Now you can take the role of Snake on your iPhone, in the shape of Metal Gear Solid Touch.
Porting a console blockbuster to a mobile device has always been a notoriously hit and miss - though mainly 'miss', it has to be said. So, I was unsure what to expect from Metal Gear Solid Touch, which brings one of the greatest first-person shooters of all time to the iPhone.
This special version of Metal Gear Solid 4 has been optimized for use on the touchscreen device. Konami has removed the ability to walk around in the game, and instead you play from a fixed position behind a barrier. Targets appear and you must bob up and down from your hiding place to shoot them and avoid getting hit yourself. In this sense, Metal Gear Solid Touch plays a lot more like Time Crisis than it does its console forefather.
Moving around
Though purists may scoff at Metal Gear Solid Touch's format, I thought it actually suits the iPhone very well. Pointing and shooting is pretty easy once you've got the hang of it. You move the target sight just by dragging your finger around anywhere on the iPhone's surface (so you don't have to obscure your view of the action) and shoot by tapping the screen. To reach the enemies that are a bit further away you simply pinch the screen to switch to sniper rifle mode and zoom in on them.
The graphics and sounds in Metal Gear Solid Touch are mightily impressive and at times it's almost as if you were sat playing your XBox. The cut scenes are very well drawn too.
This Lite version of Metal Gear Solid Touch only contains three levels and, in truth, it won't take you that long to finish them. But it does give you a good taster of the full game and demonstrates how a large and complex console game can be adapted to suit a touchscreen device.
Fans of the original may find the format of Metal Gear Solid Touch somewhat restrictive. Others will argue that this is a stylish reworking of an all-time classic.
