'Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance', The Weird 'MGS' Spin-Off That Became The Biggest Game In The Series

We don't expect games to thrive for long in today's gaming landscape. If a game comes out, sells decently enough, and then gets forgotten in favor of the next fad, then we can call that game a success (provided we can still remember its name). Comebacks are rare, but rarer still is witnessing a supposedly dead game making a comeback so huge that it becomes larger than it was at launch. That is the tale of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is the name of an official Metal Gear Solid series spinoff and somehow not a fanfiction created by a malfunctioning AI. We're talking about a project so bonkers that Konami had to call in a different and much-edgier dev company to get the thing done, and the end result was a game so bananas that even Hideo Kojima himself considered canceling it to prevent the Metal Gear Solid series from getting too crazy. Yes, we're talking about that Metal Gear Solid series. Revengeance ended up coming out in 2013, and despite garnering praise for its incredible high octane action, most people found themselves unable to get into the game due to its impossibly bizarre plot and characters.

Instead of the deep introspection that MGS2 brought to the living rooms of so many pre-pubescent gamers who found themselves forever changed, Revengeance's depth came from characters who'd seemingly just escaped an anime talking about the concept of memes. It was 2013, guys. We all loved seeing pictures of cats, but how many people in the mainstream had even heard of the word “meme” by then?

But times have since changed, and Revengeance has just enjoyed a 1000% spike in its player base. Why? Well, simple:

Yeah, just this past month fans have been putting it all into the creation of Revengeance memes, and these memes have started mobilizing a never-before-seen force of new players. Sure, we can't really say that the memes are the only reason why people are rediscovering this gem, but if anyone says the contrary, we can just say:

Top Image: Konami