Hideo Kojima, creator of the Metal Gear series—which turns 25 next year—says he's drawn influence from four video games above all others. They are four very different games, each "very important" he says. What are they?
The game designer who says "70% of my body is made of movies" in his Twitter profile tweeted that fab four earlier today: Super Mario Bros., Xevious, Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken and Outer World. You probably know the first game on that list and the second, Namco's 1982 vertically scrolling shooter.
And there's a very good chance you know the last game on that list. Outer World is the Japanese name for the game known as Another World in Europe and Out of This World in North America.
The other title, Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken, is a Japan-only release that would translate to The Portopia Serial Murder Case. Developed by Enix and written by Dragon Quest co-creator Yuji Horii, the murder mystery adventure game was first released on the NEC PC-6001 in 1983. Kojima says he "learned the possibility" of "drama ability" from Portopia.
On the others, Kojima says he learned action from Super Mario Bros., the "view of the game world" from Xevious and "writing ability" from Eric Chahi's Outer World.
You can contact Michael McWhertor, the author of this post, at mike@kotaku.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.