Hands-On: Snake Eater 3D Is Metal Gear Solid 3 With Peace Walker Controls

Considering how often Metal Gear’s control scheme has changed over the years, it was nice to be able to start playing a (technically) new game with a setup I was familiar with. Some people, however, may not be as excited to hear that the particular control scheme in Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D is the "Shooter style" from Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.

This means that movement is controlled with the 3DS’s slide pad, the camera is controlled with the face buttons, L to aim and R to fire, with up on the D-Pad being used as an action button, down being reload, and left and right opening weapons and items menus. However, unlike Peace Walker (and true to Snake Eater), opening the menus will freeze the action, allowing players to choose weapons and items on the lower screen at their leisure.

As for the game itself… It’s Snake Eater. While the new camera makes the experience much more like the Subsistence re-release of the title, rescuing Sokolov in Rassvet was  the same as it has always been. Same (fully voiced!) radio conversations, same animals crawling along the ground, same enemy soldiers with AK-47s and grenades, and the same places to hide. The jungle looks great with the 3D effects, the tall grass that Snake crawls through looking particularly good, but the game is essentially exactly what the title says that it is. Snake Eater with some solid 3D.

I asked a number of Konami representatives whether or not the game would contain any interesting bonuses in the vein of the original title’s Snake vs. Monkey missions (I assumed that this mode definitely wouldn’t make it into the game since Ape Escape is a Sony property), and they all informed me that they didn’t believe that the game had any additional content aside from the ability to make camouflage out of user pictures and some gyroscope controls.

Gyro controls, despite my hopes and best attempts, could not be used for aiming, but rather sections where Snake has to balance on suspension bridges. However, as the game still doesn’t have a concrete release date outside of a vague 2011, Konami might surprise us.

Yes, Snake Eater 3D uses Peace Walker’s oft-derided (I liked it!) control scheme, and yes, from what I was told, the port doesn’t have many extras, but it’s still a portable version of a fantastic game, and it looks good with 3D (maybe not as good as the Naked Sample demo from last year, but it still looks nearly as nice as the PS2 version).

Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D will be released for the 3DS in 2011.