Metal Gear Scanlon is a Giant Bomb video series that follows Drew B. Scanlon's quest to play the core games of the Metal Gear Solid series (1, 2, 3, 4), a plot hatched by none other than Daniel J Ryckert. Drew has zero experience with Metal Gear Solid. Dan says it's his favorite thing, period. You may be on one of the two extremes as well, or you may be somewhere in the middle - either way, MGScanlon has something for you, including 75 hours of Metal Gear Solid games. Below I've included some raw MGS stats for you to compare to yourself / the world and there's also an episode guide with quick links so you can watch the series easily at your leisure. Thanks everyone!

Solid Scanlon Game Time vs World

Rankings & Stats

MG Game Saves Continues Alerts Enemies Killed Rations Codename Comments! Game Season MGS 31 93 55 157 181 Elephant 3718 Aug 20 - Sep 30 MGS 2 23 51 58 124 60 Elephant 4023 Nov 04 - Dec 24 MGS 3 17 26 91 249 7 Crocodile 4183 Feb 26 - Apr 08 MGS 4 8 84 363 53 Eagle 4697 Jul 13 - Aug 15 MGS V: GZ 1 2 10 370 August 18 2015 MGS TOTAL 71 179 290 903 301 16,991

Episode Guide & Genius Video Tag-lines to Oe You With

Episode Description (Presented by Jason Oestreicher except where marked *DS for Drew Scanlon) Length +DD+ Demo Derby: Pizza Hut Disc 0 (starts 31:08): Yeah, I'd like a large pizza with bandicoot, skeleton, cars, extra snake... No tombs, please. Delivery. 0:59 1-01 Dan teaches Drew the subtle nuances of grenade handling, nanomachines, and talking to ladies. 1:06 1-02 Drew and Dan "orbit" around a president for QUITE SOME TIME before deciding to just blow it all up. *DS 1:13 1-03 Say, have you guys ever talked to Meryl before? She's really interesting. I could talk to her for hours! *DS 1:17 1-04 Remember when Dan said that Drew wouldn't have trouble with any other bosses? 2:00 1-05 Dude. Trust me. Put the controller on the floor. This is gonna be awesome. 1:18 1-06 Drew and Dan set their sights on a new boss. 2:02 1-07 They say the true measure of a man is how long they can mash a circle button. 1:22 1-08 Join Drew and Dan on the battlefield where love's blooming and helicopters are booming! 1:16 1-09 Love blooms on the battlefield again... for the last time! Probably! 1:10 1-10 Drew and Dan test their mettle in an ear pulling competition. 1:36 1-11 Drew goes toe-to-toe with his evil twin for the final showdown(s)! 3:16 +1+ Dan and Brad show Drew a glimpse of what could have been and what's yet to come. 1:05 2-01 Another Metal Gear? 1:14 2-02 Can love really bloom in a locker room? Drew and Dan will find a way. 0:59 2-03 Drew documents underpants and undercarriages, Dan comes prepared, and Kojima pulls a bait-and-switch. 1:17 2-04 Drew's Raiden impression needs work, Dan once found love in a bathroom stall, Kojima really likes Kurt Russell. 1:12 2-05 Now older and wiser, Drew and Dan head back to Strut F in search of Bs and nerds. 0:59 2-06 Scanlon gets his groove back, Dan's the worst employee, and we finally get a boss fight. Sorta. 1:04 2-07 Laugh and grow fat with Drew and Dan as they take on the mad bomber, Fatman. 1:11 2-08 Drew and Dan are on the hunt for a bum ticker, but flying drones and retinal scanners keep getting in their way. 1:18 2-09 Solid Scanlon, meet "Mr. President." Also, have fun with his vampire airplane. *DS 1:03 2-10 Everyone and their girlfriend has something to tell us about what's going on with the twelve angry men. 1:16 2-11 We add to our own dark history by repeatedly ramming people into underwater mines. 1:45 2-12 The end of Metal Gear Solid 2 is in sight, but before that, we get to know Raiden inside... and out. *DS 1:05 2-13 Everything old is new again. Will Drew face his past or La Li Lu Le Lose his mind? *DS 2:14 3-01 Kept you waiting, huh? 2:02 3-02 Drew and Dan press R1 to see what's blooming on the battlefield. 1:36 3-03 It's one step back, two steps forward in this electrifying episode. 1:45 3-04 Drew and Dan apply some science to the sneaking mission. 1:20 3-05 We're still lost so let's just put on some stinky camo and get crocked. 1:25 3-06 Drew gets back to basics on the sneaking mission. This episode: what's the best camo to wear while wildly running around throwing grenades? 1:03 3-07 Is this the beginning of the end of The End? 1:32 3-08 Things are heating up! Can Drew and Dan keep their cool or will tempers flare? Should Jason be fired for all of the puns? 1:43 3-09 Drew and Dan pick up some guy in a bathroom, take him back to the locker room, and get him naked. 1:06 3-10 Remember all those guards Drew shot in the junk? They're back and looking to settle the score. 1:18 3-11 Drew and Dan shack up behind a waterfall for a quick snack and... Wait. What's that beeping noise? 1:09 3-12 Drew and Dan have a showdown with Shagohod. 1:27 3-13 What a thrill. 1:13 +3+ Bonus Episode: What do you say to one last showdown? At the risk of creating a time paradox, Drew and Dan fire up some more Metal Gear and get a (long) glimpse of things to come. 1:05 +4+ Loading: I hear this game has a pretty big install. *DS 0:18 4-01 War may have changed, but Drew and Dan are just as sneaky as ever. 1:03 4-02 Drew and Dan suppress their nanomachines, buy some guns, and hang out with a coked up monkey. 0:56 4-03 Dan and Drew make fun of a little girl's cooking, an old friend asks what happened to our face, and a guy poops himself. 1:09 4-04 Before you sneak, you've gotta learn how to crawl. 0:53 4-05 With friends like a chain smoking monkey and a lecherous old man, who needs a psychological counselor? 1:14 4-06 Laugh with Drew and Dan as they find a cool cave and expose themselves to a lady to make her cry. 1:25 4-07 Drew and Dan have got mooing robots and an MGS on their ass. Time to get the monkey on the machine gun! 0:49 4-08 Drew and Dan meet Noir Snake, learn a lot about eggs, and watch a shirtless vampire lick things. *DS 0:53 4-09 Drew and Dan meet their maker, some sneaky scarabs, and a legendary torso. 1:35 4-10 Hold onto your mamma! Drew and Dan race down city streets and try and shoot down a pissed off bird. 1:14 4-11 Drew and Dan settle in for an extended cutscene. For their patience, they are rewarded with a monkey. 1:27 4-12 Drew and Dan reminisce about key cards, murder hallways, and an iconic pee stain. 1:10 4-13 Fire up the dick lasers! Drew and Dan run an emotional gauntlet featuring lots of old friends. 1:26 4-14 Drew and Dan blast off into the final act to play with dolls, switch controller ports, and get their creep on. 1:33 4-15 This is it. The finale. Everything's finally going to make sense after watching this, right? War is butts. 2:16 +PW+ Drew and Dan head down to Costa Rica to track the elusive quetzal. Or was it butterflies? 3:16 V-GZ Just in time for The Phantom Pain, Solid Scanlon finally grasps the basics of CQC. 1:53 +V+ The Phantom Pain Trailers: It took us a year to get Drew up to speed. Now, let's confuse the hell out of him with speculation. 0:45

