Messages

1126

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Final Fantasy:Guilty Wing???

« on: March 20, 2004, 02:42:15 AM »

I haven't played Kingdom Hearts myself, so I don't know how much you may need to have played the first one.

The ony thing I know about the plot is that some people have said that it stole it's plot idea from the "Revolutionary Girl Utena" anime movie (the movie, not the TV series). So... umm... yeah. If you've seen the movie, that might say a lot. If not... well... I don't think I could describe it. So don't ask...

This link from RPGFan seems helpful.

["Kingdom Hearts 2 PS2 - GCN Final Fantasy A.C- DVD"]

1127

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Final Fantasy:Guilty Wing???

« on: March 20, 2004, 01:20:36 AM »

Here's the link to the Cube Europe article.

The bar at the bottom is pretty easy to translate, even if you don't know any Japanese, because it's using extremely-well-known words.

It clearly says "Kingdom Hearts 2 PS2 - GCN Final Fantasy A.C- DVD".

The "A.C" obviously means "Advent Children", the new movie-sequel to FF7.

So I think it's saying that KH2 is on both the PS2 and Cube (instead of PS2-exclusive, as was previously reported/assumed), and FF:AC is on DVD (which we already knew).

The bottom line with "GCN" doesn't seem to have anything to do with this "FF: Guilty Wing" that was just mentioned.

1128

TalkBack / RE: Obi's Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes Review

« on: March 19, 2004, 09:48:13 PM »

"you're overreacting"

Nah. You're just reading too much emphasis into my reaction.

1129

TalkBack / RE: Obi's Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes Review

« on: March 19, 2004, 06:45:45 PM »

I didn't think the original MGS even needed a "pause" feature in the first place (I don't have Twin Snakes yet myself). Pulling up the codec was just as good, unless you started some big long plot sequence by doing that. But you didn't (IIRC) advance the plot-reading unless you were hitting the button, most of the time.

I remember accidentally pulling up the codec somewhat often when I wanted to pause, and saying "meh, good enough" and going off to do whatever it was I was going to do.

Button combos aren't really a big deal. So many games keep using them. But they aren't as good as having dedicated buttons, which is what MGS seemed to have (most of the time). It just seems like one slightly-annoying thing which draws attention to the GameCube controller being "inferior" to the PlayStation controller in presenting this top-quality game, which makes Nintendo and the GameCube look bad. And it simply didn't have to.


Edit: Or what they SHOULD'VE done, is leave the start button solely as a "pause" button, and make the GBA your dual-use (not at the same time) codec/radar. That would be sweet. No more pulling up your codec and in the middle of a hallway and finding it perfectly normal and safe to carry on a twenty-minute conversation.

1130

TalkBack / RE: Nintendo February Sales Data

« on: March 17, 2004, 12:03:02 PM »

From the NPD thread in the GameCube forum.

- December -
PS2: 1,940,000
GCN: 1,160,000
XBox: 1,080,000
GBA-SP: 2,260,000
(note: Microsoft claimed that they outsold Nintendo by a whopping 500k units in the last two weeks of the month, which was our first indicator that Nintendo was having problems with selling out)

- January 2004 -
PS2: 338,000
Xbox: 192,000
GCN: 131,000
GBA: 299,000

- February 2004 -
PS2: 363,000
Xbox: 204,000
GCN: 137,000
GBA: 353,000
(at which point Nintendo mentioned the problem)


Edit: and in case you were wondering, the "score" so far in America is sitting at...

Cumulative Installed Base
PS2: 22,958,000
Xbox: 8,187,000
GCN: 7,133,000
GBA: 20,601,000

...with an average game ownership-per-console rate of...

PS2: 8.10
Xbox: 6.58
GCN: 6.09
GBA: 3.42

If Nintendo actually had the hardware to meet demand for all this time, they would be closing in on Microsoft's entire "million unit" American lead like it was nothing. But they're still tripping over their own feet. And May (E3) is rapidly approaching. And Wal-Mart is supposedly printing signs, getting ready for an XBox price drop.

1131

Nintendo Gaming / RE: New North American (NPD) Sales Thread

« on: March 17, 2004, 01:03:46 AM »

Yep. It's the average number of games sold per-system. Also known as the "attach rate". I'm pretty sure it's measured "overall", not "monthly".

It can tell you all sorts of things, like if a console only recently started outselling another one, it can highlight that, because people tend to buy games over a span of time, not all at once, so newer console owners usually have fewer games than the early-adopters.

