Gamertell

Konami has announced the upcoming release of Metal Gear Solid: The Essential Collection for the Playstation 2. While the press release doesn’t mention a shipping date, scanning the collection’s newly-created entries at Amazon and Gamestop reveals an expected March 18, 2008, shipping date.  It’s priced at $29.99 and rated M by the ESRB.

The compilation features the original Playstation version of the first Metal Gear Solid and the deluxe versions of the respective second and third games, Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance and Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, in a commemorative set.

The timing is likely an effort to refresh players with the franchise’s convoluted storyline before Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots launches on the Playstation 3.  Oh, and that whole “making a quick buck while clearing their inventory” thing, too.

While it’s all well and good that these games will now be available en masse for about $10 per chapter, I can’t help but wonder whether or not they will include the bonus games that were available with Subsistence.  Metal Gear Online is obviously out of the question since Konami withdrew support for it last year, but if Konami decides to still throw in the first two MSX Metal Gear games, this could truly wind up being a definitive package for the series.

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