Metal Gear Solid: Rising was secretly cancelled

Metal Gear Solid: Rising was not to be heard from again until this weekend, when the game was re-revealed at the Spike Video Game Awards with a new trailer. Or was it? It looked pretty drastically different from what we had already seen. Sure, Raiden was there with his sword, but the action was insane. More along the lines of Bayonetta than Metal Gear Solid.

It had been quite some time since anyone had heard anything about Metal Gear Solid: Rising, the action game staring Raiden from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. It was announced at the same time as Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, and that game has been out for a year and a half. Rising was even suspiciously absent from E3 this year, after appearing in trailer form at last year's E3.

Metal Gear Solid: Rising was not to be heard from again until this weekend, when the game was re-revealed at the Spike Video Game Awards with a new trailer. Or was it? It looked pretty drastically different from what we had already seen. Sure, Raiden was there with his sword, but the action was insane. More along the lines of Bayonetta than Metal Gear Solid.

It turns out that the newly-renamed Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance isn't really Metal Gear Solid: Rising at all. Series creation Hideo Kojima was unhappy with the way Solid: Rising was going, so the game was actually cancelled outright. Members of Platinum Games, the studio behind last years Bayonetta and Vanquish, expressed interest in making the game instead, so that's exactly what happened. Solid: Rising was meant to fill in the gap in Raiden's story between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4. Rising: Revengeance, however, takes place after Metal Gear Solid 4. The title was changed and "Solid" was removed because Rising is not a proper sequel to the Metal Gear Solid series. Whether this is just referring to the style of gameplay, or if it means the game is a stand-alone title with no bearing on the Metal Gear Solid story, remains to be seen.

Staff article by Rhody Tobin (December 12, 2011) Rhody likes to press the keys on his keyboard. Sometimes the resulting letters form strings of words that kind of make sense when you think about them for a moment. Most times they're just random gibberish that should be ignored. Ball-peen wobble glurk.