Big Boss | |
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Metal Gear series character | |
File:Big Boss (Metal Gear).jpg Big Boss was illustrated in Metal Gear Solid by Yoji Shinkawa. Although the character never actually appeared in the game, this illustration is used in the instruction manual and other official publications. | |
First game | Metal Gear |
Created by | Hideo Kojima |
Big Boss (ビッグ・ボス, Biggu Bosu) is a central character in the Metal Gear series,[1] reputed to be "The Greatest Warrior of the Twentieth Century."[2] He is introduced in the original Metal Gear as Solid Snake's commanding officer, but turns out to be the enemy leader and he returns as an antagonist in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. His legacy and relationship with Solid Snake (who is revealed to be his clone) plays an important role in Metal Gear Solid and its sequels, and appears as the protagonist in the prequels Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops under the identity of Naked Snake (ネイキッド・スネーク, Neikiddo Sunēku).
As Naked Snake, the character is voiced by the same voice actor who plays Solid Snake: David Hayter in English versions and Akio Ōtsuka in Japanese. In his appearance in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Big Boss is voiced by Chikao Ōtsuka (Akio's father) in Japanese and Richard Doyle in English.
Fictional character biography
Big Boss first appears in the original Metal Gear as the leader of the Special Forces Unit FOXHOUND and Solid Snake's commanding officer, initially acting as a radio contact who provides Snake with information about mission objectives, as well as weapons and equipment.[3][4]
However, near the end of the game as Snake approaches the final base where Metal Gear is stored, Big Boss begins to give misleading advice to the player, eventually asking Snake to abort his mission by "switching off the MSX". After Metal Gear is destroyed, Big Boss exposes himself as the leader of the Outer Heaven militia at the base's escape route and confronts Snake in a final battle with the base self-destruct mechanism counting down. After the ending credits, a message from Big Boss is displayed swearing revenge against Snake.
Big Boss returns in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. He is revealed to have survived his battle with Snake in Outer Heaven, and has since taken control of another fortified nation in Central Asia - Zanzibar Land. This time, he establishes a military force along with his trusted lieutenant, Gray Fox, and commissions the development of a new Metal Gear model, Metal Gear D. After Snake destroys Metal Gear D and defeats Gray Fox, he confronts Big Boss once again while escaping from the Zanzibar Land detention camp. With all of Snake's weapons lost during the prior fight with Fox, the player is forced to resort to a more clever way of fighting Big Boss (by collecting a lighter and an aerosol can which Snake can combine to make a flamethrower). Like many characters in the game, Big Boss was designed to resemble a celebrity figure; in this case, Sean Connery.[5]
Despite his apparent death, Big Boss's presence figures prominently in Metal Gear Solid and its subsequent sequels, where Solid Snake is revealed to be a genetically-altered clone of Big Boss, created from a secret government project known as Les Enfants Terribles (The Terrible Children) along with two other clones: Liquid Snake, the leader of FOXHOUND and the antagonist in Metal Gear Solid; and Solidus Snake, the U.S. President during the events of Metal Gear Solid and the antagonist in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. The Genome Army that Snake faces in Metal Gear Solid are also genetically altered soldiers who were implanted with Big Boss's genes after his body was recovered. Big Boss's remains are part of the terrorists' demands in Metal Gear Solid, who call themselves the "Sons of Big Boss."
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/90/Naked_Snake.jpg/220px-Naked_Snake.jpg)
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, a prequel to the entire Metal Gear series set in 1964, introduces a young Big Boss as a former Green Beret codenamed Naked Snake (the player's character in the game), following up on the revelation that Solid Snake is Big Boss's clone. In the prologue sequence of the game, Naked Snake, a member of the newly-formed special forces unit FOX (a precursor to FOXHOUND), is given orders to infiltrate the fictional Soviet region of Tselinoyarsk and extract a defecting Russian scientist named Sokolov. After rescuing Sokolov, he is confronted by his mentor, The Boss, who defects to the Soviet Union and defeats Snake. In the main portion of the game, he is sent on a follow-up mission called "Operation: Snake Eater", with the objective to assassinate The Boss; as well as her new benefactor, Colonel Volgin; and destroy the secret Soviet weapon Shagohod. In the end, Snake fulfills his mission and is awarded the title of Big Boss by President Johnson, only to learn the true nature of The Boss's defection from a recorded confession left by EVA, a female spy he worked with during the story. Realising the truth of The Boss' defection left Big Boss distraught and demoralized, leading to Big Boss and many other members of the FOX unit to carry on The Boss' vision of united world.
Naked Snake is virtually identical to Solid Snake from the previous Metal Gear Solid games in terms of appearance, wearing a similar bandanna during Operation: Snake Eater. He loses his right eye from a muzzle flash burn caused by a young Ocelot and begins to wear his characteristic eye patch late in the game. His primary outfit is a battle dress uniform with changeable camouflage patterns, although he gets to wear a Soviet prototype of the sneaking suit introduced in Metal Gear Solid as well.
