We're just days away from the launch of the 3DS remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater , and when it ships it will continue a trend that's defined the Metal Gear brand on Nintendo platforms for 25 years. Nintendo never gets MGS first. None of the franchise's titles have ever debuted on a Nintendo machine. Instead, the series' Nintendo history contains only ports, remakes and secondhand appearances. But is that a bad thing? Read on to find out.

And there you have it - Metal Gear Solid's Nintendo history, every piece of it coming to Nintendo systems after appearing elsewhere first. The extra time invested has almost always been worth it, though. Even the first Metal Gear, which was worse off after the porting process, helped keep the series from disappearing in a puff of smoke with its strong American sales.Let us know your thoughts on Solid Snake's missions across Nintendo platforms by checking in a comment below. (No fair bringing up Snake's Revenge on NES - real fans know that one doesn't count.) Then stayed tuned to IGN for our official review of Snake Eater on 3DS, coming soon.

Lucas M. Thomas is a long-time IGN freelancer who thinks smoking's only cool when Solid Snake does it after smuggling cigarettes into a mission by swallowing them in a bag and then regurgitating them later. That's hardcore. You can follow Lucas on