Who has da Splintered Cell 3'd?

[EdenMaster]

Raiden and Snake, skills-wise, are essentially identical... at least in the game...

Skills, yeah. Because technically, Snake and Raiden have one key thing in common: They're both controlled by you. Snake has hardened battle experience, while Raiden has only trained in a VR simulation. Besides that (quite large) distinction, yeah, they're of equal skill.

The difference is, you never saw Snake whine about his life with Meryl for 20 minutes over the Codec. You never saw someone grab Snakes crotch to verify that he was a man. You never saw Snake running around naked covering up his junk (that's a very good thing). Yeah, they have equal skills, but as far as characters popularity is concerned, everybody hates Raiden.

Metal Gear is about Solid Snake. That's part of the reason why the games do so well. Snake is one of the all-time greatest video game characters ever created, if you ask me, and I would say many would agree with me. Not only does he has exceptional skills and near-superhuman ability, the games show that he is still a flawed human being with his own shortcomings and imperfections. People connect with Snake, empathize, and even care for him while playing. That is a rare feat for a mere videogame character. So when MGS2 came out and we got one hour of playtime with Snake, and the rest of the game we had to play as a whiny bleach-blonde sissy, the response was less than stellar.

Play MGS: The Twin Snakes, and try to tell me at the end that you like Raiden better than Snake.