Plus it can tell you a lot about profit. Like, lets assume that console makers get $5 per-game in royalties (I think it's more, but there are material costs to consider). And that the GameCube usually sells at a $10 loss (which it doesn't, but whatever). Then Nintendo needs an attach rate of "2" in order to break even. The rest is pure profit. But the XBox usually sells at a $50 loss (again, this is just made-up) on average. Then Microsoft would need to hit an attach rate of "10" just to stop losing money. Of course, this info would be much more useful if we knew some real profit/loss numbers to go with them (over the entire lifespan of the console), instead of just making them up.

1132

Nintendo Gaming / RE: New North American (NPD) Sales Thread

« on: March 16, 2004, 11:38:42 AM »

Feb 2004 hardware numbers added to the first post.

1133

Nintendo Gaming / RE: About Player's Choice Titles

« on: March 12, 2004, 12:34:50 PM »

Quote
What are the requirements for a game to become a Player's Choice?

It used to be that a game could go "Players Choice" (if the publisher wanted it) after the game sold 1 million copies (Worldwide, I think), but Nintendo seems to have loosened the rules on that (none of their competition had any rules about games having to actually "sell" before becoming a "hit", so Nintendo had to change with the times).

Like, that Pac Man World game that came with "Pac Man VS" for free went "Players Choice" right off the bat.

1134

TalkBack / RE: PGC's 5th Birthday Contest Bash!

« on: March 11, 2004, 11:51:31 PM »

And remember, it's not enough to make people want to visit PGC. They have to be scared to death of NOT visiting PGC.

(I wonder how many advertising people have used that idea...)

1135

TalkBack / RE:Rumor: Nintendo DS Specs?

« on: March 11, 2004, 11:35:15 PM »

The first rough translation of the report said that the DS could put out "262 and 144" colors, perhaps meaning that one screen was better than the other (with both being pretty crappy).

But TYP noticed a "6:6:6" thingy in there, which apparently suggested that each primary color (red, blue, and yellow, or maybe green) will have six-bits worth of color-levels, and then they can be mixed together, making for 262,144 different color possibilities. Which makes it vastly superior to the GBA, which could put out about 32,000 different colors.

1136

TalkBack / RE: Rumor: Nintendo DS Specs?

« on: March 11, 2004, 01:14:24 AM »

To help with the inevitable comparisons, here's the PSP's specs that were released by Sony a while ago.

GameSpot

I'm intrigued by the IGN comment about the DS's second CPU being there in part for GBA-compatibility. And we already know that the DS is supposed to use some new, bigger, carts.

I'm thinking this lets the entire classic GameBoy library live on in the DS line, through to the future (if it survives) (and I mean "the future", not "the DS" ), so the GBA2 (which I expect is still coming) will be free to explore non-cart based technologies.

1137

General Chat / RE:Get your custom title here

« on: March 10, 2004, 02:29:16 PM »

I only just noticed (because Mouse Clicker mentioned it) that Grey Ninja left the forums.

So, ummm... would it be wrong to tinker with his account a little bit while he's gone?

I'm thinking, Shifty already claimed the title of "The NEW Forum Drunk", so can we officially call Grey "The FORMER Forum Drunk" now?

Or maybe "Left in a Fit of Drunken Rage"?

I'll volunteer to use up my own title-changing privilege for this month to do it, if you think that'll keep "title-changing attacks" from getting out of hand (they can be fun, in moderation).

And if Grey doesn't like it, he can always ask us to knock it off.

1138

TalkBack / RE:It's Already Over ...

« on: March 09, 2004, 04:40:27 PM »

From GameSpot

Quote
The report stirred up little new dust--it predicted Nintendo would emphasize gameplay, Microsoft would continue to target the hardcore gamer, and Sony would leverage its existing brand recognition. "Sony is set to exploit the lead it established with the PS2," the report's author Toby Scott reported.

GameSpot checked in with the Zelos Group's Billy Pidgeon about how the next-gen console wars might rage in the US market. He cautioned against any presumptuous declaration of a winner. "The current generation market leader always has an advantage going into the next generation," Pidgeon said today, "but disruptive technologies or business practices deployed by competitors can reset market shares."

American Technology Research analyst P.J. McNealy agreed with the first part of Pidgeon's assessment. "Having an installed base of 98 million original PlayStations, and having another 70-plus million and growing PS2s is a huge advantage over Microsoft, Nintendo, and anyone else who wants to enter the console market."

