As most Hideo Kojima fans know, the legendary Metal Gear creator loves movies. Other than pictures of food, the designer often Tweets about his favorite films and how they’ve influenced parts of his own creations. Recently, he revealed that the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 5 – which is split up into Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain – almost had a 1980’s movie filter inspired by Rush.
What stopped it from happening? According to Kojima, it was just too much for the engine to take without slowing down.
“Rush had very 70's texture & tone of film. In fact we studied '80s image & developed ‘80's filter’ for MGSV as TPP is placed in 1984,” he wrote. “But when we actually implemented full screen effect, it was too heavy that slowed the system down so we had to take it out.”
It would have been a pretty unique touch, but if Kojima had to cut it, he had to cut it.
It’s likely that this move would have been controversial, as everything related to this fan-favorite franchise seems to draw the ire of the gaming community. Recently, it was revealed that Ground Zeroes can be completed in about two hours, causing an eruption of complaints from those looking for more bang for their buck.