Solid Snake

About Solid Snake

Solid Snake (ソリッド・スネーク, Soriddo Sunēku?) is the protagonist of the Metal Gear series of video games by Konami. Introduced in the 1987 video game Metal Gear and created by series creator Hideo Kojima, Solid Snake is a combination spy, special operations agent, and mercenary who works for FOXHOUND, a fictional black ops and espionage unit, and Philanthropy in later games. He is repeatedly tasked with disarming and destroying the latest incarnation of Metal Gear, a bipedal, nuclear-weapon-armed mecha. He is voiced in the Japanese- and English language-language releases of the games by seiyū Akio Ōtsuka and actor/screenwriter David Hayter, respectively.

Controlled by the player, Solid Snake must act alone, supported via radio by commanding officers and specialists. He enters armed only with a two-way radio (the "codec" in later games), binoculars, and a pack of cigarettes. All additional equipment must be acquired (such as weapons, rations, or his signature cardboard box disguise) on site.

Metal Gear, initially released in 1987 on the MSX2 home computer and later ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System, introduces Solid Snake, the rookie recruit of the elite special-forces unit FOXHOUND. Snake is sent by team leader Big Boss into the rogue nation Outer Heaven to rescue his missing teammate Gray Fox and discover who or what the "METAL GEAR" mentioned in Gray Fox's last transmission is. After rescuing a member of the resistance, Snake discovers that he has been set up; the leader of Outer Heaven is actually Big Boss, who intends to use Metal Gear—an experimental, nuclear-armed mecha—to establish Outer Heaven as a nuclear power. After destroying the Metal Gear itself, he then confronts Big Boss and defeats him.