So, shouldn't we be hearing about how the PSP is already another NGage by now?

1139

NWR Feedback / RE:What happened to the talkback topic on the DS interview with Iwata?

« on: March 09, 2004, 04:32:06 PM »

The "Namco Announces Tales of Symphonia for the US" thread appears to have evaporated.

I know for sure that it did exist, because I made a post in that one myself (I had thought that it was supposed to be NOA that was bringing over Symphonia, not Namco).

1140

TalkBack / RE: Namco Announces Tales of Symphonia for the US

« on: March 09, 2004, 12:32:48 PM »

I was under the impression that it was NOA, not Namco, that was bringing the game to America.

Namco passed on an English version of the critically-acclaimed "Tales of Destiny 2" for the PS2, in part because of the growing awareness in America that SCEA hates 2D games, and is willing to kill them randomly upon their completion, but mostly because "Tales of Destiny" and "Tales of Destiny 2 (aka: Tales of Eternia)" for the PSOne only sold about 60-70 thousand copies apiece, despite a "heavy push" from Namco.

[PGC NewsBot]

1141

TalkBack / RE:<b>Happy Birthday, Planet GameCube!</b>

« on: March 07, 2004, 02:26:44 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: PGC NewsBot
Personally, I always knew the site would be great, and that’s why I joined up with PlanetN2000 after meeting the staff at my first E3 Expo.  I didn’t think I would ever become Director, of course, but I felt ready for the job when Billy handed over the reigns last year.

Aha! I've figured out PGC's dark secret!

The Newsbot is your leader! Your leader is the Newsbot!

Ah ha ha!

*runs away*

1142

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Where to get Sales figures?

« on: March 07, 2004, 02:14:37 PM »

Sales data is typically colected and organized by NPD, a group that then sells their info to financial investors and other interested parties. Supposedly they don't count every single sale (like, I think WalMart doesn't participate with NPD), but use a mathamatical model to make a very close guess. At the very least, it's a LOT better than the bogus "units shipped" numbers that companies like Sony tend to rely on.

It's a safe bet that most of us on this message board are not investors, and can't afford to pay for these numbers.

Frequently, a company like Nintendo or Microsoft will use these numbers to tout their own victories, but those never tell you the whole story, because the whole truth is rarely in anyone's interests, and they'd most likely have to pay NPD more to publically use the complete numbers anyways.

Fortunately for us, the numbers usually end up getting leaked, on some forum or another, about halfway through the month following the one that's being reported on.

These "leaks" are sometimes hoaxes though, so they're really only good for casual info. If you've got real money on the line, it's a bad idea to make use of anything you heard someone say on a message board.

The MagicBox frequently mentions sales figures from various regions around the world in their news headlines (I wouldn't know if their sources are "official" or not), and their forums seem like a good place to start, if you want to keep an eye out for reports of sales figures.

1143

TalkBack / RE:DICE: Targeting Tomorrow's Consumer Today

« on: March 07, 2004, 01:04:45 PM »

Here's my take on "online".

We may all scoff when Yamauchi or Iwata says it, but the videogame industry is doomed. Not right away, of course, but the time is getting ever-closer when the game makers will be unable to put out better games than the ones they have before.

Now, that won't exactly kill anyone, I mean, look at the book industry. You can have a masterpiece like Lord of the Rings sitting around, abundantly available for decades, but that doesn't stop the next Harry Potter from coming out and being embraced. But how many book publishers can say that they're riding high, as one of the biggest, most successful companies in Japanese history.

When people stop paying for newer, better graphics, game makers will have to come back down to Earth. But is it even possible to make current and future games without the Hollywood-style production values we've all grown accustomed to?

So game companies are reaching for "online" as a life raft. I saw a breakdown a while back about what all of Square-Enix's internal teams were supposed to be working on. Their second-biggest team was listed as "working on FFXI". A game that's already come out. And they're gonna keep working on it, as long as people are playing it. That's the life raft. They never "sell you" the game. They never stop working on it. They just "rent" it to you, and their job is to "maintain" it.

Online is cool. It's multiplayer. A little less personal. Sometimes laggy. But you don't have to worry about split-screen. And thanks to the internet, you can almost certainly find a friend to play with, no matter what your situation or preferences happen to be like.

But Nintendo doesn't want to charge us for it. They've been willing to embrace four-player multiplayer, on a creative, and a hardware level, but not online. They just don't think it's worth the money, and aren't willing to pay for it (and nobody else is either, free online console gaming is just a hook for now).

