David Hayter – the original voice behind one of gaming’s biggest characters, Snake – says portraying Hideo Kojima’s stealthy creation “was the definitive role in [his] life”, and if he was asked to reprise the role, he’d be “down” to voice him again.
In an interview with Inverse alongside fellow Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater voice actors Lori Alan and Cynthia Harrell, Hayter – who was dropped from the role and replaced by Kiefer Sutherland for the fifth instalment, The Phantom Pain – called it “the definitive role in [his] life”.
“Anytime they ask me to be Snake, I’m in,” Hayter said. “It’s the definitive role in my life. It’s so complex and so profound, and there are so many different aspects to both him and Big Boss. So anytime it comes up, I’m down.
“I get so many people coming up to me now saying, I just got into Metal Gear last year because of the Master Collection, and it’s so cool to see 18-year-old fans and younger kids discovering it for the first time,” the award-winning Hollywood writer added. “A great game should be like a great movie or like a great album – it should live on. And a lot of times, because consoles and technology change, a lot of great games disappear. And so I’m just grateful that Konami is behind this in the way they are.”
That said, if given the opportunity, Hayter was candid enough to acknowledge he wouldn’t have minded re-recording some of Snake’s lines for the remake.
“I do feel that I’m a little better of an actor now than I was then,” he admitted. “It was fine back in the day, but I would have loved to bring some of the knowledge that I’ve picked up over the past 20 years to it. But you don’t want the controller lines to be better acted all of a sudden, because that’ll take you out of the game.
“I’ve been working in Hollywood for quite some time now,” he added. “This is a beloved franchise, a huge world with massive worldwide appeal. So I’m never surprised when something like this comes back. But I didn’t anticipate it would be this. But to start with, Snake Eater is very cool, because it’s generally considered the pinnacle of Metal Gear.”
We recently learned that Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater has brought back the secret Guy Savage mode. But it wasn’t made by Konami alone – Platinum Games, perhaps best known for its Bayonetta and Astral Chain series, is responsible for the surprise action minigame.
Connor had a great time with Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, awarding it five out of five stars in our review, writing: “A legend is brought back to life with Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, in a surprisingly sensitive remake from Konami featuring developers from the original.”