Close Up: Metal Gear Solid Song Collection

As pointed out by a reader, this CD is apparently not officially licensed by Konami.

Over the years plenty of Metal Gear Solid soundtrack CDs have been released, most of them in Japan. One of those is 2004’s Metal Gear Solid Song Collection, a CD containing a compilation of music tracks that were featured in Metal Gear games over the years.

The first thing that comes to mind though is that for a ‘Song Collection’, this CD doesn’t have a whole lot of songs. You would expect a good selection from all games released at the time (when this CD came out Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater was the newest title), but instead there are only 9. And they’re not all completely different tracks either, in fact three of them have two versions.

The complete track list is as follows:

1. Snake Eater – 2:55
2. Metal Gear Solid Main Theme (Metal Gear Solid 3 Version) – 6:28
3. Don’t be Afraid – 5:40
4. Snake Eater (Instrumental) – 2:55
5. Can’t Say Goodbye to Yesterday (Full Version) – 7:35
6. Can’t Say Goodbye to Yesterday (Piano Version) – 4:04
7. The Best is Yet to Come – 5:44
8. Metal Gear Solid Main Theme – 2:44
9. Metal Gear Solid Main Theme (1997 E3 Edit) – 5:16

So there are tracks from Metal Gear Solid 2, Metal Gear Solid 3 and Metal Gear Solid, and  it seems they chose to include only the most prominent tracks, the main themes and the songs that have lyrics, though even by this logic some seem to be missing.

Still, it’s a interesting item for collectors. What’s nice is that the cover is actually a booklet that has the lyrics of the tracks printed on it, so presentation-wise that is a plus. Bottom line: this is an item that will only appeal to Metal Gear collectors, as it’s a bit lacking in terms of actual content.

Metal Gear Solid Song Collection
KO-99149
2004