Crouching Babel, Hidden Cobra

While MGS4 may be pretty far off on the horizon, that doesn't mean The End of all stealth franchises isn't as lively as ever. Most recently the stellar Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops dropped for PSP. Bad timing, though. I fear if I pop Prince of Persia Revelations out of my PSP, it may not return, and the Prince may be stranded on the island of time forever...

So, while I try to rush through Revelations, I am currently falling further and further behind the online competitive curve in Ops. The Fear of potential opponenets skilling up without me is alarming, but to comfort myself I am taking a little time to indulge in one of the lesser known entries in the Metal Gear mythos.

After Playstation's Metal Gear Solid, and before PS2's Sons of Liberty, there was a little retro entry for Nintendo's Game Boy Color, Metal Gear Ghost Babel, or simply Metal Gear Solid here in North America. This second title is somewhat misleading, as I consider the Solid term to refer specifically to the 3D aspect of the games, as opposed to the inclusion of the character. You see, Ghost Babel is closest in similarity to Metal Gear 2, and if you haven't played either Ghost Babel or MG2, you are missing out on the Joy of a unique gaming experience.

There is nothing like the Pain of a bad spinoff for a Gameboy system, and luckily, Ghost Babel is not one. It's one final throwback to the original formula of top-down stealth action. You have all the fun gimmicks of MG2 and MGS (the cardboard box, e.g.) with a fresh coat of paint, and a fresh set of wacky bosses (with their wacky names).

Unfortunately, Ghost Babel is not part of the major storyline. It seems to take the place of MGS, wherein Snake is brought out of his Alaskan retirement by Colonel Campbell, but instead of stopping Foxhound's takeover of Shadow Moses, he must travel to Central Africa to stop the terrorist group Black Chamber. Interestingly, one of the more popular interpretations of this storyline is that it is a VR training scenario meant to form Raiden into the Patriot's own "legendary hero". (Oh shit, please excuse the Sorrow caused by any spoilers in this paragraph. Direct all of the Fury you may have to the comments section.)

Anyways, if you can find Ghost Babel at your local game store, and you have the neccesary hardware to play it, get it. You won't be sorry. And if you can't locate a hard copy locally or online, well, you know. Just say Arr! to rom piracy.