“Beauty and the Beast”: The Sexy Mecha-Ladies of Metal Gear Solid 4

by Andrew Podolsky on August 25, 2007 at 12:36 pm

“I’d hit that … with a tank!”

With Games Convention underway in Leipzig, Germany, expectant Metal Gear fans were rewarded with yet another trailer for the highly-anticipated stealth title. Four new bosses were revealed in the GC 07 trailer, all female, and all named after the bosses in the first Medal Gear Solid.

Series director Hideo Kojima explained that the new enemy squad, called “Beauty and the Beast Unit”, is comprised of attractive females from around the world who have been transformed into death-dealing animal robots. It sounds a bit like an anime fan’s weird fetish came to life, and perhaps that’s what Kojima is going for.

The new characters are Screaming Mantis, Laughing Octopus, Raging Raven, and Crying Wolf. They show off their abilities in the last half of the trailer, starting with Crying Wolf, who upends a bulldozer while deflecting bullets from the panicking soldiers. Then Raging Raven, crying “Rage!”, swoops down from the skies and cuts through the same soldiers with deadly wings. As the soldiers flee and Crying Wolf waves her tail high above her metallic haunches (yes, we think it’s a bit odd too), Laughing Octopus emerges from the shadows and squeezes a soldier to death with huge, Doc Octopus tentacles, saying “Laugh with me!”.

All the catchphrases seem to be in check so far, but what is that screaming sound above? It’s Screaming Mantis, who uses telepathy to force a soldier to fire at his comrades, and then lifts him in the air and breaks him like a doll. Speaking of dolls, she seems to have two inanimate companions on either side of her that look a bit like the stick figures from the Blair Witch Project. As the Beauties leave the battlefield, we’re left wondering how after two years of MGS4 trailers, we ended up with the weirdest, longest CG film in the videogame industry.

We’ve seen everything from pissing, mooing, organic Metal Gears, a young Snake in disguise, Raiden the ninja stabbing himself to take down Vamp the vampire, and now a quartet of mecha beauties that would make the creepiest otaku blush. Hideo is performing some serious fan service here, but whether this game is for Metal Gear fans or the larger audience of anime fans is not yet clear. Will we “get” what Hideo is saying when the game finally comes out? Can the gameplay possibly live up to the potential seen in what feels like hundreds of hours of CG cutscenes? PS3 owners will find out in early 2008.

http://www.ripten.com/mgs4_trailer.flv

GC 2007 Metal Gear Solid 4 Trailer

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