Hideo Kojima says OD is as different as Boktai, his solar-powered Gameboy game

Hideo Kojima has commentated on his reputation as a developer that’s responsible for games that “go against the current of the times”, while also doing the equivalent of pointing to the weird game Wrestlemania sign by stating that OD will be about as out-there as Boktai: The Sun Is In Your Hand. That, if you don’t know, is a Gameboy game he made in which you use real-world sunlight to fight off vampires.

You read that right. Boktai used a light censor on the game cartridge to charge up an in-game weapon called the Gun Del Sol. Using this, you could take the battle to the monstrous undead. If you ran out of solar power, you’d have to avoid action until you were able to head out and touch grass in the sunlight again – over 15 years before Pokemon Go was leading kids in front of traffic. Truly, Kojima is ahead of his time.

According to Kojima’s tweet, Boktai didn’t exactly go down great internally. “For me, the most experimental game was ‘defeating vampires outside your house’ using actual sunlight around you. It was met with fierce opposition from the staff and even within the company. In that sense, ‘OD’ is just as different.” Boktai would go on to earn good reviews for the most part – it even got several sequels.