17 Days Until MGS4!

Today's random Metal Gear fact:

Almost every single Metal Gear game thus far has included the infamous cardboard box trick. The only exception is Snake's Revenge (which doesn't really count anyway, as Kojima had nothing to do with it). Here are some lesser-known facts about everyone's favorite shipping container / espionage equipment:

• In the NES version of Metal Gear, Snake could shoot from inside the cardboard box.


• In Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, guards will often become suspicious if they notice the box and start peppering it with bullets. If Snake sits there and takes it, they'll be convinced the box is harmless and return to their patrols.


• While Snake is disguised as Major Raikov in MGS3, he can move around under the box in front of guards. When they pick the box up and find what looks like their commanding officer crouched down in there, they just kind of stand there awkwardly, not sure how to react to this strange new development in their lives.


• Several of the boxes in MGS2 feature product-placement. Box 4 has the logo for McFarlane toys (which made the official MGS1 & 2 action figure lines), and Box 5 has the logo from Kojima's Zone of the Enders series.


• If Snake hides under the cardboard box on the deck of the tanker in the opening chapter of MGS2 for a while, it will become wet and will then fall apart if shot by an enemy.


• Metal Gear: Ghost Babel (AKA Metal Gear Solid for Gameboy Color in the U.S.) features an insanely annoying puzzle involving various colors of cardboard boxes and an automated conveyor belt cargo sorting system. Seriously, fuck that puzzle.
  
• The following conversation happens in MGS2 if you call "Plisken" (Snake working incognito) immediately after seeing "someone" sneaking around in a cardboard box:

Raiden: "Pliskin, I saw someone wearing a cardboard box just now...?"
Plisken: "A box? I don't know anything about that. You sure you weren't imagining things?"
Raiden: "Of course I'm sure. Do you think it's one of the members of Dead Cell? I don't want to fight someone like that..."
Plisken: "Why not?"
Raiden: "Because it looked so dumb. Anyone who's willing to be seen like that must be completely insane. I mean, he's a psycho; there's no question about it!"
Plisken: "Um, yeah..."

Snake's tone is hilarious on that last line. He sounds like a kid who just had his sand castle kicked over.