Over the weekend, Twitch streamer Boba was streaming herself playing Metal Gear Solid for the first time ever, and after being attacked by some guards, she turned to fight them. At that moment, she accidentally ended up getting pushed backward through a locked door, discovering a new glitch that could save a ton of time and that has MGS speedrunners going wild with the time-saving possibilities.
In Metal Gear Solid, you eventually reach a section where you need to go up and down some communication towers, fighting a helicopter, climbing a bunch of stairs, and even rappelling down a rope. It’s a lot. During this section, Boba was running from guards and reached a locked door, so she turned around to fight the swarm of angry armed goons. As she did so, she was shot multiple times, getting pushed back enough that Snake’s model clipped through the door and seemingly activated a trigger, letting Boba skip the stairs and enter the outside area early. She celebrated with a song.
last night i broke metal gear
get rekt speedrunners pic.twitter.com/6tqhBvP5LA— ???? boba ???? (@boba_witch) August 15, 2021
In an interview with YouTuber Drakon Astron, Boba explained that she didn’t think much of it at the time. “I thought it was something that probably someone had done before, on accident.”
However, this was a big moment. Nobody had ever seen or documented this bug before and it seemed to let Boba skip a good chunk of gameplay. Quickly, as footage of the bug spread across Twitter and Reddit, the collective Metal Gear Solid speedrunning community lost their shit. It was estimated by some that if this glitch could be replicated reliably, it could save upwards of two or three minutes. And, within a matter of hours, folks had started replicating the bug, which some are calling the “Boba Skip,” though Boba herself wishes for it to be called “Kevin.”
Now, after replicating the bug, players have begun heavily theory-crafting and investigating how this bug works, what it means for the game, and if it’s viable elsewhere. Players in the MGS speedrunning Discord server are testing out other locked doors and inaccessible areas of the game where this “Boba/Kevin Skip” might be used to save even more time. If some of these areas become skippable using this glitch, it’s possible that Boba not only found a neat trick that saves a few minutes, but a brand new strategy that could completely change how folks run Metal Gear Solid on both PC and console.
Not bad for someone who isn’t obsessively speedrunning the game every day and in fact had never played Metal Gear Solid before. According to Boba, one speedrunner said they loved that she found the bug because instead of a longtime speedrunner, it was someone just having a good time with MGS.
“The best part is it’s not some, like, nerd that’s been speedrunning Metal Gear for like a hundred years,” the speedrunner told her. “It’s just me having fun playing a video game and accidentally discovering this crazy thing.”
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