My main beef with Nintendo regarding "online" right now though, is that they have a solution. Old school. Peer to peer. Let the user's individual internet connection bear the brunt of the work. That's what it's for. But Nintendo's not implementing it. We shouldn't need to be looking to something like Warp Pipe to take our multiplayer games like Mario Kart online. Nintendo has the software to do it, ready and waiting. But waiting for what? I can only guess that they're hoping get the timing of their impact better, and introduce their online solution with the N5. Or maybe, just maybe, important allies like Square and Sega are saying "Hey, you may think it's just a life raft, but stop rocking out boat already!"

1144

Nintendo Gaming / RE:New North American (NPD) Sales Thread

« on: March 06, 2004, 11:38:24 PM »

I also dug up a whole bunch of hardware-sales-related PGC links.

February 03:
Nintendo (sort of) follows Microsoft's lead by giving away a free game with their $149 GameCube.
Linkie

If you preorded Wind Waker, you'd get Ocarina of Time and the unreleased Master Quest as a preorder goodie.
Linkie
Linkie
Some stores were taking to selling the disks, and not even asking for a Wind Waker preorder...

March 03:
Sales info?
Linkie

April 03:
Price cut speculation:
Linkie

May 03:
Pre-E3 price cut speculation:
Linkie

E3 2003!
Linkie
Basically, Sony gave you the option of having a mere $20 price cut, or a free Network Adaptor when you buy a PS2. Microsoft followed with a $20 cut of their own. Nintendo responded by letting you choose to get the $50 GameBoy Player free instead of a game.

Nintendo missed their fiscal-year (ending March 31) targets.
Linkie
They only earned 67 billion yen...

August 03:
A quarterly report?
Linkie
Nintendo earned 11.5 billion yen, but only shipped 80,000 GameCubes in that entire quarter. Stores had more stock than they wanted. Nintendo's warehouses were full. So Nintendo shut down their GameCube factories. Until November.

September 03:
After their ineffective GB Player offer, Nintendo falls back to their "plan A" from E3. $99 GameCube. No extras. Takes effect Sept 25.
Linkie

October 03:
$99 is having an effect.
Linkie

Nintendo's first ever loss. Three billion yen in the red (for the fiscal half-year ending in September). Because of a 40 billion yen drop in the value of their sizable American investments, thanks to the yen/dollar currency exchange, and lower than expected GameCube sales (before the price cut).
Linkie

Good first week of October.
Linkie


November 03:
Nintendo's still happy.
Linkie

Zelda bonus disk 2 almost here.
Linkie

GameCube back in production.
Linkie

Mario Kart bonus disk came packed with first-printings of the game. Hope you preordered (or didn't miss out, despite preordering).
Linkie

October numbers.
Linkie

December 03:
Nintendo's #1 during the week of Thanksgiving.
Linkie

More positive Nintendo numbers.
Linkie

January 04:
GameCube still going to meet target sales?
Linkie

Nintendo points out that great end-of-year sales helped them beat the XBox for "all of 2003".
Linkie
It appears that Nintendo nearly sold out of units halfway through the month, allowing Microsoft to nearly match them in December, and Sony to ever-widen their unstoppable lead.

More numbers?
Linkie

Assorted Nintendo-centric 2003 figures.
Linkie

Nintendo not going to meet target sales after all?
Linkie

March 04:
Mainstream media finally notices, because Nintendo addresses, the GameCube shortage issue. Hopefully it's already resolved by now.
Linkie  

1145

Nintendo Gaming / New North American (NPD) Sales Thread

« on: March 06, 2004, 11:35:15 PM »

I've decided to make another North American sales thread.

The last thread was locked because it spun into an argument about sports games. So let's try to stay on topic this time.

Here are the numbers from the first thread, plus some new ones.


- January 2003 -

PS2: 443,334
XBox (Holiday Bundle): 154,604
XBox (System): 9,724
GCN (Jet): 26,741
GCN (Platinum): 20,735
GCN (Indigo): 14,283

Cumulative Installed Base
PS2: 15,204,853
XBox (Holiday Bundle): 1,709,679
XBox (System): 3,026,672
GCN (Jet): 1,487,732
GCN (Platinum): 321,352
GCN (Indigo): 1,181,624


- February 2003 -

PS2: 484,000 (+8% over January sales)
XBOX: 197,000 (+20%)
GCN: 164,000 (+103%)
GBA: 282,000 (+6%)

