MGSV Almost Had a Totally Rad ’80s Filter

This will probably only matter to those who were actually alive in the ’80s, but it’s still a cool little story.

If you didn’t already know, the upcoming Metal Gear Solid V is set in the year 1984. To give it the appropriate retro look and feel, series creator Hideo Kojima considered implementing an ’80s filter. He was inspired by Ron Howard’s film, Rush, which featured a ’70s filter reminiscent of that decade’s texture and style.

As Kojima said on Twitter:

“RUSH” had very 70’s texture & tone of film. In fact we studied 80’s image & developed “80’s filter” for MGSV as TPP is placed in 1984. CONT

— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) February 11, 2014

Unfortunately, the filter turned out to be “too heavy” and it slowed down the performance of the game. “So we had to take it out,” finished Kojima. That’s too bad, too, because I would’ve loved to see it as an option. Then again, it probably wouldn’t have appealed to everyone and let’s face it, the performance of the adventure is paramount.

Retro doesn’t work if you’re still too young to know what “retro” means

It seems many developers are trying to pay homage to the good ol’ days of gaming. Just look at the available downloadable titles; there are so many that were inspired by the 8-bit and 16-bit eras. There’s nothing wrong with that, but when you try to mix retro with modern, you’re opening up a whole new can of worms.