History WhatCouldHaveBeen / MetalGear

** The original plan to use digitized characters on a polygonal environments in a matter similar to ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' or Konami's own ''VideoGame/LethalEnforcers'', but Kojima discarded the idea when he was unable to get Creator/JeanClaudeVanDamme to play Snake.

** Psycho Mantis was going to be capable of detecting save files from popular non-Konami titles such as ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' and ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil1'', but Konami turned down this idea as it was seen as free promotion from rival publishers.

** The original target platform was the UsefulNotes/ThreeDOInteractiveMultiplayer and work was already being done on that version until the great Hanshin earthquake of 1995 halted progress and Kojima's team lost most of their work. When development resumed in 1996, the [=3DO=] was already seen as a failed console and the [=PlayStation=] was clearly becoming the dominant game console in the market.

** Solid Snake was also going to have strings coming from his bandana. Because it was hard to animate these strings on the original UsefulNotes/PlayStation's hardware, his bandana had to be a generic headband. However, they were able to pull it off in later games (even on ''VideoGame/MetalGearGhostBabel'', since that game used sprites).

** The [=OctoCamo=] mechanic was rather toned down from their original intent - they were hoping it could mimic moving objects like running water, rather than just switching flat textures, but attempts to do so would have taken more processing power than the UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 was capable of.

** Otacon was originally planned to be an overweight black nerd, while Meryl was supposed to be [[ChildSoldiers much younger]] (around Creator/NataliePortman's age in ''Film/LeonTheProfessional''). Sniper Wolf was also conceived as a handsome young man.

** Psycho Mantis was going to be capable of detecting save files from popular non-Konami titles such as ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' and ''VideoGame/{{Resident Evil|1}}'', but Konami turned down this idea as it was seen as free promotion from rival publishers.

** The scene where Sokolov and Snake apparently [[TranslationConvention speak Russian in Japanese or English]] is a remnant from when the game was intended to have the characters ''actually'' speak Russian across the game. This was dropped because, save for Snake's Japanese actor Creator/AkioOhtsuka, the cast was unwilling to go through the effort of learning Russian for a single role.

** The game was also going to have Arsenal Gear crash into the Twin Towers, and have the Statue of Liberty be moved to a different part of NY. In the middle of the credits, it was going to show a news report of the Statue of Liberty's relocation, instead of the live-action clips of NYC. The script for the news report can be viewed in ''The Document of Metal Gear Solid 2''. It was also going to have Raiden cut the rope from an American flag and drop it on Solidus's dead body after defeating him. [[DistancedFromCurrentEvents All of these things were cut once September 11th occurred]], although most of them were reinstated eight years later with the release of the novelization.

** The original plan to use digitized characters on a polygonal environments in a matter similar to ''VideoGame/MortalKombat'' or Konami's own ''VideoGame/LethalEnforcers'', but Kojima discarded the idea when he was unable to get Creator/JeanClaudeVanDamme to play Snake.

** Early previews showed players would invade one another's Mother Base. This was changed to invading forward operating bases instead, which basically function the same way. Previews also suggested enemy forces could randomly invade in single-player, but this only happens once, as part of the FOB tutorial.
** Mother Base was shown to be much more alive in an early gameplay preview, showing things such as [=UAVs=] (which only appear in [=FOBs=] in the released game), animals on the main base platform (instead, they have their own conservation platform the player has to travel to), a gun range the player can visit (only appears as part of one cutscene), and Ocelot hanging around and saluting Snake (only appears on Mother Base outside of cutscenes as part of a tutorial mission and to tell Snake about Quiet's condition).

** Data-mining revealed various [[https://soundcloud.com/gboon/sets/skullface-interaction-noises voice clips]] for Skull Face, such as battle grunts. This implies he was supposed to enter combat at some point, though it's unclear if it was as a boss battle or as a playable character in the online mode.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'''s The End fight would have been a much longer cat-and-mouse, track-over-several days ordeal, as Kojima was inspired by an author's series of novels in which two snipers try to track each other. This was changed when it got too long and the staff ''literally booed him.''

** A beta trailer depicts Solid Snake traveling through the jungle instead of Naked Snake/Big Boss, but this was likely just a placeholder.

** ''Revengeance'' was originally going to be titled ''Metal Gear Solid: Rising'', and was set to take place between ''[=MGS2=]'' and ''[=MGS4=]''. It was also set for a UsefulNotes/PlayStationVita release as well as [=PS3=], 360, and PC. But when Kojima couldn't get the gameplay to work just right, development was continued by Platinum Games, who switched to a story set four years after the events of ''[=MGS4=]'', about Raiden coming to terms with his past and reverting back to his "Jack the Ripper" persona. Also, the PS Vita version has been cancelled.

** There have been many reports that a lot of the more story focused audio files that you receive were meant to be fully animated cutscenes that were never completed due to time and money.

** Psycho Mantis was originally capable of detecting save files from popular non-Konami titles such as ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' and ''VideoGame/{{Resident Evil|1}}'', but Konami turned down this idea.

** The Red Band trailer shows various scenes that were never shown in the final game, including several shots of child soldiers being trained by adults in Central Africa, and a prisoner being tortured and killed at Camp Omega from ''Ground Zeroes''. Rumor has it that Camp Omega was going to be accessible for those who imported data from ''Ground Zeroes''.

** The Red Band trailer shows various scenes that were never shown in the final game, including several shots of child soldiers being trained by adults in Central Africa and a prisoner being tortured and killed at Camp Omega from ''Ground Zeroes''.

** The original plan to use digitized characters on a polygonal environments in a matter similar to ''VideoGame/MortalKombat'' or Konami's own ''VideoGame/LethalEnforcers'', but Kojima discarded the idea when he was unable to get Jean-Claude Van-Damme to play Snake.
** Gameplay-wise, the game was originally going to have a lot of the features that ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' had such as dragging bodies and hiding in lockers but weren't implemented in the final version. It was also going to have music that would change throughout different areas.
** Otacon was originally planned to be an overweight black nerd, while Meryl was supposed to be a lot much younger (around Natalie Portman's age in ''Film/LeonTheProfessional''). Sniper Wolf was also conceived as a handsome young man.

*** Under the same reasons as above, it was also intended for Liquid Ocelot to crash Arsenal Gear into Manhattan, and that Vamp explicitly state that Dead Cell intended to launch the nuke directly at Manhattan instead of letting Solidus black out Manhattan via an EMP wave, but were cut (although it too was retained in the novelization).

** Decoy Octopus was said to have a battle planned similar to Laughing Octopus in ''VideoGame/{{Metal Gear Solid 4|Guns Of The Patriots}}''. Also, Sniper Wolf was originally conceived as a male character before a re-imagining as female. Concept art still exists of her original design.

** The game itself was to be developed for the UsefulNotes/ThreeDOInteractiveMultiplayer as ''Metal Gear 3''.

** The game was also going to have Arsenal Gear crash into the Twin Towers, and have the Statue of Liberty be moved to a different part of NY. In the middle of the credits, it was going to show a news report of the Statue of Liberty's relocation, instead of the live-action clips of NYC. The script for the news report can be viewed in ''The Document of Metal Gear Solid 2''. It was also going to have Raiden cut the rope from an American flag and drop it on Solidus's dead body after defeating him. All of these things were cut [[TooSoon once September 11th occurred]], although most of them were reinstated eight years later with the release of the novelization.