The year was 2000 and it was at E3 when Konami revealed that historic and epic trailer to Metal Gear Solid 2.  Everyone watched in awe and questioned whether it was really in-game footage or not. Whatever the reaction that theme song stuck in a lot of people’s heads afterward. So it’s a valid question to wonder why that theme never really shows up in MGS4.

Turns out the reason is a late Russian composer named Georgy Sviridov and his choral concerto “Pushkin’s Garland.”  Gamasutra reports of an interview EGM conducted with Norihiko Hibino, one of the long term MGS composers, where he explained that they had received accusations of stealing Sviridov’s music. He goes on to explain that the theme, originally composed by Tappi “TAPPY” Iwase for the first MGS in 1998, was not stolen from Sviridov, but Konami was so sensitive about the issue that eventually the theme was simply axed.

That is actually a video of the original piece being played for Kojima above. I’m not sure if their intent was scornful or playful, but that’s sure to awkward up any conversation. That’s not important, though. What is is that you have a shot at breaking this thing down yourself and deciding if Konami snaked a melody. Ha! See what I did there? Anyone?