Bonus Episodes Quick Links

Episode Stats

Longest Episode MGS1 - Part 11 - 3:16:16 Shortest Episode MGS4 - Part 07 - 0:49:22 Most Comments MGS2 - Part 13 - 568 Least Comments MGS4 - Part 07 - 162 First Comment Posted "Dan Ryckert: Your Little Brother, All Growed Up (But Not Really)" - @ak1mbo First Episode Posted On August 20, 2014 Last Episode Posted On August 18, 2015

Notes

Edit 1: I added a column for game time vs show time since there is some significant differences, probably explained by the game left running off camera. Shortest time marked*. Other typo edits and clarifications. Thanks!

Edit 2: moved stuff around, added more data to tables and added a rankings table

Sorry for errors! Point out and will correct.

I got all my times from How Long to Beat, including the Fastest Times, because when it comes to speed runs there are too many categories for me to read through and understand and list. Maybe one day. Sorry! I believe HLTB is based on "just playing the game". No glitches, no tools. Just skipping cutscenes and moving fast and memorizing.

MGS4 loading video is included in the time, for the most scientific results.

That loading video has 746 comments, by far the most in the series. Which is fair.

All in all Drew? You're pretty good.

Totally off topic, but, if you've never played Metal Gear or Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, I just watched those "movies" on youtube and you should too! 2 hours or so all in all.

I definitely noticed all the new editing tool additions and improvements since my last blog! :)

Thanks to Dan & Drew and What We've Learned

Just a huge thank you to @danryckert and @drewbert for sharing MGS with us. It's my favorite series of all time by quite some margin and the last GB celebration of it was that great Giant Spoiler Snakecast from what is now seven damn years ago (everyone go listen to it now, so fascinating! and pssst, check out GOTY 2008 too!). It was a real blast and I hope everyone had as much fun as I did. Looking back over this last year, it's pretty damn amazing this adventure all began with Dan playing a demo disc with MGS1 and Drew being there looking on. From second 1 Dan can't stop talking about Metal Gear and within the first few minutes he runs through the whole series pretty much. If that isn't the perfect introduction I don't know what is! The plot to have Drew play Metal Gear was hatched quickly and lo what fruit it yielded.

If you're looking to get through MGS (minus Peace Walker, sorry) it looks like you can expect a good 60-80 hour run time. So if you wanna run through it all before The Phantom Pain, you've still got 10-11 days to get 'er done. Just play 6-8 hours a day and you'll be through. Not bad! Kind of funny to think all those wild memories I have from all those crazy scenes boil down to such a "small number", but when you replay the game so many times and then stretch/multiply these numbers over the last ~two decades, well, I guess it adds up.

The Future Awaits!

I hope this format can return one day soon. It's not easy I know, but this setup of having one fan (super fan) and one new player tackle a series or game is really great. I think since the Persona and DP days we're all a little sore for more endurance runs, and MGScanlon delivered well beyond expectations. Now... give. me. more!

:D