While all of us here at IGN adore the core Metal Gear Solid series, and have fond memories of Snake's strange appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, there are a lot of bizarre Metal Gear games that seemed to have slipped through the cracks throughout the decades.

How many of these seven weird Metal Gear games have you played?

Metal Gear: Ghost Babel

We’re going to start off with a big one here -- Metal Gear: Ghost Babel (sometimes also confusingly called Metal Gear Solid) is not only one of the best games in the series, but also one of the best Game Boy Color games of all time. Coming out a few years after Metal Gear Solid on PS1, Ghost Babel took many of the mechanics and ideas of Kojima’s masterpiece, and translated them into a fantastic portable experience.

A lengthy campaign filled with great bosses, a ton of smart VR puzzles to test your wits, and an under-appreciated but awesome multiplayer mode all helped make Ghost Babel one of the best GBC games around. The only downside here is that finding a used copy of it is currently the only legal way to play the game. Here’s to hoping Konami finds a way to port the game to the 3DS eShop.

Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel

The Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel was a really interesting experiment in interactive storytelling for the PSP. Released back in 2006 on one of those wacky UMDs, it took the stylish, but static graphic novel adaptation of the original Metal Gear Solid, and added a layer of kinetic energy through sound effects and animations. Given that story has become an integral part of Kojima’s series, the Digital Graphic Novel provided a great way to consume one of the chapters of the sprawling narrative.

Luckily, there’s no need for you to dust off your PSP to experience the DGN. It was included on the incredible Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection for PS3 in 2013.

Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions

One year after Metal Gear Solid helped shape the video game landscape, Konami released a quasi-expansion disc that added hundreds of VR missions to Snake’s Shadow Moses adventure. Though some of the missions adhered to the sneaking and combat that we all were familiar with from MGS proper, VR Missions stood out when it went completely off the rails.

Decimating Liquid Snakes army as a playable Cyborg Ninja, weirdo photography missions where Snake has to take creepy pictures of Meryl, and battling a giant 100 ft tall enemy guard are just a few of the insane things players got to experience in VR Missions. While it may have seemed strange back in 1999, its slightly less alarming when you consider some of the bizarre scenarios Kojima has introduced in the series over the past decade or so.

Metal Gear Solid: Touch

What a weird little game Metal Gear Solid: Touch is. The iOS game takes the general setting and aesthetics of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, strips away most of the interesting ideas and mechanics, and turns the entire thing into a shooting gallery. Like House of the Dead, Time Crisis, or pretty much any arcade light-gun game, Old Snake can pop in and out of cover as he tries to shoot PMC soldiers, Gekkos, and the motley crew of baddies that appeared on the PS3 version of the game.

While this all sounds great on paper, the problem here is that Touch is just kinda boring, and mechanically bland. Considering it was released five years ago, there are literally hundreds of better iOS games on the market, but it does earn brownies points by being the the easiest game on the list to play right now, as you can currently download it for a dollar on the iOS App Store.

Evolution Skateboarding w/ Solid Snake

I bet you didn’t realize that one of Solid Snake’s biggest joys in life aside from figuring out new uses for cardboard boxes is doing sick kick-flips across Big Shell. But sure enough, it’s true: Snake loves his kick-flips.

Using a modified version of Konami’s own Evolution Skateboarding engine, a bonus mode in the PlayStation 2 version of Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance gave us the opportunity to grind across the main setting of Sons of Liberty as the icon himself. While Evolution Skateboarding is by and large a poor man’s Tony Hawk, being able to play through the MGS 2 stage as Snake is worth the price of admission. Knocking down drones, scaring the heck out of pigeons, and ultimately blowing up the entire rig is one of the strangest things in the Metal Gear universe, and honestly, that's saying something.

Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake

While some of us may have played this game in 2006 when the English version was finally released inside of Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, that’s almost 16 years after the Japanese version hit the MSX2. Hideo Kojima’s second foray into Tactical Espionage, Solid Snake laid much of the groundwork that would later go on to redefine 3D video games in the original Metal Gear Solid.

Improvements such as enemies having their iconic vision cones, Snake being able to make noise in the environment to attract guards, and being able to silently crawl on the ground and disarm mines all helped create a richer and deeper stealth experience. The storyline was also more fleshed out this time around, dealing with themes like the nature of war and the depravity of man that would later go on to define the Metal Gear Solid series as a whole.

Metal Gear Online

I’m willing to bet that most of us glossed over Metal Gear Online in favor of playing through Metal Gear Solid IV: Guns of the Patriots, despite the fact that MGO was included on the same Blu-ray back in 2008. But those who dived into Konami’s strange online world were greeted with 16-player tactical combat that was much different than anything that came before it, and honestly, most things that have come since. Its emphasis on weird gadgets, non-lethal weaponry, and a strange suite of modes helped cultivate a small, but devout fanbase.

In 2010, Konami released a reworked version of MGO for arcades, but sadly, it never made its way out of Japan. On June 12, 2012, Konami officially terminated services of Metal Gear Online. However, given the recent reveal of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain’s multiplayer modes, fans of Online definitely have something to look forward to.

Marty Sliva is an Editor at IGN. He's counting down the days until Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Follow him on Twitter @McBiggitty.