Just for clarity, Portable ops is not canon
The only games that are official canon are games that are written and directed by Hideo Kojima:
Right, I wasn't clear on that, but PW and GB and obviously ACID and Rising are alternate canon storylines.
Kind of like the Star Wars "Extended /Legacy Universe", it's handy for fans who have followed the franchise to let them work as "headcanon" when they're playing through these games, or even handier, to consider them canon until they have been contradicted by official canon (which likely now will not happen, as any MGS6 will probably not be a prequel, but also not be by Kojima so...) However, it's generally easier and more exact to simply accept that the Kojima-directed games are canon, and those he didn't topline are not canon even if he was involved in the games.
Snake's Revenge (and maybe the NES port of MG1?) are also not canon, so there's a tiny bit of hope for the future of the extended universe in that Konami has put them in this first Master Collection.
Portable ops is the first time that Big Boss envisioned Outer Heaven and had the means to do it.... When you think that way, it becomes way more important from the timeline pov than both of the canonical sequels.
Kojima disdain that game but he copied a fair share of gameplay mechanics on the "official" Big Boss trilogy.
I don't think it's disdain? (Although it's possible he has said in places something derogatory about the franchise being hyperextended beyond his control and that he was able to '
leave all that crap behind...') I think it's simply control in a massive machine that needs some kind of oversight and direction.
Again, like Star Wars, George Lucas had to do the same thing as the brand expanded beyond any one person's control. It makes things manageable to set a hard line. 'This is true, and only this. This other stuff is myth and legend in the ethos of the universe. It may or may not have happened, but take it as not true until something which is true confirms it.'
Maybe it's megalomaniacal, and it does aggravate some fans who know he consulted on many of these games yet went on to burn creators by retconning out their storylines. However, a massive franchise like this begs for some kind of structure. It's simply cleaner this way.
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