Jotari
Smash Journeyman
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2015
- Messages
- 419
So, it's something that I've heard for about fifteen years now. Snake doesn't use a gun in Super Smash Bros because the censors wouldn't allow it at a teen rating. This is often said to point fun at the fact that he has a bunch of explosives which are way more dangerous and lethal, but he doesn't get to carry a simple handgun. However, recently, I've begun questioning the axiom. Is it even true at all that Snake doesn't use a gun because of censorship. After all, since Brawl Bayonetta and Joker have used guns in Smash Bros. to no I'll effects. There are mitigating lore circumstances about those guns, but, really, I don't think anyone working in an age rating office is seriously going to care that Bayonetta's gun was created by a demon or that Joker gaslights people into thinking he has a fire arm. They're only going to care if it shoots and kills things in a graphic way.
So, I ask this, is there any offical statement made anywhere explaining why Snake doesn't have a gun in Smash Bros.? Is this piece of trivia with no basis in fact that people have been passing around since 2008 or did an actual developer claim it? And, if Snake's lack of guns has nothing to do with censorship, why might he lack a gun? I have two theories, one I feel more strongly for than the other.
The first is actually copy right. Not Konami's copyright but the actual weapons themselves. Because Snake actually uses real guns. Not realistic guns, but actual real guns that exist in real life and modeled to look like their real life counterparts. At least, as far as I've been informed (I'm about as far from a gun nut as a person can be). Those weapons might be under copyright and might require additional cost to be in a game, a cost an MGS producer is willing to pay for the sake of verisimilitude in a Metal Gear game, but not something a Nintendo producer is willing to pay when they already have to fork out cash for Snake to appear at all. What makes this slightly less likely is that this should also be true for all the explosive weapons he actually does use in the game, unless they can be passed off as generic enough while his distinctive looking Socom Pistol couldn't be?
The other, I think, more likely reason Snake doesn't use any guns in his moveset is because it would just...kind of suck if he did. Snake is far from the only character missing iconic attacks, and if we look into it, it's not particularly special. Further more if we think about what it would actually look like if Snake had a gun, we'd see it would kind of be superfluous. He already as the Nikita and and Grenades as projectiles, what could a gun even bring to his moveset? He would have to either shoot it like Fox, low range damage with no knockback, or like Falco, lowish fire rate but with significant stun. Neither of which would really reflect how guns are used in Metal Gear, these two methods, incidentally, are how Bayonetta and Joker's gun attacks function, though those characters have some more stylistic flash and angles to fire at that wouldn't look quite as right on Snake, but the dichotomy of power vs rate of fire remains true. In other words, if we added a gun to Snake's moveset it would really add nothing functionally he doesn't already do more interestingly with his Nikita missiles and grenades. At the very best it would replace Grenades as a more spammy option that would just make him less fun to play.
The other possibility would be what Project M did and give him his tranquilizer gun. But that might have been a bit too gimmicky an idea that they didn't think of. If Snake were to get a gun though, that is the kind of gun I'd prefer as it is a more interesting attack and actually is just as big a part of Metal Gear games.
Anyway, that's just my theory. The reason Snake doesn't have a gun in his moveset has nothing to do with violence and is more about how his moveset functions as a whole.
So, I ask this, is there any offical statement made anywhere explaining why Snake doesn't have a gun in Smash Bros.? Is this piece of trivia with no basis in fact that people have been passing around since 2008 or did an actual developer claim it? And, if Snake's lack of guns has nothing to do with censorship, why might he lack a gun? I have two theories, one I feel more strongly for than the other.
The first is actually copy right. Not Konami's copyright but the actual weapons themselves. Because Snake actually uses real guns. Not realistic guns, but actual real guns that exist in real life and modeled to look like their real life counterparts. At least, as far as I've been informed (I'm about as far from a gun nut as a person can be). Those weapons might be under copyright and might require additional cost to be in a game, a cost an MGS producer is willing to pay for the sake of verisimilitude in a Metal Gear game, but not something a Nintendo producer is willing to pay when they already have to fork out cash for Snake to appear at all. What makes this slightly less likely is that this should also be true for all the explosive weapons he actually does use in the game, unless they can be passed off as generic enough while his distinctive looking Socom Pistol couldn't be?
The other, I think, more likely reason Snake doesn't use any guns in his moveset is because it would just...kind of suck if he did. Snake is far from the only character missing iconic attacks, and if we look into it, it's not particularly special. Further more if we think about what it would actually look like if Snake had a gun, we'd see it would kind of be superfluous. He already as the Nikita and and Grenades as projectiles, what could a gun even bring to his moveset? He would have to either shoot it like Fox, low range damage with no knockback, or like Falco, lowish fire rate but with significant stun. Neither of which would really reflect how guns are used in Metal Gear, these two methods, incidentally, are how Bayonetta and Joker's gun attacks function, though those characters have some more stylistic flash and angles to fire at that wouldn't look quite as right on Snake, but the dichotomy of power vs rate of fire remains true. In other words, if we added a gun to Snake's moveset it would really add nothing functionally he doesn't already do more interestingly with his Nikita missiles and grenades. At the very best it would replace Grenades as a more spammy option that would just make him less fun to play.
The other possibility would be what Project M did and give him his tranquilizer gun. But that might have been a bit too gimmicky an idea that they didn't think of. If Snake were to get a gun though, that is the kind of gun I'd prefer as it is a more interesting attack and actually is just as big a part of Metal Gear games.
Anyway, that's just my theory. The reason Snake doesn't have a gun in his moveset has nothing to do with violence and is more about how his moveset functions as a whole.
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