Why is it rated M, and how graphic is a 1998 PlayStation game in reality?

By 2026 standards, the visuals look like painted Duplo blocks. Characters don't even have rendered eyes or mouths. It got an M rating for blood splatters when guards get shot, a scene where a cyborg ninja slaughters soldiers in a hallway (mostly implied and pixelated), a torture sequence where Snake is electrocuted, and some 90s action-movie sexual innuendo. Spiritually and visually, it plays much closer to a modern PG-13 movie than a modern M-rated game like The Last of Us.

What is the easiest way to play it on modern consoles?

Grab Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1, which is available on Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Steam. You can also buy the original game standalone digitally on those storefronts for around $20. It includes a digital manual (which you need for a puzzle mid-game) and a built-in menu to switch controller ports for the Psycho Mantis boss fight.

Does my kid need to play the older 2D games (Metal Gear 1 and 2) first?

Not at all. Almost nobody in the West played the 1987 and 1990 MSX2 games before playing Metal Gear Solid in 1998. If your kid wants the backstory on Big Boss and Zanzibar Land, the main menu includes a 'Previous Operations' text summary and a half-hour 'Briefing' video file that catches you up on everything before you press Start.

Will a kid raised on modern games hate the controls?

The first thirty minutes are rough. There is no free camera control, aiming weapons requires holding down square and letting auto-aim do the work, and trying to fight more than two guards at once usually ends in a game over. Tip: tell your kid to play the VR Training missions from the main menu first. They take ten minutes and teach you how the radar, footsteps, and chokeholds work before the story throws you into the deep end.

How do you get Meryl's Codec frequency if you don't have the physical 1998 CD case?

Midway through the game, you're told to look at the back of the CD case to find Meryl's radio number. If you're playing the Master Collection, you can view the 3D box art inside the game's launcher menu. Or just save yourself five minutes: the frequency is 140.15.

Metal Gear Solid – WISE Score & Parent Review

Name: Screenwise
Author: Screenwise

Where to Play

PlayStation

Screenwise Verdict

Metal Gear Solid is one of the most important video games ever made, and playing it in 2026 feels a bit like watching Citizen Kane with a 13-year-old: the craft is undeniable, the fingerprints are on everything that came after, and there is a solid 40% chance they complain about how it looks and moves in the first twenty minutes.

If you have a kid who actually cares about how games work—maybe they love Solid Snake from Super Smash Bros., or they're into game design—this is essential homework that is still wildly entertaining once it clicks. Creator Hideo Kojima stuffed a rigid military stealth game with absurd, playful ideas: hiding under cardboard boxes, guards getting distracted by footprints in the snow, and a boss fight you literally cannot win unless you physically move your controller to Player 2's port.

Don't let the M rating scare you off for a middle schooler. In 1998, "Mature" meant blocky red polygons, a cyborg ninja slicing through a hallway off-camera, and some PG-13 action-movie flirting. The real barrier here is mechanical age, not moral panic. Sit on the couch with them for the opening dock sequence and the Psycho Mantis fight, help them figure out how the radar works, and enjoy a wildly ambitious piece of 90s art.

Age Fit

Great for patient teens and gaming-curious 12-to-14-year-olds who appreciate video game history or weird, clever mechanics. Younger kids won't be traumatized by the faceless, Lego-brick PS1 gore, they'll just get frustrated by the stiff controls and 15-minute radio lectures on nuclear treaties.

WISE Breakdown

Wholesome

74

Despite its M-rated spy-thriller trappings, the game carries a fiercely anti-war, anti-nuclear proliferation heart and rewards non-lethal stealth over mindless killing. Lowered slightly for late-90s action movie sleaze, violent set pieces, and heavy themes of trauma.

Imaginative

96

A landmark of video game creativity. Hideo Kojima's fourth-wall-breaking mechanics (checking the physical game case for a radio frequency, unplugging the controller to beat a psychic boss, hiding in cardboard boxes) remain genuinely brilliant decades later.

Safe

92

A pure single-player, offline experience from 1998. Zero microtransactions, loot boxes, live-service hooks, or chat rooms. The content is M-rated for blood, gun violence, and torture sequences, though the blocky PS1 graphics soften the visual impact considerably.

