Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater glitch allows you to skip ladder scene

Hideo Kojima’s notoriously long set pieces can be no match for speedrunners’ game-breaking antics. On Tuesday, speedrunner Apel at last figured out how to skip the long ladder climb in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. As Metal Gear fans well and truly know, this is one hell of a climb otherwise, so Apel’s discovery is a public service.

In the exploit, Solid Snake assumes a T-pose after some menu glitching and — presto! — The swan jumps in the room over the ladder climb. This clip comes from the HD remake released in 2011 on PlayStation 3.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater first launched in 2004, and by then Kojima was really finding his groove as a game director. Two-minute ladder climbs are a classic Kojima scene. It is a two minute long one. Snake has just defeated a deadly sniper and must endure a slow climb up to the top. This is a far cry of the super-spy lifestyle Snake had vowed to live.