Hideo Kojima's 10 best games

(10) Policenauts
We all know that Hideo has always been heavily influenced by Hollywood films and that Snake as a character would never have looked or functioned as he does if it hadn't been for John Carpenter's works. In the somewhat forgotten 1994 game Policenauts, Kojima had been influenced by both Blade Runner and Die Hard in writing the extremely cinematic pixel adventure Policenauts. Here we got to play as a cop who, after cryosleeping for nearly 30 years, returned to earthly life to be struck by a markedly different world than the one he once left. The script in this game is still brilliant and the dialogue is still some of the best Kojima has written.

(09) Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
The expectations for Kojima when he had announced Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain were huge. The premise of a larger open world that reacted to what you did in a stealth game sounded too good to be true. However, it turned out to be true to some extent and we were treated to a thrilling spy thriller where we travelled through Afghanistan and on the Angola-Zaire border. If the fourth ended the series chronologically, the fifth ties the story together with the very first game in the series and acts as a prequel in all but name. We get to follow how Big Boss builds his mercenary empire and his reputation. This is done with an interesting story, albeit with a different way of telling it. Namely, the entire game is divided into missions that in turn function as episodes in a TV series with credits. This quickly became frustrating to watch after each completed mission. Despite this, the story was interesting and both the prologue Ground Zeroes and the main game The Phantom Pain were top games in their genre. At Gamereactor, we felt that while it wasn't one of Kojima's best games, it still stood out as a great example of a working stealth game in an open world, with reactive and dynamic enemies.

(08) Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
The rain pours into the Hudson River and we see a man slowly walking on a bridge wearing a raincoat. The man starts to run, throws off his coat and makes a great leap off the bridge to the sound of Harry Gregson-Williams' iconic music. Once again, the lines between film and games were blurred with the sequel to one of the world's best PlayStation games. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty was a game ahead of its time thanks to its complex and post-modern narrative style and themes such as information control and artificial intelligence. The game revolved around the manipulation of information, something that has become increasingly relevant in today's digital landscape. Kojima also took risks and played with player expectations like never before. Many of us felt cheated when the short opening chapter of Solid Snake ended and the new main character Raiden took centre stage. He had long blonde hair and a more feminine body type which raised some eyebrows. The game also evolved its predecessor's gameplay mechanics by introducing a first-person mode where the entire weapon was framed, refined the stealth mechanics, and introduced new enemy AI that made stealth and strategic play even more challenging than before. However, the initial enthusiasm of playing as Solid Snake died out for many when Raiden was not as engaging a protagonist. Some missions were also perceived as slow and uninspired, with some boss fights causing some frustration. At the same time, the game's ambitious story, innovative gameplay and themes cannot be ignored, which is why the game is awarded a strong eighth place.

(07) Snatcher
Snatcher is one of those games that doesn't just bear Kojima's signature, no it really screams his name - a distillation of everything the eccentric creator professes to love. Cinematic storytelling, noir vibes, future angst and games that push the boundaries of the medium. Released in 1988, and since best known in its release for the Sega CD, it's a game that always felt way ahead of its time. The most obvious thing that strikes you is, of course, its distinctive visual splendour - a gem for its time, cast in a cyberpunk aesthetic. Neon signs illuminating the darkness of the city, drenched in shadows and cold rain. It's unashamedly Blade Runner but in Kojima's very own way, and yes, his firm hand and clear vision shine through even here, early in his career. The story is equal parts dystopian sci-fi and noir detective, where you as the amnesiac agent Gillian Seed chase killer robots, or "Snatchers". A charming and very Japanese version of Jack Finney's classic 1956 film thrown into the blender with Philip K. Dick's dark vision of the future. It's so wonderfully Kojima. Enigmatic, self-referential and with a tone that swings wildly. From unexpected humour to seriousness. Then of course there's the soundscape. Snatcher has a soundtrack that feels both retro and timeless. Electronic melodies, menacing bass rumbles - all with a slight futuristic twist that never feels kitschy. Today, not many people remember the game, which after all has been overshadowed by Kojima's larger and more contemporary works. But for those who want to understand his origins - for real, Snatcher is still an indispensable piece of the puzzle. If possible even more enjoyable today. Uncompromisingly Kojima and unashamedly personal, a true cult classic.

(06) PT
A little over 20 minutes, that's all we've actually seen of Hideo Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro's interpretation of Silent Hill. However, it is for all of us who managed to play 20 really nasty and atmospheric minutes and I guess many of us had to change our underwear afterwards, not least after the first meeting with Lisa. Rarely has the pulse been as high as when we snuck around the narrow corridor and slowly but surely explored every little corner. Silent Hill was cancelled after a conflict between Konami and Kojima, which led to P.T being completely removed from the PlayStation Store and subsequently not being available for download, even though it had been done before. So it is today very difficult, almost impossible to play. Of course, we mourn the fact that we will never get to experience this in full scale, but we also recognise that PT is in all likelihood the very best horror game never released.

