Hands-on with Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D on Nintendo 3DS

While we're really hoping for some great unique titles for the 3DS to sweep us off our feet, the recent spate of remakes and re-releases for Nintendo's handheld haven't been too shabby.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D cast fresh light on a masterpiece, while Starfox 64 3D proved to be another wonderfully revitalised release.

With this in mind, we're looking forward to Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D rather a lot, given how good the original PS2 version was.

Pretty soon, 3DS gamers will be able to experience this glorious title with a new stereoscopic 3D look and touchscreen functionality.

In the meantime, I went deep undercover at GAMEfest, Birmingham, to get a closer look at Konami's upcoming stealth-action game for 3DS.

Snake Eater is a little different from other Metal Gear Solid titles, as it takes place in a dense jungle, rather than the usual enemy bases and metallic facilities.

As part of our playthrough, we were looking to rescue rocket scientist Sokolov and sabotage a new experimental superweapon.

The new 3D effects are instantly recognisable, and possibly some of the best we've seen to date on the device. Snake's world really pops out, and the depth is staggering.

Being able to gauge how far away the enemy is proves extremely useful, making the action even more exciting and tense. It's a lot easier, therefore, to choose the tactical route over the "eh, bugger it, I'm gonna shoot everyone in the face" approach.

This 3DS version utilises the bottom screen to maximum effect, with plenty of great ideas in store.

Your weapons, for example, can now we swapped in and out via a tap of the touchscreen, and your inventory can be brought up by holding down on it.

The bottom screen also displays a rather useful map so you can work out where you're going - and if you're spotted, an alert timer will appear, freeing you up to concentrate on the action whilst simultaneously keeping a tiny eye on whether you're in the clear or not.

Unfortunately, the 3DS version doesn't seem to be able to cope very well with the cutscenes.

We experienced a noticeable amount of lag in numerous scenes, which made them very difficult to watch. Of course, the MGS series is known for its hours of cutscenes, so this isn't a great sign.

Hopefully, this will have been fixed by the time the game is released in early 2012, because aside from that, Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D is looking like a rather essential purchase.