Do you need some shirts, Snake? Snake…? SNAKE!?!?!

This week saw the release of Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1, a re-bundling of titles in the landmark stealth video game franchise released on basically all modern hardware platforms. But while the series is now back on fans’ screens, Uniqlo wants to help put Metal Gear in their wardrobes too.

Yes, the latest collaboration in Uniqlo’s UT Archive series is a partnership with Metal Gear, delivering a mix of obvious homages and subtler callbacks to famous moments from the series’ 36-year history. For example, just about anyone with even a moderate-level interest in video games will recognize Snake on the back of the shirt shown above, but only fellow hardcore fans will quickly identify the Peace Walker logo on the front, and know that this means the character on the back isn’t the series’ main protagonist Solid Snake, but rather his father, Naked Snake, a.k.a. Big Boss.

Similarly, “Neither enemy nor friend” may not mean much to the uninitiated…

…but it’s one of the most memorable lines from the first Metal Gear Solid, spoken by the enigmatic Cyborg Ninja, whose biomechanical features are recreated on the shirt’s back.

Metal Gear Solid 2 proved to be a highly divisive game upon its release, largely for pulling a switcheroo in who its main character turned out to be. One thing I think we can all agree on, though, is that this portrait of Solid Snake and Raiden is pretty awesome.

▼ Surprisingly, for a game that’s all about duplicity and double-crosses, the Metal Gear Solid 2 shirt only has artwork on the front, and nothing on the back.

Of course, you can’t talk about Metal Gear attire without paying proper respect to the series’ most iconic outfit: the cardboard box.

While cardboard boxes have been featured as mobile hiding spots in every game in the franchise, this shirt is another salute to Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, according to the text right below the collar.

Years after Metal Gear Solid 2, Raiden returned in a darker, edgier role for Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, so it’s fitting that that game’s shirt features an angular gray-on-black depiction of the successor to the Cyborg Ninja legacy.

Once again, this Raiden shirt has no artwork on the back, but you do get one of Metal Gear’s iconic exclamation points, with a lighting bolt twist/zigzag, on the sleeve.

And last, rounding out the lineup is a throwback to the original MSX Metal Gear.

Stretching across the chest is a text box saying “This is an order! Turn off the MSX’s power immediately!” Though Western gamers are more likely to be familiar with a similar ploy that showed up in Metal Gear Solid 2, the tradition of Metal Gear’s antagonists trying to trick you into powering down your system stretches all the way back to the very beginning of the series.

▼ Undeterred by the attempted trick, pixel-art Snake continues his mission on the shirt’s front hem and by the back collar.

All of the shirts are identically priced at 1,500 yen (US$10) and scheduled to go on sale in late January, with online purchases available through the Uniqlo e-shop here.

Source: Uniqlo
Top image: Uniqlo
Insert images: Uniqlo (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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