Set six years after the events of Snake Eater, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops features Naked Snake once again as the main character. In this game, Naked Snake wears a "CQC Enhancer" suit, the uniform of the FOX unit. Although already awarded the title of Big Boss, he prefers to be addressed by his former codename in the game. Snake finds himself involved in an armed uprising caused by the FOX unit (now led by Gene) in the fictional San Hieronymo peninsula in Colombia and learns that he has been convicted for instigating the revolt. Hoping to clear up his name, Snake forms his own team of specialists by recruiting both old allies and defecting enemy soldiers to his cause. He faces not only the members of the FOX unit, but also ICBMG, the first built Metal Gear prototype. He defeats Gene and obtains the fund for "Army's Heaven", a precursor to Big Boss's own Outer Heaven.
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots alters the established story of the previous games as it is revealed that Big Boss survived his battle with Solid Snake in Metal Gear 2 and was kept in an artificially-induced coma, in which he remained for 15 years. He appears in a scene after the final voice casting credits, as a final twist in the story, along with a now catatonic Zero, the founder of The Patriots, an organization which Big Boss co-founded with him. Big Boss makes peace with Solid Snake before he euthanizes Zero and then dies at the grave of The Boss after exposure to the new FOXDIE strain implanted in Solid Snake. In his last moments, he sorrowfully tells Solid Snake that the day he killed The Boss, he was already dead and tells Snake to find a new lease on life, and not to waste his last days fighting.
Metal Gear Solid 4 marks the 3D debut of Big Boss in his aged form from the early Metal Gear games, as well as his first voiced appearance in this design. He also appears wielding the Patriot rifle used by The Boss in Snake Eater. Other than his appearances as Naked Snake in the prequels, Big Boss's visage was only visible in the Metal Gear Solid games through Yoji Shinkawa's character illustrations in publications and cut scenes in the games.
Concept and creation
When Metal Gear was released for the NES in North America and Europe, the plot within the actual game itself remained unchanged. However, the instruction manual features a different version of the story that strays from the canonical version and gives a more satirical depiction of the game (as with most of Konami's American manuals at the time). The leader of Outer Heaven is mentioned to be a so-called "Vermon CaTaffy", a play on Muammar al-Gaddafi, who is described in the manual as a "once tranquil shepherd boy who turned to terrorism". Big Boss is never mentioned by name in the manual either: instead a character called "Commander South" is described as Snake's commanding officer.
Snake's Revenge, a non-canonical sequel to the NES version of Metal Gear released only in North America and Europe, features Big Boss as the final boss before the player's confrontation with "Metal Gear 2". He attacks Snake as a regular man, before transforming into a tall cyborg after sustaining damage. Like in the first NES game, the game's manual names a character other than Big Boss as the main antagonist: in this case, the apparent villain is "Higharolla Kockamamie" (a parody of Ayatollah Khomeini), an ally of Vermon CaTaffy from the first game's manual.
Backstory
Much of Big Boss's established back story has been revised through the course of the Metal Gear series. In the original Metal Gear, Big Boss is characterized as having served Green Berets, SAS, and GSG-9 prior to serving as the commander of FOXHOUND.[3][6] The character portrait in the Japanese manual for the original MSX2 game depicts Big Boss wearing his eye patch over his left eye. However, the character's sprite in the game depicts the eye patch over his right eye. All subsequent depictions of Big Boss features the eye patch on his right eye. Big Boss's military career is further fleshed out in Metal Gear 2. He is revealed to had served the LRRP during the Vietnam War, followed by SOG and the Wild Geese, before losing his eye in the 1980s and becoming FOXHOUND's commander in the 1990s.[4][7] According to Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2, Big Boss was in his seventies during the events of Metal Gear 2 and his clones were created back when he was in his fifties during the 1970s (the exact year is specified 1972 in Metal Gear Solid 3).
Much of Big Boss's established past would be revised in Metal Gear Solid 3. Big Boss is in his late-twenties to early-thirties in the game, which is set in 1964, making Big Boss a decade younger than previously stated. He loses his eye during the course of the game to Ocelot, contradicting earlier statements of Big Boss having lost his eye during the 1980s. Additionally, the end of the game alludes to Big Boss forming FOXHOUND in 1971 (an event later depicted in Portable Ops), contradicting FOXHOUND's formation during the 1990s in earlier games.
Reception
Computerworld named Big Boss as one of the most creative "badass villains" in video games, citing the complexity of his betrayal of Solid Snake, fueled by Snake being his genetic heir.[8]
References
- ^ "Snakes and Gears: A Metal Gear Overview," Game Informer 182 (June 2008): 106.
- ^ Jeremy Parish, “Snake (Big Boss),” Electronic Gaming Monthly 225 (January 2008): 93.
- ^ a b "Metal Gear MSX2 version, instruction manual" (in Japanese). Konami. 1987.
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- ^ Gagne, Ken. You can run, but you'll only die tired: Gaming's 'baddest' villains. Computerworld. Retrieved on 2008-09-16