Cumulative Installed Base
PS2: 16,802,000
XBOX: 4,962,000
GCN: 3,828,000
GBA: 12,441,000


- March 2003 -




- April 2003 -




- May 2003 -

PS2: 288,127
Xbox: 123,614
GCN: 84,408
GBA: 402,662

Cumulative Installed Base
PS2: 17,735,608
XBox: 5,378,727
GCN: 4,179,083
GBA: 14,124,184


- June 2003 -




- July 2003 -




- August 2003 -




- September 2003 -

PS2: 334,000
Xbox: 172,000
GCN: 165,000
GBA: 410,000

Cumulative Installed Base
PS2: 19,139,000
Xbox: 6,002,000
GCN: 4,695,000
GBA: 15,909,000

Tie Ratios
PS2: 7.19
Xbox: 5.91
GCN: 5.79
GBA: 3.18


- October 2003 -

PS2: 300,000 [-10% over September sales]
Xbox: 176,000 [+3%]
GCN: 254,000 [+54%]
GBA: 401,000 [-2%]

Cumulative guess?
PS2: 19,439,000
XBox: 6,178,000
GCN: 4,949,000
GBA: 16,310,000


- November 2003 -

GCN - 1,325,108
PS2 - 1,123,167
Xbox - 775,897
GBA - 2,124,690

...or maybe:
PS2 832,000
GCN 748,800
Xbox 491,400

(the math looks to support the second set more)

Backwards cumulative guess?
PS2: 20,318,000
XBox: 6,711,000
GCN: 5,705,000
GBA: 17,689,000


- December 2003 -

PS2: 1,940,000
GCN: 1,160,000
XBox: 1,080,000
GBA-SP: 2,260,000
N-Gage: 15,000

Backwards cumulative guess?
PS2: 22,258,000
XBox: 7,791,000
GCN: 6,865,000
GBA: 19,949,000


- January 2004 -

PS2: 338,000
Xbox: 192,000
GCN: 131,000
GBA: 299,000

Cumulative Installed Base
PS2 - 22,596,000
XBox - 7,983,000
GCN - 6,996,000
GBA - 20,248,000


- February 2004 -

PS2: 363,000 [+7% over January sales]
Xbox: 204,000 [+6%]
GCN: 137,000 [+5%]
GBA: 353,000 [+18%]

Cumulative Installed Base
PS2: 22,958,000
Xbox: 8,187,000
GCN: 7,133,000
GBA: 20,601,000

Tie Ratios
PS2: 8.10
Xbox: 6.58
GCN: 6.09
GBA: 3.42


- March -
PS2: 294,437
Xbox: 198,445
GCN: 163,028
GBA: 496,614


- April -
PS2: 188,669
Xbox: 297,351
GCN: 96,050
GBA: 292,570


- May -

PS2: 253,454
Xbox: 216,997
GCN: 77,827

Cumulative Installed Base
PS2: 23,602,719
Xbox: 8,817,578
GCN: 7,464,696

Tie Ratios
PS2: 8.4
Xbox: 6.8
GCN: 6.4


- June -

PS2: 427,000
Xbox: 262,000
GCN: 109,000
GBA: 521,000

Tie Ratios
PS2: 8.43
Xbox: 6.88
GCN: 6.55
GBA: 3.60


- July -

PS2 - 290,000
XBOX - 245,000
GAMECUBE - 93,000
GBA - 400,000

or maybe...

PS2: 305,000
Xbox: 202,000
GCN: 93,000
GBA: 395,000

Cumulative Installed Base
PS2: 24,433,000
Xbox: 9,367,000
GCN: 7,672,000
GBA: 22,579,000

LTD Tie Ratios
PS2: 8.52
Xbox: 7.01
GCN: 6.68
GBA: 3.67


- August -
PS2: 211,690
Xbox: 216,911
GCN: 108,953
GBA: 312,568


- September -
PS2: 253,295
Xbox: 265,067
GCN: 114,789
GBA: 527,133


- October -
PS2: 289,000
Xbox: 217,000
GCN: 110,000
GBA: 464,000


- November -
PS2: 694,000
Xbox: 708,000
NGC: 350,000
GBA: 1,100,000
NDS: 479,000

- December -
   

1146

TalkBack / RE: Gossip from DICE

« on: March 05, 2004, 01:42:23 AM »

Cutting a Zelda game? Because some losers laughed at it?

That is SO not cool.

At the absolute minimum, they should just leave the Japanese version in the game, as a hidden Easter Egg.

