Metal Gear Solid Touch Lite brings the thrill of Solid Snake shooting at things to your iPhone, for free. Featuring a handful of levels from the now-complete full price version, the 84.8 MB trial version should give iPhone owners a solid sense of how the full version plays.

If the bandwidth isn't worth it to you, you can read our much "liter" Metal Gear Solid Touch review, which weighs in at just 20 KB, JPEGs not included.

Metal Gear Solid Touch Lite [iTunes - thanks, Myles!]

The original version, released in March, ended somewhat abruptly after the game's third act, leaving hardcore Metal Gear fans wanting. The new Metal Gear Solid Touch update adds 8 mission stages, 20 new wallpapers, and language support for French, German, Italian and Spanish. Don't worry MGS Touch power players, your Mission completion records, "Code Name" acquisition records and other data will be maintained.

The free update weighs in at more than 10 MB—Metal Gear Solid Touch now weighs in at 137 MB—so iPhone users can't complete the update via their cell connections. You'll need to update via wi-fi or through iTunes itself.

Thanks for the heads up, Myles!

In Metal Gear Solid Touch, Old Snake's goal is the same as it was in the PlayStation 3 version: assassinate Liquid Ocelot, taking out any PMC soldiers and cybernetic members of the Beauty and the Beast corps.

Since the iPhone (and iPod Touch) don't really do epic—at least not on the scale that current-generation hardware can—the experience has been whittle down considerably. Gone is the stealthy "tactical espionage action," replaced by touchscreen tapping and arcade-style shooting. To call it Metal Gear meets Duck Hunt isn't unfair.

But is catering to the platform, giving hardcore fans something to play with on the go, a bad thing?

Loved
Sharp Presentation, Challenging Action: There's no lack of polish in Metal Gear Solid Touch. The game controls beautifully, with reliable aiming and shooting, and has similarly attractive visuals. MGS Touch actually provides a decent challenge, especially if you're looking to perfect your scores and acquire all of the game's unlockables. It's a fun little shooter with the Metal Gear Solid license carefully applied.

Hated
It's... Not Finished: At the end of Act 3, the game ends. It promises additional content (aka the rest of the game) at a later date, something that took us somewhat by surprise. While we'd imagine that many Metal Gear fans will already be intimately familiar with what transpires during the final two acts, opting to simply enjoy the shooting gallery fun, Konami's asking you to pay for an unfinished product.

Getting Phone Calls: Some of the boss fights are a little challenging, but they're made more maddening by the fact that Metal Gear Solid Touch and phone calls don't mix. The game doesn't pause the action, it simply stops it. If you're serious about playing levels to perfection, snagging all those valuable Drebin Points, you'll want to put your iPhone in "airplane mode."

Metal Gear Solid Touch, while maybe a bit confusing of a concept and contradictory to the game's stealth-based roots, is somehow charming. It's an appealing, fan service-filled diversion, one fortunately packed with replay value. The downside is that it's simply an incomplete package. We'd recommend waiting for either a price drop or for Kojima and company to get the rest of the game out in a future update.

Metal Gear Solid Touch was developed by Kojima Productions and published by Konami for the iPhone and iPod Touch, released on March 19th. Retails for $7.99 USD. Completed main missions, tested Survival mode.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

Series creator Hideo Kojima has announced that the series iPhone debut will soon be getting 8 new levels, which he describes as "crazy", moving on from sandbag shooting to include "touch-fighting" and "battling with robots".

According to Pocket Gamer, these 8 levels will be free to those who already own the game, though whether that means they'll come bundled with future purchases of the main game remains unclear.

No word on when we can see these new levels, as they're still in development.

8 new levels coming to Metal Gear Solid Touch to offer different gameplay [Pocket Gamer]

Kojima will be following up his GDC keynote on Thursday with an appearance at the San Francisco Apple Store on Friday for "a candid discussion about his career as a game creator and the making of Metal Gear Solid Touch."

The in-store event (with attendance limited to 200) will kick off on March 27 at 3:00 PM, giving you your fill of helpful Apple Geniuses and, we're sure, hilarious iPhone development yarns.

Kojima's a Mac user, and he's got a one-of-a-kind iPhone with his own mug on it. Hello vanity!

We assume (hope?) this is a gag on his part — but you never know. Kojima seems like such a humble guy.

Metal Gear Solid themed protective cover jackets for the iPhone and the iPod Touch are on sale at Soft Bank cell phone shops and Apple Stores across. They're priced at ¥4,500 (US$46.50) each.

小島秀夫監督、渡邊靖予プロデューサーに加え、"お兄さん"も登場 [Famitsu]

It's $8, it features characters and settings from Metal Gear Solid 4, and it clocks in at an impressive 90MB, so you'll probably want to download it via your PC/Mac first. No demo or "Lite" version, sadly, so the video below is as good a taste as you'll get without parting with $8.

Of course, the game is a touch screen game, so fingers tap the screen is expected. But to this degree, like where it's kinda hard to see what's going on at times? Shame that your thumbs keep getting in the way. Damn shame.

MGS Touch is priced at US$10 and has been released a day earlier than scheduled.

Thanks Cheapy for the tip!

Your next Metal Gear is a 20 stage game but, ruh roh, you don't get them all at once. "Of these, 12 stages will be available initially," according to Anoop Gantayat at Andriasang.com, who translated the piece. "After a while, Konami will distribute a full version of the game. Those who purchased the initial 12 stage version will be able to upgrade to the full version for free." Commence knee-jerk DLC bitching now.