Enriching

88

Demands patience, spatial reasoning, and tactical observation rather than twitch reflexes. The narrative tackles nuclear deterrence, genetic determinism, and the ethics of soldiering with surprising weight, mixed with campy B-movie fun.

Parent Info

✓

Why It Might Be Great

Fourth-wall-breaking brilliance that treats the player like a clever conspirator, famously requiring you to look at the back of the game box for a radio code and switch controller ports mid-fight to stop Psycho Mantis from reading your inputs.
Patience beats twitch reflexes, as the top-down stealth gameplay punishes running and gunning, forcing players to watch patrol patterns, manage footsteps in the snow, and plan routes.
Anti-war themes with real teeth, using a campy spy thriller framework to deliver a surprisingly earnest history lesson on nuclear stockpiles, Cold War fallout, and genetic determinism.
Complete, finite design from 1998 with a clear beginning, middle, and end in about 11 hours, completely free of battle passes, cosmetic shops, or algorithmic hooks.

⚠

What to Watch For

1998 control jank is the biggest hurdle for a modern kid; aiming guns without a modern twin-stick setup feels stiff, and the fixed overhead camera takes real getting used to.
An interactive torture sequence midway through the game forces the player to mash a button to survive electrocution, with a major character dying permanently if you give up.
90s action-movie horniness, where Solid Snake flirts aggressively over the radio with his support team and stares at Meryl's blocky polygons, playing like a teenage boy's idea of James Bond.
Long Codec conversations mean the gameplay stops frequently for 10-minute radio calls about military history and philosophy, which will bore kids who only want action.

Conversation Starters

"What did you think when Psycho Mantis started reading your memory card and moving the controller?"
"The game punishes you for getting into gunfights and rewards sneaking past people. Do you like playing that way, or is it frustrating?"
"Snake and the villains talk a lot about whether genes decide who you are. Did you buy their argument at the end?"
"How does playing a blockbuster game from 1998 feel compared to how games control now?"

Deep Dive

The Smash Bros. Pipeline

When a kid asks about Metal Gear Solid today, it is almost always because they main Snake in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, or they saw a meme of a guard with an exclamation point over his head (!) accompanied by that iconic brass sting.

If they boot up the original 1998 PlayStation version (readily available on modern consoles via the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1), they are in for a culture shock. Characters don't have eyeballs—just moody pixel smudges on blocky faces. You can't move and shoot at the same time without holding down a weird claw-grip button combination. The camera stays locked above Snake's head unless you press your back flat against a wall.

Give it an hour, though, and the game's brilliance cuts right through the PS1 fog. The Shadow Moses facility is built like a dense puzzle box. Every room has a clear rule set: cameras have vision cones, chaff grenades jam electronics, and stepping in a puddle makes a splash that alerts the guard ten feet away. Unlike sprawling modern open-world games where stealth is optional and messy, Metal Gear Solid is tight, arcade-like, and deliberate.

How to Play It Without Getting Stuck on 1998 Puzzles

Kojima loved blending the physical world with the digital one, which created a few famous roadblocks if you are playing a digital download in 2026:

The CD Case Frequency: About halfway through, a character tells you to contact Meryl, adding that her Codec frequency is "on the back of the CD case." In 1998, you looked at the physical plastic case in your hands and saw a screenshot showing frequency 140.15. In the modern Master Collection, you have to open the digital manual menu to inspect the virtual box art—or just tell your kid the number so they don't wander around for an hour.
The Psycho Mantis Fight: Mantis reads your "mind" (your controller inputs), dodging every bullet you fire. To beat him, the game wants you to switch your controller from Port 1 to Port 2. On modern consoles, the Master Collection lets you press L1+R1 to open an emulator menu and reassign your virtual controller slot.

Serious Politics, Goofy Delivery

The tone of Metal Gear Solid swings wildly between dead-serious geopolitical thriller and total camp, and that friction is why people still love it. One minute Snake is listening to a somber monologue about the real-world Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START II) or the mistreatment of Gulf War veterans; the next minute he's fighting a shirtless man named Vulcan Raven who carries a giant minigun attached to an M1 Abrams tank cannon, or hiding from wolves by equipping a handkerchief that belonged to a woman the wolves like.

It treats the player like an adult capable of following complex history, while never forgetting that it's a video game meant to be played with.

What Parents Ask

Ask Anything

Get a personalized guide on any topic

Writing about Metal Gear Solid? Put this WISE score on your site