Since the reveal of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance at this weekend's Spike Video Game Awards, Hideo Kojima has been stormed by flurry of questions via Twitter. The man himself has revealed that once upon a time, the Metal Gear Solid: Rising that had originally been planned was canceled without so much as a whisper heralding its demise. Revengeance is set after MGS4, not before it, and is the revamped Rising in shiny new packaging.

"The old Rising that was being prototyped at Kojima Productions looked visually like Metal Gear, but it was 30 frames per second and required complicated controls," said Kojima. But without proper focus on where the game was going, the project was canceled, only to have Platinum Games step in and take matters into their own hands. Kojima's stipulation for the passing of the baton? "I made one request of Platinum: a cool Raiden who moves nice and smooth at 60 frames per second."

Although Revengeance is set in the same universe as Metal Gear Solid, it does not have a set place in the story's main timeline. "We've only said that the period setting is several years after MGS4," Kojima added. "Metal Gear Rising is not part of the Metal Gear Solid series. At present, we can't say more than this."

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is currently rumored to for release sometime next time.