This hits keep coming for Metal Gear fans as details have emerged of another canceled Metal Gear Solid board game.
As discovered by a Reddit post, a board game art studio page recently revealed artwork for several canceled projects. Among these was a board game titled Metal Gear Solid: Psycho Mantis Battle. Surprisingly, one of the designers of the game replied to the post and confirmed that this was in the works back when IDW Publishing had the Metal Gear license. It was going to be a competitive 1v1 game with miniatures and would be an adaptation of the iconic boss battle secret agent Solid Snake has against the psychic terrorist, Psycho Mantis. It was designed by Pete Walsh, who has had experience working on several licensed games, and Adam B. Metal. This is not to be confused with a different Metal Gear Solid board game designed by Emerson Matsuuchi; that had its own problems.
Thankfully, it appears this game will be getting new life. In that exact same Reddit post, the designer mentioned that publisher Blacklist has picked up the game and that they are in the process of reskinning it. This most likely means that the game's central core will remain unchanged, but that any direct references to the Metal Gear franchise will have to be sanded down or removed. There is always the chance that Blacklist could try for an official licensing deal with Konami, but given the issue that IDW has run into with them, and other issues in regards to Metal Gear in recent years (such as with certain directors), we wouldn't suggest holding your breath. Psycho Mantis isn't the only Metal Gear board game getting reskinned either, as Emerson Matsuuchi's Metal Gear Solid: The Board Game is also getting reworked.
We have reached out to the creators for additional details and will be following up as the story progresses.
The board game art did show that Snake wasn't the only one who lost out. Another Konami-owned franchise missed out on board game exposure, titled Super Bomberman R Blast tactics, which its designer released a free Tabletop Simulator mod that you can play.
