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Metal Gear is a series of stealth action video games usually developed and published by Konami. The series has been created and mostly written by Hideo Kojima. In Metal Gear, the player controls a Special Forces Operative who is sent on a military mission which eventually leads him to face off against the latest incarnation of the eponymous superweapon "Metal Gear"; a gigantic and usually bipedal walking tank with nuclear capabilities.

Metal Gear pioneered the stealth genre and features a lot of characteristics which set it apart from most other video games. These include lengthy cinematic cutscenes and intricate, twist-heavy storylines which explore the nature of politics, warfare, science (especially genetics) and a lot of other social, cultural and philosophical themes such as free will and artificial intelligence, among many others. The genre of the overall story can be described as "magic realism", meaning that it features unrealalistic and supernatural elements (like ghosts or characters who are able to float in the air or walk on water) in a setting which is otherwise true to reality. The series features great amounts of background information on actual science and technology, despite the latter being partially way advanced over what is state of the art. Real political events are frequently referenced and intertwined with the games' storylines.

As of March 2015, the series has sold over 41.2 million copies. Kojima had come up with the basic premise of Metal Gear as a stealth game from playing Hide and Seek with his son, as well as his own personal playing of the game as well as "Kick the Can" when he was a child.