**Metal Gear Solid doesn’t have outright failures. Sure, there’s Metal Gear Survive, but it doesn’t carry the Solid title. Across the board, every Metal Gear Solid entry has earned widespread praise and a loyal fanbase, and that reverence has largely endured over time.

There’s one notable outlier, though. Before Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker expanded Big Boss’s legacy on the PlayStation Portable, another game laid the foundation. Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops never received the same level of acclaim, but if you’ve never experienced Snake’s debut on the PSP, you’re missing out on a worthwhile adventure.

Portable Ops Was A Bold Leap For Handheld Gaming

A Full-Fledged Metal Gear Experience, Pocket-Sized

Let’s be honest—Portable Ops' Metacritic score of 87 feels a bit generous. That number puts it close to Kojima’s mainline titles, which isn’t quite fair. It’s a streamlined experience built for portability, and it doesn’t have the flashes of brilliance that define the series’ console entries.

Still, when it launched in 2006, the score made sense. Long before the Switch blurred the line between home and handheld systems, the dream was to make portable games feel like console experiences. Portable Ops was part of a wave of flagship PSP titles that pushed this vision forward. With detailed visuals, a third-person perspective, and stealth mechanics pulled straight from Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, it delivered a surprisingly authentic Solid feel.

While the Game Boy Color’s Metal Gear Solid (known as Ghost Babel in Japan) had proven handheld Metal Gear could be great, Portable Ops shattered the gap between console and portable gaming. Nearly two decades later, with Peace Walker behind us and Snake Eater ported to the 3DS, that achievement feels less groundbreaking. But even stripped of nostalgia, Portable Ops holds up. I initially planned to skip it during my series playthrough, but I’m glad I gave it a chance.

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Excels As A Portable Game

Ideal For Short, On-the-Move Play Sessions

Instead of vast jungles or sprawling bases like in Snake Eater or the original Metal Gear Solid games, Portable Ops divides its world into compact mission zones. Infiltrate, retrieve intel, and exfiltrate. Snake isn’t alone—he’s supported by soldiers you can recruit from enemy ranks, a now-iconic Metal Gear feature that Portable Ops actually pioneered.

I wouldn’t find this structure as engaging on a console, but on the go, it shines. I’ve played it in bed, on public transit, and even while waiting at a concert. It’s the perfect distraction during downtime.

Some missions in Portable Ops require focus, but there are no marathon cutscenes or drawn-out sequences like Snake Eater’s sniper segments. If I need to pause, I can simply put the system to sleep and resume later without losing progress.

One of the most frequent criticisms of Portable Ops is its controls, especially the absence of a second analog stick on the PSP. On the Vita, remapping the camera fixes most issues. Even on the original hardware, innovations like first-person movement—new to the series at the time—help soften the limitations.

Portable Ops Isn’t Essential, But It’s Worthwhile

No Reason To Overlook This Forgotten Entry

Whether you consider Portable Ops canon or not, its story is more than enough to support the game. It’s not the series’ strongest narrative, but there’s undeniable charm—like seeing a younger, scruffier Roy Campbell in action. The cutscenes are basic animatics, but the rough, hand-drawn art style gives them character and flair.

Ultimately, Portable Ops isn’t required reading in the Metal Gear Solid saga, but it deserves more recognition than it gets—especially compared to Peace Walker. The decline of dedicated handheld consoles left many genres behind, and Portable Ops represents one of the biggest losses. While it’s impressive that games like Cyberpunk 2077 can now go portable on Switch 2, there was something special about titles built from the ground up for handheld play.

If you’re planning to play it at home on a big screen, it might not be worth the effort. But if you’ve got room in your bag for a PSP or Vita, don’t skip straight to Peace Walker. Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops may have faded from memory in the 19 years since launch, but it remains a compelling piece of gaming history.

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