Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes' Original Box Art Went For 'Enemy Mine' With Skull Face and Snake

More new Metal Gear Solid 5 info to dig into for all those Snake fans out there, and this time it’s related to the cover art for the game. According to Hideo Kojima, the original box art for Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes was supposed to feature Skull Face with a bloodied Snake.

Explaining as to why the cover of Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes will represent Big Boss, the game’s protagonist, the Vice President of Konami Digital Entertainment stated on Twitter: “The main visual of Ground Zeros was planned by me, as I normally want to plan the artwork and the promotion videos of my own work myself.”

“However since Peace Walker was released first on PSP in the west, I thought the public’s awareness of the character was low, so I left the decision for the west to the publishers.”

Next, as far as including Skull Face on the cover of the game is concerned, Kojima explained: “But when we announced the western version I was surprised by to hear ‘Where did Kaz go? Why is he not there?’ He’s surprisingly popular.”

“I actually designed a version for the west with Skull Face and the bloodied Snake, like in the science fiction movie ‘Enemy Mine’, but it was shelved because it looked like a horror,” he added, as translated by DualShockers.

Konami’s upcoming action stealth title Metal Gear Solid 5, as we know already, has been divided into a couple of parts with the first part – Ground Zeroes – serving as a prequel to the original The Phantom Pain, which will carry over the same tagline of Tactical Espionage Operations as others in the franchise.

As far as Ground Zeroes is concerned, the prequel, according to the game’s official page, happens in Afghanistan “9 years after the events of Ground Zeroes in 1984. The Phantom Pain will be the first MGS to feature a fully open world along with realistic passage of time and weather simulation.”

The Phantom Pain, on the other hand, takes places months after the events of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes at a U.S. facility in Cuba in 1975.

Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes, which is the standalone prequel to Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, will launch for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One on March 18.