game was instrumental in establishing the stealth genre and contains familiar elements that would be represented throughout the rest of the series. Due to hardware limitations, Metal Gear is a relatively short adventure that you can complete in a session or two.
Not to be confused with Snake’s Revenge for the NES, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake is the true sequel to the original game and was developed exclusively for the MSX2. It once again follows Solid Snake after he is asked to infiltrate Zanzibar Land to save the world from a potential nuclear crisis.
With a longer narrative and a bigger map to explore, Metal Gear 2 is a larger package than its predecessor and will take you a bit longer to complete. There are a lot of hidden secrets and obscure objectives, so it’s often recommended to use a guide during this mission to help you clear it quickly.
Between the development of the first two Metal Gear games, Hideo Kojima went in a completely different direction and directed the adventure game, Snatcher. Inspired by classic sci-fi movies like Blade Runner, you play as a man named Gillian Seed who is tasked with locating robots that are killing and replacing humans.
Despite its compelling themes and cinematic approach to storytelling, Snatcher struggled to find an audience, and a sequel was canceled due to the project’s long development time. It’s developed a cult following over the years, and it’s worth playing just to see how Kojima approaches this genre.
Metal Gear Solid is the game-changing stealth-action game thatelevated Hideo Kojima’s status as one of the most fascinating developersin the industry. His approach to both narrative and gameplay remains influential, and this game is the perfect demonstration of how he can break the fourth wall by weaving the two together.
This ambitious PlayStation title once again follows Solid Snake as he sneaks onto Shadow Moses Island to stop a group known as FOXHOUND from firing a nuclear weapon at the United States. While an initial playthrough will take you about a dozen hours, you’ll be stuck on the edge of your seat as you confront memorable bosses and witness the beginning of the Metal Gear Solid saga.
Despite Snatcher’s inability to become as successful as the Metal Gear games, Hideo Kojima revisited the adventure genre with Policenauts, which took about four years to develop. While it had its own plot and unique characters, Policenauts felt like a spiritual successor to Snatcher and also struggled in the market.
It didn’t help that Konami refused to localize Policenauts for audiences outside of Japan, but there are fan translations now for anyone curious about Kojima’s last attempt with this kind of storytelling. You play as a detective who is tasked with locating his ex-wife’s husband in the distant future.
Only three years after Metal Gear Solid revolutionized 3D stealth gameplay, Hideo Kojima surpassed all expectations with the beloved sequel, Sons of Liberty. The game took audiences by surprise with shocking twists and immersive gameplay that once again redefined the genre with seemingly limitless possibilities.
On this mission, you will find a way into a large facility called Big Shell to stop a group known as the Sons of Liberty from destroying it and killing everyone inside. Filled with memorable boss fights and an eerily prophetic story, Sons of Liberty is a divisive entry in the legendary series that you can still finish in a weekend.
As fans eagerly awaited to find out what happened after the events of Sons of Liberty, Kojima defied expectations once again by setting the next Metal Gear Solid in 1964 during the Cold War. Acting as a prequel to the entire Metal Gear franchise, Snake Eater is often praised as being one of the greatest games ever made.
The first chapter in the Metal Gear saga follows Naked Snake on a deadly mission through a jungle filled with traps, predators, and some of thebest bosses the series has to offer. The unique setting was a breath of fresh air after the larger facilities in the previous games, and the outdoor environment created more opportunities to sneak around your opponents.
Only a couple of years after Guns of the Patriots put a nice little bow on the Metal Gear series, Hideo Kojima surprised fans with the announcement of Peace Walker, the first mainline entry designed for a handheld device. Set about a decade after the events of Snake Eater, you play as Big Boss after he is sent to Costa Rica to investigate a mysterious military group.
Despite being developed for the PSP, Peace Walker retains all the elements you could expect from a classic Metal Gear experience while mixing things up with stylish motion comic sequences that give the game a unique identity. It’s surprisingly long, but it’s a pivotal entry in the series that is essential for any fan.
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots was designed as the ambitious final chapter to the Metal Gear Solid story that Kojima had fostered for the last two decades of his career. Of course, this meant that he went as far as he could go with the project, resulting in it being one of the longest games he’s ever created.
While Guns of the Patriots should take you just under twenty hours to complete, you shouldn’t expect to be holding your controller the entire time, as the amount of exposition and cutscenes in the game is record-breaking. There is a lot of talking throughout this “final” journey, but the gameplay is still top-notch and endlessly satisfying.
