Just when I thought I was done with board games, along comes this… thing… from CMON. I say thing with a touch of disdain and a bit of excitement because CMON is doing the thing that Nick touched upon in his review of the LEGO NES set and that is preying on our nostalgia. Or at least banking on it.
I haven’t played all of the Metal Gear games, but of all the games I have played there were two that are real standouts for me: Metal Gear Solid for PlayStation, and Metal Gear Solid for Game Boy Color (especially the GBC one; it was amazing how much they were able to pack into that game). So having a tabletop version with co-op play for 1-4 players is hitting all the right buttons for me.
Another plus to this game is that it’s an all-in-one, no-kickstarter-add-ons b.s., complete package. That’s one thing that kinda drives me crazy about a lot of Kickstarter campaigns: so many of them have add-ons that drives the cost up using FOMO to drain your bank account. I like the games that have just one package and that’s it. You get it all without having to pick and choose. This game is not Kickstarter and does just that: you get everything for one price.
And just to add some icing to the cake, you get three bonuses if you pre-order the game. This version is called the Integral Edition and you’ll get: a $10 discount off the retail price of $110, and a Metal Gear REX miniature, and a graphic novel. The regular price of the game is $110, but pre-orders will see a price of $100.
The Metal Gear Rex “miniature” is gigantic at 13cm tall. I’m assuming regular retail editions will have a carboard token instead of the miniature. I hope the Integral Edition comes with it too.
The graphic novel is designed to immerse you into the game further by providing the narrative for each mission. This sounds like the offline paper version of a cinematic.
Here’s a trailer with more details:
I’ve had this itching feeling that this game was familiar to me, like I’ve seen it before. And I did! It used to be an IDW game that never saw production. Not sure what the reasoning was but it is basically back from the dead with a new publisher and the world is now a better place for it.
I’ve given a lot of thought about Nick’s piece and his comments on nostalgia. It was the first thing I thought of when I saw this. How does one not fall prey to companies tugging at those strings? It’s hard man, not gonna lie. Am I victim here or am I spending my money wisely? The gameplay could suck but I’m willing to take that risk. There’s a draft rulebook out there that one can download and peruse to make a more informed decision. But I’m flying blind here. I want this thing.
You can pre-order Metal Gear Solid: The Board Game – Integral Edition directly from CMON on Backerkit. Just brace yourself for the shipping cost. It ended up being $32.61 for me.
