Hideo Kojima didn’t directly work on Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, but his DNA still haunts the entire game, and it wouldn’t be a Kojima-related game without a series of secrets and Easter eggs memorable enough to justify a playthrough. Let’s hunt them all.
Guy Savage and Snake vs. Monkey
Even if you don’t consider the original or the remake the best game in the series, there’s no denying its crown when it comes to minigames. The most famous one of the bunch is Snake vs Monkey, which sees Snake using his sneaking abilities to catch not monkeys, but apes, in the closest we’ll probably ever get to an Ape Escape video game in the current gen.
In the Xbox version of Delta, Snake will face off against Bomberman instead of the Apes, but the game remains the same. The original MGS3 required players to beat the game’s story mode to unlock this mini game, but MGS Delta has it accessible right from the start.
The other mini game, however, is trickier to unlock. You can play Guy Savage, an original Devil May Cry-inspired hack-and-slash mini game, by saving and reloading when Snake is in prison in Groznyj Grad, or after beating the story mode.
Konami Code
The famed Konami Code has been a staple in most of Konami’s games. Delta doesn’t break the mold, but there’s a twist.
During The End’s boss fight in the original MGS3, inputting Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, Square, and Triangle would reveal his position on the map. Delta, however, just scolds players for cheating. Luckily, many of the Easter eggs remain.
The many ways to mess with The End
Hideo Kojima initially wanted to make the fight against The End something akin to a real-life sniper encounter, a mandatory weeklong affair that would prove the most infamously difficult battle ever. This boss fight ended up much easier than Kojima had originally envisioned, and it can be even easier because there are so many ways to break The End entirely:
Players can use the sniper rifle to shoot him in the head when he’s being carried in his wheelchair into the warehouse before the fight.
Or, move the system clock seven days into the future to cause him to die from old age. Alternatively, players can save while fighting The End, then only come back to their save a week later. Just be warned that saving and loading that file before 7 days have passed will cause The End to sneak up on Snake and capture him.
Alternatively, players can shoot The End’s pet parrot, which will cause the fight to become more difficult.
Boss secrets
Some other bosses in the game also feature alternative ways to beat, like The Fear, which can be defeated through the power of spoiled food.
The Sorrow’s entire boss encounter is an Easter egg of sorts, one which works as a commentary on Snake’s misdeeds. Every enemy that Snake encounters in that battle is an enemy Snake has killed. Going on a non-lethal run will shorten the encounter, as no ghosts will spawn.
Volgin makes for one of the toughest boss battles in the game, but players can use a cold tactic to gain the upper hand. By seeing Snake disguised as Raikov, Volgin’s lover, Volgin will be stunned in mourning and leave himself open to attack.
Snake’s secrets
There are secret frequencies players can call to stop the alarm. Just interrogate the guards until they spill the beans on their area’s code.
For some reason, players can have Snake puking just out of malice. Just open the cure menu and use your analog stick to spin Snake around for a while. No, this is not a joke, and spinning Snake over a dozen times will probably cause him to puke in-game once you leave the menu.
Eva’s Easter eggs
By the end of the game, we learn that Eva was secretly loyal to a then still-undisclosed party. Players can’t learn about her true allegiance during the game, but there are a few Easter eggs pointing to her not being who she says she is.
Putting Eva to sleep with a tranquilizer will have her talking about Snake in a pretty suggestive manner.
If players try to interrogate Eva by the end of the game, she’ll give players a CONTRA code. What can this mean?
The game features photos of Huey Emmerich, the father of Hal “Otacon” Emmerich, and the creator of the original Metal Gear. These references didn’t exist in the original MGS3, as Huey was only created for MGSV.
There are countless references to Raiden, the infamous main character from the second part of Metal Gear Solid 2, and most of them are pretty hilarious. Players can find the first one by stating they “Like MGS2” in the menu right before the start of the game.
Secret cutscenes
Snake can enter first-person view and allow players to witness secret details during some cutscenes. Enter first-person by pressing R1 when:
- The Boss leaves on horseback to get the Nuke
- As Ocelot exits the torture room
- As Snake says, “it’s finally over”, after beating Volgin
- When The Boss’s horse reacts to her death
- In the ending cutscene, when Snake is offered a handshake, and when Snake salutes The Boss’s grave
Time paradoxes
Hideo Kojima is a careful guardian of the timeline. Players who dare interfere with it by, for example, killing characters they know will be alive in the future MGS chronology, be warned. This will result in a specific mission failure message that will then morph into the message “Time Paradox” on the screen. Do not mess with the timeline, Snake.
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