Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops is a title that either makes complete sense or comes across as complete nonsense.

A gamer would surmise it was the title of a game from the long-running Metal Gear franchise and might even extrapolate it’s a version made for a handheld device.

A non-gamer, on the other hand, will look at the title and see five random words from the dictionary put together for no apparent reason. It makes as much sense as “Mental Fear Colic Potable Cops”, “Medal Near Polyp Possible Pops” or “Meddle Dear Stolid Corporal Knobs”.

I’ve not played any of the previous Metal Gear games. I was vaguely aware that they were popular but I had little reason to investigate further.

The thing that changed my mind, curiously enough, was a piece of music. Specifically, it was Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty’s main theme. Upon listening to it a few years ago, I immediately decided a game with a theme this great ought to be fantastic.

This sentiment was reinforced when I checked out various Metal Gear videos on YouTube. I found Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater’s ending moving despite having only a little knowledge of the full story or the characters. Few games hit the kind of emotional notes seen in the clip with the kind of power it has. Clearly, I needed to play one of these games.

I made it a point to put Portable Ops on my To-Buy list when it was released but had a little trouble finding a copy locally. I finally got it a few weeks ago from Yes-Asia and I’m generally having a good time with it. There are a couple of elements that seem awkward to me and the boss fights are downright irritating but overall, I’m enjoying it.