TOKYO--During the Tokyo Game Show, Konami director Hideo Kojima appeared on a special stage to show extra material on his anticipated PlayStation 3 title, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Kojima was expected to show footage from MGS4 and to reveal details about the game with members of his development team. But this is Kojima that we're talking about, so there was a major surprise for attendees.

　　Instead of proceeding to the MGS4 trailer, Kojima began by explaining why the main character in the game ended up being Snake, rather than Metal Gear Solid 2's comparatively unpopular hero, Raiden. Kojima showed the E3 trailer rendered on the PlayStation 2 engine, in which Raiden fought Snake for the lead in MGS4. That trailer was expected, since Kojima usually warms up the crowd before going on to his main presentation. But what hit everyone completely off guard was a new sequel to the E3 trailer showcasing a fake game titled "Metal Gear Raiden: Snake Eraser."

　　Metal Gear Raiden: Snake Eraser starts out where the E3 trailer left off. Raiden, determined to snatch the main role in MGS4, decides to time-travel to the past to assassinate Big Boss so that Solid Snake will never exist. He appears in the MGS3 time frame like Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator, almost completely naked and discharging electricity. But as he gets ready to find Big Boss, he is knocked out from above by a parachuting Snake, who is landing the HALO jump that begins MGS3's first mission. Moaning on the ground in pain, Raiden slips out of the time frame, while Colonel Campbell's voice can be heard off-screen, shouting, "You'll create a time paradox! The future will be changed!"

　　When Raiden gets up, he finds himself in the scene where Ocelot and Eva make their first appearances. Once again, Raiden is struck from behind, this time by Eva and her motorcycle. Big Boss is also at the scene, but Raiden is unconscious before he gets the chance to point a gun at him.

　　Waking up once again, Raiden finds that he has landed in a jail cell--with Big Boss locked up in another cell next door. Things take an odd twist from there, as Colonel Volgin appears, mistakes Raiden as his fellow soldier, Major Raikov, and tries to grope him in the jail cell's bed. Then Colonel Campbell's voice can be heard again screaming, "Don't do that! You'll create a time paradox! The future will be changed!"

　　Raiden then teleports into a barrel that carries the dead body of Metal Gear's original creator, Granin. There, he is harassed by Volgin once again, who punches the barrel from the outside and blasts it into the air. One teleport later, Raiden finds himself face to face with Eva's chest, right in the scene where she's exposing her large scar to Big Boss. Not being able to take his eyes off, a hefty slap by the femme fatale sends Raiden into another time warp.

　　After all of his troubles, Raiden finds himself face-to-face with Volgin yet again, who tries to crush Raiden with a Shagohad tank. Raiden is saved by a rocket launcher blast from Big Boss that stops the Shagohad, and he finally gets to meet the legendary mercenary. Big Boss, not knowing Raiden's intentions, hands a gun to him as a safety precaution. Raiden aims the gun at Big Boss' back, but he finds he can't kill the man that saved his life. Dropping the handgun to the ground, Raiden watches Big Boss as he rides away on a bike with Eva. He is then trampled by an army of soldiers racing after Big Boss and is subsequently crushed by a Shagohad.

　　This setback doesn't stop Raiden from trying to erase Solid Snake from history. As a last resort, he decides to kill Snake directly. As Raiden makes his last time warp, the screen suddenly changes from the 3D graphics of MGS3 to a 2D display of the original 8-bit MSX Metal Gear from 1987. But just as Raiden corners Snake, a solider appears behind him and guns him down. It's game over for Raiden, who then leaps back to his original time. "Get out of my way. He's mine!" says an aged Big Boss to Raiden in Metal Gear's 8-bit conversation screen, as Raiden shouts his last words of regret. "Big Boss... I know I should have killed you!"

　　Back in his own time, a despondent Raiden is comforted by his girlfriend, Rose, who says that the past can't be changed. "Metal Gear Solid 4 might not be possible," she says, as the trailer comes to its conclusion, "But what about 5...?"

　　The Metal Gear Raiden trailer was given a great applause by fans at Konami's booth, and it was a fantastic appetizer before Kojima's main presentation of MGS4. Gamers who couldn't visit the Tokyo Game Show will get a chance to see the trailer in a few more months, since it will be included in Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence's bonus material.