Memes are ideas, images, trends, or pieces of information that spread through one's culture, be they iconic garments to catchphrases, cat emojis, and gifs online. They get passed along through the internet, gaining virality.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (MGR:R or simply MGR) is not a recently released game, but it stood the test of time through the memes it passed along from generation to generation.
But what are the memes the game passed along for it to enjoy the rising attention it garners on social media and video sharing sites like YouTube?
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance History, Plot, Gameplay
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a hack-and-slash action game developed by Platinum Games and Published by Konami in 2013 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and 2014 for PC and macOS computers, per the Metal Gear Solid Fandom.
The game follows the story of one of Metal Gear Solid's protagonists, Raiden, after the events of the Guns of the Patriots Incident in his mission to look for the Private military company (PMC) that humiliated him and the PMC he works for to exact (re)vengeance.
The game was originally developed by Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima as Metal Gear Solid: Rising. However, he was inexperienced in the hack-and-slash genre to bring out his vision of a cyborg ninja hacking its way to finish a mission.
It was at this point that Kojima went to Platinum Studios to ask for their help in developing the game he had in mind, per a separate Metal Gear Solid Fandom page.
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The game handles and feels like any hack-and-slash game, but its blade mode allows you to slice and dice enemies with precision to slice off specific parts of their body or perform a "zandatsu," where Raiden grabs his enemy's spine or energy supply and crushes it, absorbing the electrolytes contained within to heal himself and refuel his electrolyte supply.
The game is relatively short, clocking in at four to six hours of gameplay depending on how well or how long you progress through the game. However, many critics agree that despite the short time, the game gives an enjoyable experience and is a great game overall, such as Joe Vargas from The Angry Joe Show.
How The Game Got Resurrected
Despite the game being eight years old, the game still gives players a memorable experience to the point of it being the foundation of comedic memes on one hand, and the basis of philosophical discussion on the other.
Let's start simple: one of the reasons why the game is still kicking is because of its soundtrack, especially its boss fight themes.
Players will never forget the first time they heard "RULES OF NATURE!" as they watch Raiden suplex a building-sized robot known as a Metal Gear Ray and slashed one of its arms off, or when Raiden goes head-to-head with the members of Desperado Enforcement LLC., the PMC that humiliated him in the past.
Each of the game's boss fight themes conveys the motivation or background of each member of Desperado, which helps the player learn more about the enemy they're facing when the game's length prevents the game from going deeper, per Youtuber Tomkon.
Another reason behind the game's resurrection is the memes that came from it, most specifically its final boss fight.
People have been learning of the scene where Raiden attempts to bring the final boss down into submission using continuous punches that are not affecting the final boss through the meme format made by Pikabu user raf996 and was later popularized by Instagram user Lynx.mf in 2021, per Know Your Meme.
Other catchphrases, such as the final boss' expression of "NANOMACHINES, SON!" and nihilistic Desperado elite member Monsoons' sermon about his philosophical views on memes, calling them the "DNA of the soul," also became memes in their own right, per a separate Know Your Meme article.
MGR:R is like one of those self-fulfilling prophecies. It discusses how memes are created and passed along from one person to another while it becomes a meme that gets passed from person to person itself. If that isn't meta, we don't know what is.
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