People already say the GameCube disks are too small, and can't include bonus stuff.

BTW, I don't really care if this "Hyrule Adventure" has as big of a world as LttP, but does it have as many things to do in it? Does it have some sort of plot? A brand new, multiplayer, LttP-ish Zelda game would totally make me buy Four Swords Plus.

1147

General Chat / RE:My cat has a tapeworm!

« on: March 02, 2004, 12:12:27 AM »

Is this one of those things where you're gonna edit the first post's text and topic name for the first of April, so we all end up looking strange?

1148

TalkBack / RE:Nintendo GameCube Nearly Sold Out!

« on: March 01, 2004, 03:53:38 PM »

I don't want to sound negative (I very much like seeing someting mentioned positively in the mainstream news), but this isn't a new development. Maybe not even a good development.

The GameCube sold out halfway through December. Nintendo had bragged about selling a million units in December, and then Microsoft bragged about selling a million of their own, and the fact that they managed to beat Nintendo by a rate of about "1/2 million to zero" for the last two weeks of December.

January hardware numbers were:
PS2: 338,000
GBA: 299,000
Xbox: 192,000
GCN: 131,000

I've seen units arriving and moving quickly at some stores in my city, but other stores are still sold out.

Nintendo supposedly said a while ago that they can produce 1/2 million GameCubes-per-month.

We're gonna need to see some February hardware numbers before we know if this month's "sold out" is a good thing, or a still-lingering bad thing.

1149

Nintendo Gaming / Pokemon R/S: Infinite Jurachi trick?

« on: March 01, 2004, 12:47:27 PM »

I don't have Pokemon R/S or the bonus disc that can give you a free Jurachi to test this, but I just thought up this trick, and if I'm right, it should work.

The bonus disc can give one, and only one, free Jurachi to any Pokemon R/S cart you hook it up to, at the same time as it gives you a fix for the one-year-bug that stops time-based events from happening one year after the cart was assembled, right?

The bonus disc knows if you've already gotten a free Jurachi, even if you trade it away, or start a new savegame, because your bug is still fixed.

But IIRC, there was a low-tech way around the bug.

If you got a gamebit screwdriver, opened the cart, removed the battery for a few seconds (making sure to trade your Pokemon off first), and then put the battery back in, the cart would be reset to it's original factory specs, and you'd be able to ward off the bug for a full year.

So, you can fix your cart and get a free Jurachi. Trade him off, remove the battery, and let your cart reset itself. Fix the cart again, and you can most likely get another free Jurachi. Trade him off again, and continue the process for as many free Jurachi as you'd like.

Should work, no?

1150

TalkBack / RE:Konami of America flashes a new MGS: TTS website

« on: February 27, 2004, 03:41:48 PM »

Their "quick history" seems a little inadequate. They should've at least mentioned Grey Fox.

Here, I'll write up a bit more, for anyone who's interested.

Spoilers for Metal Gear and MG2: Solid Snake, of course.
In the original Metal Gear, you play as "Solid Snake", a rookie member of Foxhound. Your personal hero, and the main agent of Foxhound, a soldier code-named "Grey Fox" was captured while investigating Outer Heaven, a military nation developing a nuclear arsenal called "Metal Gear". "Big Boss", a formerly legendary soldier and the commander/founder of your unit, orders you to infiltrate Outer Heaven to rescue Grey Fox, and ensure the success of his mission.

Along the way, your radio-contacted support team is mysteriously eliminated, one by one.

You eventually succeed in rescuing Grey Fox, some scientists, and making your way to the heart of Outer Heaven, where you find Big Boss. He had betrayed you, Grey Fox and all of Foxhound, in favor of his world-domination plans in Outer Heaven. He had sent a rookie like you into Outer Heaven, expecting you to die, not succeed in your mission.

You defeat Big Boss, and put an end to his plans. You and Grey Fox go home.

I believe that "Snake's Revenge: Metal Gear 2" on the NES was an action game, basically dealing with Snake taking out the guys who eliminated your support team, but I can't remember, because it's been a long time since I played it. Anyways, it's not considered the "real" sequel to Metal Gear, as it wasn't made by Hideo Kojima or anyone else from the first game.

In the real sequel, "Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake", which was only available in Japan, Big Boss apparently survived and retreated to Zanzibar, to rebuild a new army. For the final battle, the game apparently put you against Grey Fox, who had switched sides.

Metal Gear Solid, or The Twin Snakes as it's now being called, is the third game in the series.