Metal Gear Solid 3D gets a visual downgrade

The 3DS Tribe take a look at the new trailer for Metal Gear Solid 3D which appears to show the game get a visual downgrade from what we've previously seen at E3 2010. (3DS, Metal Gear Solid 3D Snake Eater, Metal Gear Solid 3DS) 
You read that correctly, like Metal Gear Solid remake The Twin Snakes on the Gamecube before it, the Nintendo 3DS version of Snake Eater will feature everyone’s favourite steed Yoshi. Those that played GameCube remake The Twin Snakes will remember his appearance was nothing more than a cameo alongside Mario, however in Metal Gear Solid 3D he will take the place of the 64 Kerotan Frogs that were previously hidden throughout the game (and awfully difficult to notice – ed).

This is Mario and Yoshi back on The Twin Snakes and yes you could shoot them

If you manage to find and shoot all the Kerotan Frogs in the original you unlocked a very special item (one we won’t share right now to avoid spoilers) and it appears on 3DS you’ll have to murder 64 Yoshis in order to gain the coveted item. We’re sure it’ll be both amusing and heartbreaking in equal measure. Yoshi is not the only new feature shown in the trailer however as Konami are set to make the most of the 3DS hardware with photo capture camouflage, touch screen item switching and gyro controls.
The photo capture camouflage shown in the trailer features Snake wearing a rather fetching floral design based on a photo of (you guessed it) flowers. We look forward to the potential hilarity this will bring and whilst it’s unlikely to be all that useful it’s an imaginative feature to have and we look forward to seeing what type of creations gamers will come up with.

Not everyone can pull off the Pink flowery look but we think Snake might just be able to.

Touch screen controls seem to be pretty similar to what Ocarina of Time 3D will offer with items mapped to different areas of the screen for switching on the fly – as we mentioned previously there’s plenty of streamlining involved thanks to this second screen, possibly to free buttons up for camera controls. From what we’ve seen of the gyro controls it looks like it’ll be saved for certain areas such as crossing a bridge or climbing a tree. So perhaps just a gimmick but by no means a hindrance when you look at similar occurrences in the likes of Uncharted on the PS3.
Sadly it’s not all good news in the new trailer. As you can see, the game isn’t as graphically impressive as those shown at E3 – in particular character models have been scaled back from what were previously described as Metal Gear Solid 3-quality character models to those from the original PS2 game. Fancy new shaders have also seen the chop.

Here's what E3 2010's edition of Metal Gear Solid 3D looked like - sporting character models similar in quality to those from Metal Gear Solid 4, alongside the shaders you'd expect to see on PS3/360. Of course, this was to show off 3DS's capabilities in a realtime cutscene demo, explaining the breathtaking visuals.

We can’t complain too much however – as this kind of visual downgrade was to be expected when you consider these scenes are taken from the full game rather than just the tech demo Metal Gear Solid 3D: The Naked Sample was last year (practically a realtime cutscene demo where game logic and AI didn’t need to be taken into consideration on 3DS).
Furthermore, in comparison to other remakes from that era (we’re looking at you Splinter Cell) the game still looks very good, escpecially when you consider the difference in the 3DS screen resolution (Konami’s screenshots for the game were released at 480p). It’s remarkable how close this is to the PS2 version, and it even seems to surpass it in areas such as lighting.

A you can see the game is still looking very nice even if it isn't up to high standard of last years E3

One final bit of information squeezed from the trailer is that “threat ring” from Metal Gear Solid 4 that was said to be included seems to be missing in action. This is probably not a huge loss really as the radar still appears to be present on the bottom screen which pretty much eliminates the need for the threat ring.

With thanks to Andriasang for the heads-up on Konami’s new site content update following their conference. You can view the full trailer below, or catch the rest of the screenshots over at Konami’s brand new official website for the game. Be warned though, it will make you want to play it now.