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‘Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol.2’ Is Worth It For ‘Ghost Babel’
'Metal Gear Solid 4' is now available to play on all platforms since its PlayStation 3 release in 2008.
Konami
Now that the second volume of the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection is finally here, the real star of the show is the Game Boy Color game, Ghost Babel.
Originally released internationally over two decades ago as simply Metal Gear Solid on the Game Boy Color, this is the first time the game has been made officially available again and under its original Japanese name, Ghost Babel.
The reason for the Metal Gear Solid connection is that it takes place in a parallel timeline from the original games and is another version of what Metal Gear Solid could have been if the original 2D gameplay had been retained.
For fans of the older Metal Gear games, Ghost Babel was a huge deal and is rightly regarded as one of the best games in the series and most certainly an underappreciated one.
While it may seem silly to rave about an alternate-timeline Game Boy Color game, Ghost Babel really is very good, and having it widely available again, under its original Japanese name, is something I am extremely happy about.
As for the other two games in this collection, Metal Gear Solid 4 and Peace Walker, the latter already had an HD version made a while ago, and it’s this version the second volume includes. It’s a solid port, but if you were expecting anything new here in terms of remastering, it’s something we’ve already seen before.
That said, this version of Peace Walker has higher resolution settings over the older HD release, and the ability to remap controls properly this time around.
However, the inclusion of Metal Gear Solid 4 is amazing, as this is the first time since its release on the PlayStation 3 in 2008 that it has been made available again. This is no mean feat either, as PlayStation 3 game emulation is no joke, and the fact that this runs so smoothly on things like the Switch 2 (which is the version I played) is really impressive.
While the first volume of this Master Collection got an unfairly harsh appraisal, as I thought it was great, there’s really nothing in this second volume that tourists arguing in bad faith can really pick apart.
I’ve been playing through these games on my Switch 2 and can report that they are handled very well, and again, this collection is worth it for Ghost Babel alone.
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