Metal Gear Solid: Rising

Metal Gear Solid: Rising is a cancelled game that was intended to be the ninth title in the Metal Gear series. Originally announced at E3 2009, the game went through a long development process at Kojima Productions, who struggled to fully develop the game. At the beginning of 2011, Hideo Kojima decided to hand the development of the game over to Platinum Games, who revamped the entire game into Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.

The game was to star Raiden and was to be set between Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Kojima was the executive producer while Shigenobu Matsuyama was the original producer but was replaced by Yuji Korekado prior to the game's cancellation.

Metal Gear Solid: Rising was based around a concept known as "zan-datsu", literally "cut and take." The game's original director Mineshi Kimura explained in a Konami press conference that the "take" part revolved around Raiden literally taking power from enemies, a concept shown in the trailer as Raiden absorbed the power from a robotic soldier's intestinal battery. This concept of "taking" was not limited to power; intelligence essential for a mission objective might also be taken from enemies, as well as other components. The game was also to feature a slow motion element that would aid in the accurate cutting mechanic. This would be carried over into Metal Gear Rising as Blade Mode.