are the mecha in the Metal Gear series.Jeremy Parish, “Metal Gear,” Electronic Gaming Monthly 225 (January 2008): 93."Snakes and Gears: A Metal Gear Overview," Game Informer 182 (June 2008): 107. In the series, a Metal Gear is a bipedal, nuclear weapons-equipped tank. The Metal Gears are typically autonomous nuclear launch platforms which the player must destroy to save the world and complete the game. Often, confronting the latest Metal Gear model is one of the final challenges of each game.
Concept and creation
Hideo Kojima said that the idea of the "Metal Gear" weapon, a nuclear-capable walking tank, was conceived in response to the nuclear war hysteria during the 1980s that resulted from the Cold War as the U.S. military had no mobile land-based nuclear weapons delivery system at the time.
However, in reality this was not the case as the U.S. had significant amounts of various mobile, land based nuclear delivery systems since at least the early 1950s. In fact the start of the 1980s alone saw the deployment of two separate mobile systems that would make up the bulk of America's land-based nuclear component in Europe: the Pershing II and the BGM-109G Ground Launched Cruise Missile.
In video games The Metal Gear weapon has been consistently described as an all-terrain, nuclear-equipped, walking battle tank capable of launching a nuclear warhead from anywhere on the planet. In the original Metal Gear, the Outer Heaven fortified military state attempts to achieve military dominance over the West and East through the use of the TX-55 Metal Gear model built by Eastern scientist Dr. Drago Pettrovich Madnar after being forced against his will. In Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, another hostile nation Zanzibar Land uses improved model Metal Gear D (also built by Dr. Madnar albeit willingly this time) to raid nuclear disposal sites.
Metal Gear Solid features a new model Metal Gear REX designed by Dr. Hal Emmerich after being misled into believing that Metal Gear would be used as an anti-nuclear device that would be capable of safely shooting down nuclear missiles via a railgun system that shoots nuclear warheads. The weapon was produced by the U.S. Army on Shadow Moses Island, Alaska. The proliferation of Metal Gear-like weapons led to the creation of the Marines' Metal Gear RAY before the events of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater reveals that Metal Gear's design originates with Soviet weapons designer Dr. Aleksandr Leonovitch Granin comparing the concept to the theory of the missing link between apes and men, evidenced by two design drawings (Metal Gear REX and Metal Gear D) on his desk, with him calling it the missing link between infantry and artillery. Infantry can go anywhere but are easily destroyed and carry limited firepower. Artillery can inflict and sustain far more damage, but are at the mercy of terrain. In short, for a tank to be perfect, it needs legs. Early Metal Gear models are also seen thanks to Dr. Granin's colleagues in direct sequels; Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops features the quadrupedal design Intercontinental Ballistic Metal Gear by Dr. Nikolai Stepanovich Sokolov and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker features the first bipedal design Metal Gear ZEKE by Dr. Huey Emmerich.
Models in the canonical series
Metal Gear
TX-55 Metal Gear is the Metal Gear model's designation in the original Metal Gear game, although it is simply referred as "Metal Gear" and no particular meaning is given behind this codename. Within Outer Heaven, Solid Snake learns Metal Gear's weakness after rescuing creator Dr. Pettrovich (Dr. Madnar in later versions of the game) and his daughter Ellen. The player must place a certain number of plastic explosives on Metal Gear's feet in the order stated by Dr. Pettrovich. Metal Gear is stored in the 100th basement floor of the third building, inside a room guarded by two laser cams and never actually becomes operational; the final challenge is instead a battle with Outer Heaven's mystery leader and a race against time to escape the self-destructing base.
The Revised Metal Gear D is the more advanced Metal Gear model featured in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Metal Gear D is equipped with a Vulcan cannon and a six-missile pod. The improved model was also built by Dr. Pettrovich, willingly this time after his radical ideas were rejected by the Western scientific community. The Metal Gear is piloted by Gray Fox and can only be destroyed by Solid Snake throwing grenades over its feet. This Metal Gear's mecha design was chosen through an internal contest between Konami's development staff, with the primary criterion being realism.Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake instruction manual, pg. 54 The final design is credited to Tomohiro Nishio, who also built the Metal Gear model that was used in magazine advertisements, which was repurposed from a certain retail resin kit.
The titular Metal Gear itself never actually appears in the NES conversion of the original Metal Gear - in its place the player must blow up a Supercomputer that controls its activities guarded by four enemy soldiers. Otherwise, the final battle plays out the same way as in the MSX2 original. However, the Metal Gear does make an appearance in the non-canonical sequel Snake's Revenge (that was released in the west for the NES) during the game's attract sequence after the title screen, as well as during the early portions of the game itself, in which mass-produced versions of the original (dubbed "Metal Gear 1" in the game) are stored inside an enemy cargo ship that ships from the first enemy base that the player infiltrates.
