Metal Gear is a Japanese franchise of action-adventure stealth games created by Hideo Kojima. Developed and published by Konami, the first game, Metal Gear, was released in 1987 for MSX home computers
From top to bottom: Big Boss, Liquid Snake, and Solid Snake, three central characters in the Metal Gear series, as drawn by Yoji Shinkawa
Hideo Kojima is the franchise's creator, and was involved in directing, designing, writing and producing the majority of installments in the main series until Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (2015).