Hideo Kojima On Why He Chose The Name “Solid Snake” For Metal Gear Solid

Metal Gear Solid director Hideo Kojima took to Twitter last night to provide a little insight into the history of the series’ Solid Snake character.

“The reason I chose Snake as a code name in [Metal Gear] was because snakes are the most appropriate symbol of living things that conceal their presence and sneak about without making any noise,” Kojima wrote.

“The reason it wasn’t any specific snake like a cobra, anaconda or viper was because the protagonist is the player. The reason I used ‘solid’ was to give the opposite impression of a soft image.”

He continued: “As with the ending of any series, the appearance of the strongest enemy was a must in [Metal Gear Solid]. If that’s the case, it can only be Snake who surpasses Snake. And so, I introduced the ‘clone’. Against Solid, there was his contrast in Liquid. The fight between solid and liquid. That is MGS.”

Kojima then elaborated, “As it was decided to develop a sequel, a third Snake was needed. Solid and Liquid are both states, but the actual form remains the same.”

“From there,” he explained, “you’d naturally think the next state would be gas; however, a gas snake sounds like Gas Human, which sounds uncool. So, we borrowed the physics terms of ‘solidus/liquidus’. Solidus isn’t a state, it refers to the boundary between liquid and solid states.”