The game also is brought to us by Kojima Productions' first female producer - Yasuyo Watanabe. Kojima explains he brought her aboard specifically because of her experience with the iPhone. "If someone like himself were to make an iPhone game, he would make it with game-like ideas," said Gantayat's translation. "That's fine for a pure game machine, but with hardware like iPhone which is mainly used as a phone and music player, he felt that her promotional viewpoint would be useful."

Kojima called Metal Gear Solid Touch "simple, but solidly playable." He thinks the volume offered by the iPhone and iPod Touch's installation base will translate to solid growth for "one idea products" - games that are well designed but not too complex (I think that's what he means.)

"I believe there are many people who know about MGS's existence. However, I believe there are also many people who don't play it because they think it looks hard," Kojima said, according to the translation. "I'd like those people to sample the MGS world as lightheartedly as one would listen to music. Of course, I'd like fans to also enjoy themselves."

Hideo Kojima interviewed in Famitsu iPhone [andriasang]

For you, then, in the absence of help, comes information: the game will be out on Apple's App Store next week, March 18 March 19, and will cost you $10.

'Metal Gear Solid Touch' Releasing on March 18 [G4]

UPDATE - Konami have contacted us to let us know that G4 were off by a day. The game will actually be released on March 19.

Can a Metal Gear Solid theme really get gamers to buy a gussied up version of Duck Hunt? I'm checking off 'No Thanks' for now.

As revealed last week, Metal Gear Solid Touch basically retells the story of Metal Gear Solid 4 from a different perspective, with an over-the-shoulder view of Solid Snake's mullet as you tap the screen to take out enemies. I suppose it will be nice for those who want a quick synopsis of the story without have to sit through all of the cutscenes, but beyond that it doesn't look all that exciting.

Having said that, it will sell millions.

Looking through the site, it appears that Metal Gear Solid Touch will be a rail-shooter of sorts based on the storyline of Metal Gear Solid 4 which will also offer up unlockable wallpapers for your device as you play through the game.

"Experience Metal Gear Solid 4's story as you fight through each action-packed stage," according to the site."Fire battles and familiar faces await you around every corner."

The game will feature "touch-based shooting" which will allow you to move a reticule around with your finger, zoom in and out by pinching the screen and shooting by tapping. Judging by the snippets shown on the official webpage it looks like you will be dropped into static settings where you will then have to shoot bad guys as they jump out from behind cover. It appears that shooting is a timed action.

The game will include a "special advance release edition" which will let you download the first half of Metal Gear Solid 4's story in advance, according to the website. The save data from the early look will automatically carry over when you update to the final release.

The game will also feature "Drebin Points" which you earn by clearing each stage and which can be later used to purchase more than 40 unique wallpapers.

I'm told that the first trailer for the game will be aired tonight on Spike TV's GameTrailer TV. I assume that the site will update with the trailer shorter after that.

Kojima tells Famitsu, via 1UP, that the development team working on the more Western-flavored of the two titles will also follow a more Western-style production process. The other? Straight up, traditional Kojima Productions-style.

Kojima says that the restructuring of his team is part of an effort to make Kojima Productions competitive with American and European dev teams. No word yet on what the follow up to Metal Gear Solid 4 (and Metal Gear Solid Touch) will be.

Hideo Kojima Discusses Next Two Games, World Relevance In Famitsu [1UP]

Take a close look at those screens. One shows Snake standing behind a wall of sandbags, shooting at bad guys. The other shows a zoomed-in view of Snake shooting at bad guys. They don't show him sneaking, they don't show him blending into a wall, they don't show him punching some unlucky sap in the cock.

You know why? Because it sounds like shooting is all you'll be doing. The same Famitsu article that broke the news yesterday also has a few details on the game that the press release neglected to mention.

They boil down to this: you don't control Snake's movement. All you do is swipe your fingers around to aim, then tap the screen to shoot.

It's Duck Hunt. Or, if you will, Snake's Crossbow Training.

Not that this is a bad thing! Kojima says in the article that the team originally considered a stealthy game, but decided (WISELY) that the iPhone isn't up to the task controls-wise, and went with something simpler.

Should make for a less frustrating experience, but still, that won't ease the crushing disappointment iPhone owners hoping for a "proper" MGS game will be feeling.

Metal Gear Solid Touch Detailed [IGN]

What's more, courtesy of Konami we now have some details on the game. It's an original title set in the MGS4 universe, and consists of 8 stages (with the promise of more to be made available later). It's obviously controlled via the touchpad (as opposed to the accelerometer), with a sniping screenshot looking a lot like the iPhone's zoom-in text editing setup.

MGS obsessives will be well catered for, with bonus points accrued through gameplay able to be traded in to unlock stuff like Metal Gear iPhone wallpapers.

It's due for a worldwide release in Spring 2009.

Or at least that's what this scan, supposedly from the newest issue of Famitsu Weekly, indicates, a gesture based Metal Gear designed with the iPhone and iPod Touch's touchscreen controls in mind. From what we can gather from this heavily artifacted scan, it looks like it might be a spin-off of Metal Gear Solid 4, which may make it more action-oriented that the turn-based portable outing Metal Gear Ac!d.

Consider this a rumor for now, especially until we see something that looks more legit — and hopefully in higher resolution. If Metal Gear Solid Touch is what's planned and this is an authentic Famitsu scan, it wouldn't come as a surprise to many of us.

Famitsu 20081219 [Wii @ Everday]

UPDATE - Konami have since confirmed. The title will be called Metal Gear Solid Touch.