The wreckage of the original makes a cameo in Metal Gear: Ghost Babel (a non-canon spinoff for the Game Boy Color that also serves as an alternate sequel to the first game), which is set in Galuade, a rebuilt version of Outer Heaven.
Both, the TX-55 and D are referenced in later Metal Gear Solid works: the blueprints of Metal Gear D are visible on Dr. Granin's desk in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and the TX-55 is depicted in a psychic vision along with Big Boss and the three "Les Enfants Terribles" sons in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops.
Metal Gear REX Metal Gear REX is an entirely different Metal Gear model that appears in Metal Gear Solid designed by Yoji Shinkawa. Unlike previous Metal Gears, its legs are heavily armored and reinforced.
Metal Gear REX has near-impenetrable compound armor, a pair of 30 mm gatling guns,The gatling guns' caliber can be read in the machine cannon weapon description while piloting REX in Metal Gear Solid 4. anti-tank missiles, and a free-electron laser, to protect itself from conventional forces. Its primary weapon, however, is a magnetic railgun capable of delivering an untraceable nuclear warhead anywhere in the world, without the propellant trail or launch flare that gives away the launch position of a traditional ballistic missile. It also possessed a radome, a satellite antenna-shaped object on REX's left side that provides information about the environment outside of the cockpit while keeping the pilot safe from harm, and increasing the accuracy of all weapons as well. Destroying the radome is crucial to rendering the virtual reality interface useless and forcing the pilot to manually control REX. The pilot is also forced to expose himself to enemy fire, by opening the cockpit in order to see outside (a weakness deliberately built into REX as a "character flaw").
The story of Metal Gear Solid shows weapons company ArmsTech president Kenneth Baker bribes DARPA chief Donald Anderson to get covert U.S. Government funding for Metal Gear REX's development for the U.S. Army, and sends the single prototype to be tested at a nuclear weapons disposal facility on Shadow Moses Island. However, the Shadow Moses facility is taken over by rogue special forces unit FOXHOUND attempting to use REX as leverage to extort the U.S. Government. Solid Snake comes out of retirement and infiltrates the Shadow Moses facility in order to find out about REX. Liquid Snake and Revolver Ocelot intend to use REX to hold the world hostage. Later, Liquid uses REX to fight Snake. Snake, with the help of REX's lead engineer Dr. Hal Emmerich and the Cyborg Ninja, eliminates FOXHOUND and destroys the mecha.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty reveals that Metal Gear REX's battle data were sold on the black market and Metal Gear variants spread worldwide; in response, Metal Gear RAY is designed to combat these variants and render them useless.
In the prequels, Metal Gear REX is seen in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater as Dr. Aleksandr Granin's original blueprints that are shown to Naked Snake which are later stolen by Ocelot, and seen in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops in a psychic vision along with Big Boss's sons.
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots sees Old Snake sent back to Shadow Moses Island to secure the derilict Metal Gear REX, which has become Liquid Ocelot's new target. Liquid plans to remove REX's railgun to launch nuclear weapons since REX predates the SOP system and lacks their ID lockout mechanism. Arriving at the old hangar, Snake finds the damaged Metal Gear but discovers that Liquid has already removed the railgun. Later, Snake uses REX to confront Liquid piloting Metal Gear RAY. Despite RAY being developed as an anti-Metal Gear weapon and REX being damaged, Otacon reveals that REX has a "street fighter" program that was secretly uploaded to REX based on combat data that used its own hull as a weapon in itself, but was rejected by the military with no one but Otacon aware of its existence. This allowed Snake and REX to fight RAY on more equal footing and force Liquid to a stalemate; Otacon credits this to his assistance.Otacon: RAY might have been designed as a REX-killer, but you've got me on your side. Crush RAY, and Liquid with it. REX is not seen destroyed and what happened to the mecha after the battle is unknown.
Metal Gear REX, Metal Gear RAY, and a Gekko make cameo appearances in the Shadow Moses Island stage in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It also made its appearance as the final boss from LittleBigPlanet with the use of Metal Gear Solid Packs. In Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, in the Isla Del Monstruo as part of a collaboration with Capcom's Monster Hunter series, defeating both the Rathalos and the Tigrex unlocks a monster known as "Gear REX", which heavily resembles its mecha counterpart.
Metal Gear RAY
Metal Gear RAY aka AM-01 is an anti-Metal Gear introduced in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty also designed by Yoji Shinkawa. This Metal Gear model comes in two variants: a manned prototype version developed to combat Metal Gear derivatives and an unmanned, computer-controlled version refitted to defend Arsenal Gear.