PS3 Informer

What is Metal Gear Solid: Piece Walker?

Often known for his playful humor, Japanese game developer Hideo Kojima has thrown fans another brain teaser, this time related to the upcoming western release of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for the PSP. A new promotional game called Piece Walker allows fans to compete with each other to assemble puzzles made from game artwork in the shorted time possible. The game is hosted on a website registered by Konami, and you can play for free here. Basically, missing pieces of the puzzle come up in a specific order on the lower part of the screen, and being the first to successfully place a new piece grants you points. Complicating things are the abilities to set bombs for your opponent and to get bonuses by placing pieces next to each other. A global leaderboard keeps track of whose got the most points, and there are more than 30 different play fields to test your puzzle placing skills.

Now, we see a lot of promotional viral adverts come across our desk, and as a result we have grown somewhat cynical in recent years. However, Konami has really pulled out the stops with this game, and you will hardly even notice that it is nothing more than a clever way for the company to harvest your email address and raise awareness for its upcoming product. Even without this viral push, we've no doubt that MGS: Peace Walker will be a huge success when it lands on the PSP this May.