Metal Gear is a Japanese franchise of action-adventure stealth games created by Hideo Kojima. Developed and published by Konami, the first game, Metal Gear, was released in 1987 for MSX home computers. The player often takes control of a special forces operative, usually Solid Snake, who is typically assigned the task of finding the titular superweapon, "Metal Gear", a bipedal walking tank (mecha) with the ability to launch nuclear weapons.