Every Hideo Kojima In-Game Appearance (Not Just MGS5: Ground Zeroes)

Renowned video game creator Hideo Kojima has a level of name recognition not too common in game development. Most games are thought of as creations of the studio that worked on them, but more often than not, titles like Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding are distinctly products of Kojima – though certainly also products of his talented teams. He tends to hold a similar stature as a film director, which correlates to Kojima’s ambition of creating movies at his studio, and also translates into a tendency to appear in his own works in cameo roles.

Cameos in film are not uncommon. Alfred Hitchcock had a reputation for putting himself in the background of most of his movies, and Kojima himself has a cameo in Too Old To Die Young, a series directed by friend and colleague Nicholas Winding Refn, who in turn modeled for the role of Heartman in Death Stranding. Kojima’s appearances in his own video games, however, tend to be less subtle.

Perhaps Kojima’s most notable and pointed appearance is when he portrayed an operative in need of a rescue in a side mission of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. He gets quite a bit of camera time, and even has several voice lines. The mission is capped off with in-game Kojima trading sunglasses for distinctly Kojima-esque eyeglasses before smirking directly into the camera and asking “What took you so long?” The entire sequence is rather surreal, but it’s also quintessentially Kojima. He has a handful of other video game appearances, some in his own works, and others as cameos for different developers.

Kojima’s Appearance in Metal Gear Solid

Though not a typical cameo, the Hideo Kojima’s name appears in a signature fourth wall break during the Psycho Mantis fight in the first Metal Gear Solid. The Metal Gear Solid villain will display the strength of his mental powers by ‘changing’ the channel on the player’s TV. The screen will go black, and “HIDEO” will appear in the corner, a gimmick that recurs throughout the series.

The remake of the first MGS for the GameCube, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, has an additional Kojima cameo during the Psycho Mantis fight. A portrait of Kojima is hanging on a wall in the room where the boss fight occurs, along with two other portraits of developers who worked on the game – Ryuhei Kitamura and Denis Dyack, according to VGFacts.

Kojima’s Appearance in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

The above image shows Kojima on the far right edge of the screen during one of Metal Gear Solid 4‘s opening cutscenes. Kojima’s likeness will also flash on the screen during Psycho Mantis’ appearance, a callback to the cameo in the first MGS. Aside from these, Kojima’s voice can be heard at various time throughout Guns of the Patriots.

Kojima’s Appearance in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

Though intel operative Hideo has a more substantial role in Ground Zeroes, he can also be recruited to the Militaires Sans Frontières mercenary group in Peace Walker. During one of the game’s main missions to infiltrate Crater Base, a truck can be found with the license plate number 63824. Interacting with the truck will recruit Kojima to staff Mother Base. The plate number is a reference to Kojima’s birthday, August 24, 1963.

Kojima’s Appearance in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Kojima seems to have a prolific career as an intel operative, because he makes a third appearance in the final Metal Gear Solid, The Phantom Pain. If he was saved in the prologue/demo, Ground Zeroes, he will automatically be recruited to the Diamond Dogs when the capability becomes available. If not, Kojima must be rescued from the field, where the cutscene plays out in much the same way.

Kojima’s Appearance in Death Stranding

Hideo Kojima makes perhaps his strangest appearance in his most recent work, Death Stranding. The entire game revels in its own weirdness, but a nightmarish sequence has a Kojima-shaped BT coming out of the floor to grab protagonist Sam Bridges’ ankles. The sequence doesn’t always trigger, but if players have Bridges sit in a private room for long enough, a pool of tar might appear around his bare feet. Similar to how Death Stranding‘s BTs attack the player when traveling through their territory, the tar morphs itself into the likeness of Kojima before Bridges jolts awake out of the nightmare.

Kojima’s Appearance in Cyberpunk 2077

Kojima lends his likeness to a cameo in Cyberpunk 2077, where he can be found relatively early in the game, sitting in the back of a bar in Konpeki Plaza. Though he looks like, and is voiced by, Kojima, this man is actually named Oshima, a canonical citizen of Night City. Oshima is more or less a cyberpunk parody of Kojima himself. As a director of braindances, a kind of virtual reality entertainment in Cyberpunk that record and then immerse the viewer in real events, Oshima wishes to take braindances to their limit and explore the furthest reaches of emotion that can be experienced.

Though Kojima can only be found once in Cyberpunk 2077, there is another nod to him later in the game. During a side mission, protagonist V will infiltrate a Night City Police Department lab. In one of the rooms, a Death Stranding Bridge Baby pod can be found.

Kojima’s Appearance in Control

Kojima makes an appearance in a game just as surreal as some of his own, Control. His likeness is not present, but Kojima voices the Japanese lines for Dr. Yoshimi Tokui, a researcher in the Bureau of Control’s Oldest House. Kojima’s Dr. Tokui narrates the player through a “guided imagery experience” with the help of a translator who, according to Polygon, is voiced by Kojima Productions’ head of marketing, Aki Saito. The worthwhile and odd Control side quest gives players a lesson in love and environmentalism, all with a dash of grim humor about pigeons.

Kojima has a long history of making brief cameos in his own games, especially throughout the Metal Gear Solid series, but has more recently begun appearing in other studios’ works as well. His cameos outside of Kojima Productions games tend to embrace the visionary game director’s personality. Oshima in Cyberpunk is more or less a braindance analogue for real-life Kojima, and Dr. Tokui taking players on a “guided imagery experience” is rather similar to what Kojima does with video games. Hideo Kojima’s reputation precedes him, but it is clear that he is highly regarded within the games industry, and his commitment to artistry within the medium has led to many video game appearances.

Sources: Polygon, VGFacts

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