(05) Death Stranding
When Kojima decided to make a game about a man who transports things through inhospitable landscapes, it became a bit of a love it or hate it camp. It's not that hard to understand, really. Death Stranding is a strange game. It's as pretentious as it is slow. It's crazy and strange in so many ways that at times we just had to start accepting what we were getting into. Trying to summarise this beyond the basic "You should hold R2/L2 so as not to lose your balance" is basically impossible. There is an argument when it comes to entertainment that "those who didn't like it were those who didn't understand it". In many ways, it's probably not possible to understand everything that Kojima wanted to tell this time. But that doesn't matter much, really. The content can be just as quirky as you like if the whole thing works. Sam's perpetual travels (with a baby as his only companion) and the cinematic narrative were in many ways so hugely memorable. Because even though it's very much a game where much of the time you're just trudging along with a story stranger than most of what we've been exposed to - it was also fascinating, unique and an incredible breath of fresh air among everything we've experienced before.

(04) Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
The last time Hideo Kojima went full throttle under the Konami banner (he dropped out during Metal Gear Solid V development) was Snake's fourth adventure, 2008's Guns of the Patriots for PlayStation 3. Having delivered the series' previous two instalments to Sony's second console, Kojima didn't use the power of the new platform and the Bluray format to innovate in terms of gameplay, but to finally do what he'd always wanted to do - namely, semi-interactive film. Guns of the Patriots may have felt half-baked to play when it was released, but even today the portrayal of the prematurely aged Snake is a masterpiece of utterly uncompromising storytelling that manages to weave in almost everything between heaven and earth. In between cutscenes of 50 minutes (at most, more than 70 minutes in a single sweep), there are conspiracy theories, social criticism, smoking monkeys, in-depth character portraits and diarrhoea-pooping soldiers. Some say Kojima went too far with his unbridled vision here, with Guns of the Patriots, but that's also the game's undoubted biggest advantage.

(03) Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
Sequels to games are thankfully not quite the same as they are in the world of film. On the contrary, we almost always expect them to be even more fantastic and grandiose than their predecessor. It took five and a half years before we finally got a continuation of Sam's adventures. During this time, Kojima Productions managed to develop something that was an even more polished, stylish and tight adventure than the last one. We were treated to a lot of things that took away some of the frustration that some might have experienced with its predecessor. We also got something that can only be classed as among the most beautiful that can be experienced on a console at the moment. Environments that offer breathtaking views and where weather and natural disasters became an element that was given more space. Sam's long journeys also offered far more opportunities and more variety than last time. As expected, the story was in many ways at least as pretentious and crazy as last time. But it also offered more explanations, more moments that tied the story together as a whole. We got recurring characters and then great new ones in a story where Kojima repeatedly, once again, balanced between genius and madness in a way that became incredibly memorable. All in all, we got a worthy and utterly brilliant sequel that, despite sharing a lot with the first game, still managed to feel completely unique, once again.

(02) Metal Gear Solid
From the first frame, the tone is set in the zero-degree water around Shadow Moses Island - this is unlike anything we've experienced before. The level of ambition is turned up past the max as the boundaries between game and film are blurred and Hideo Kojima through stealth takes us and the international PlayStation scene by storm in one of the most influential games of all time. The fourth wall is torn down by codec frequencies written on the game's cover art and Psycho Mantis manipulates our physical reality. The isometric 3D perspective revealed hidden laser beams with a cigarette in their mouths, splendidly rendered exclusively in the game engine, blowing our minds in turns through believable voice acting and a twisted character gallery. 1998 shaped an entire generation and not only put the game series on the world map - it cemented Hideo Kojima as one of the industry's most respected and influential game creators of all time. Solid "David Hayter" Snake put Boy Scout Sam Fisher on the potty before he was born, and we salute him with a well-deserved second place.

K O J I M A'S BEST GAME :
(01) Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
As much as we love the very first Metal Gear Solid game and its polygon-riddled PlayStation charm, spy mystique, bizarre comedy and peculiar tone, it's still Snake Eater that grabs the top spot on this list of Kojima-San's best work. This is because his patented original recipe for how good spy action should be done came into its own when he and the Konami team behind Snake Eater backed the tape all the way to the 70s. Solid Snake's father Big Boss and his fight against Russian terrorists out there in the jungle stands as one of the most remarkable gaming experiences ever offered and now that we will soon experience the lavish new version of this masterpiece, we of course sincerely hope that Konami has done the snake eater justice.