Frank Jaeger, better known by his codename Gray Fox, is a

fictional character In fiction, a character (or speaker, in poetry) is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel, play, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life perso ...

and protagonist from

Konami , is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machines, slot machines, and arcade cabinets. Konami has ca ...

's ''

Metal Gear is a series of techno-thriller stealth games created by Hideo Kojima. Developed and published by Konami, the first game, ''Metal Gear'', was released in 1987 for MSX home computers. The player often takes control of a special forces operativ ...

'' series. Created by

Hideo Kojima is a Japanese video game designer, director, producer and writer. He is regarded as an auteur of video games. He developed a strong passion for action/adventure cinema and literature during his childhood and adolescence. In 1986, he was hi ...

and designed by

Yoji Shinkawa is a Japanese artist. He is best known as the lead character and mecha designer for the ''Metal Gear'' franchise. He has collaborated with Hideo Kojima on each of his games. Biography Shinkawa was born in Hiroshima on 25 December 1971. He bega ...

, he first appears in the series' original 1987 game ''

'', and is one of the few characters to appear in both the original 2D games and the later 3D games. First introduced in the original game as a high-ranking agent of

FOXHOUND A foxhound is a Dog type, type of large hunting hound bred for strong hunting instincts, a keen sense of smell, and their bark, energy, drive, and speed. In fox hunting, the foxhound's namesake, packs of foxhounds track quarry, followed—usuall ...

who goes missing during a mission to Outer Heaven, he is saved by fellow FOXHOUND agent Solid Snake but goes missing during the original game and its sequel '' Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake'' during which he is revealed to have sided with Big Boss; he is eventually defeated and left for dead. The character is reintroduced in ''

Metal Gear Solid is a series of techno-thriller stealth games created by Hideo Kojima. Developed and published by Konami, the first game, ''Metal Gear'', was released in 1987 for MSX home computers. The player often takes control of a special forces opera ...

'' as the Cyborg Ninja, a mysterious being wearing a

powered armor A powered exoskeleton, also known as power armor, powered armor, powered suit, cybernetic suit, cybernetic armor, exosuit, hardsuit, exoframe or augmented mobility, is a mobile machine that is wearable over all or part of the human body, prov ...

exoskeleton An exoskeleton (from Greek ''éxō'' "outer" and ''skeletós'' "skeleton") is an external skeleton that supports and protects an animal's body, in contrast to an internal skeleton ( endoskeleton) in for example, a human. In usage, some of the ...

and armed with a high-frequency blade. During Liquid Snake's FOXHOUND revolt at Shadow Moses, he confronts Solid Snake on several occasions, while also providing advice via CODEC as a faceless contact named Deepthroat. '' Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops'', set twenty-five years before the original ''Metal Gear'', also features his teenage iteration using the codename Null. The character was positively received by critics, and is considered one of the best characters in ''Metal Gear''; he is also frequently mentioned as one of the best ninjas in video gaming.

Appearances

The original ''

'' game introduces as a high-ranking agent of

as the "Fox" codename being the highest distinction within the unit. His face portrait in the MSX2 version was modeled after actor

Tom Berenger Tom Berenger (born Thomas Michael Moore; May 31, 1949) is an American actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Staff Sergeant Bob Barnes in ''Platoon'' (1986). He is also known for playing Jake ...

. Prior to the game's events, Fox goes missing during a mission to Outer Heaven with his last transmission being a cryptic message simply saying "

"."Snakes and Gears: A Metal Gear Overview", ''

Game Informer ''Game Informer'' (''GI'', most often stylized ''gameinformer'' from the 2010s onward) is an American monthly video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and associated consoles. It debuted in August 1991 ...

'' 182 (June 2008): 108. After being rescued by Solid Snake, Fox reveals TX-55 Metal Gear's true nature to the player. '' Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake'' revealed that Gray Fox left FOXHOUND and defected to Zanzibar Land. Fox pilots the advanced model Metal Gear D and confronts Solid Snake a few times, while secretly assisting Snake as an anonymous informant. Fox's past is fleshed out in this game; his civilian identity is revealed to have a relationship with former Czech

figure skater Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, when contested at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic disciplines are me ...

Gustava Heffner (Natasha Marcova in the MSX2 version) after they met in

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, maki ...

and fell in love. Gustava tried to seek asylum with him in America, but failed and was stripped of her competition rights as a result. Following this incident, Frank developed a great deal of resentment toward his superiors, but was unaware that Gustava later joined the StB and is present in Zanzibar as Dr. Kio Marv's bodyguard. During his and Snake's first direct encounter as enemies, Fox's piloting of the Metal Gear accidentally causes Gustava's death. After Snake destroys Metal Gear, Fox challenges Snake to a fistfight in the middle of a minefield and is apparently killed. Gray Fox returns as the in ''

'' after he has been grafted into a

and armed with a high-frequency blade. According to

, "cyborg ninja was born from this Shin-chan's graffiti." During Liquid Snake's FOXHOUND revolt of Shadow Moses, Fox once again challenges Solid Snake to a fight, maiming Revolver Ocelot and scaring

Otacon , nicknamed , is a fictional character from Kojima's ''Metal Gear'' series. Created by Hideo Kojima and designed by Yoji Shinkawa, Otacon was introduced in the series in ''Metal Gear Solid''. In ''Metal Gear Solid'', Otacon, an ArmsTech employe ...

in the process. After the fight, he becomes erratic and disappears in a violent rage. Throughout the game, he provides Snake cryptic advice via CODEC as a faceless contact calling himself "Deepthroat". Naomi Hunter eventually divulges being Fox's foster sister as well as his Cyborg Ninja identity to Snake. Later, during Snake's battle with Metal Gear REX, Fox reveals that he killed Naomi's parents and, feeling remorse, became her step brother. Fox fights REX and manages to destroy its

radome A radome (a portmanteau of radar and dome) is a structural, weatherproof enclosure that protects a radar antenna. The radome is constructed of material transparent to radio waves. Radomes protect the antenna from weather and conceal antenna e ...

with the use of a prototype

railgun A railgun or rail gun is a linear motor device, typically designed as a weapon, that uses electromagnetic force to launch high velocity projectiles. The projectile normally does not contain explosives, instead relying on the projectile's high ...

attached to his arm. However, Fox is mortally wounded and begs Snake to kill him and destroy REX with a stinger, but Snake refuses to shoot. Saying goodbye to his comrade, he is killed by Liquid (piloting REX). Raiden initially thought that the Cyborg Ninja in '' Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty'' seen during Solidus Snake's Manhattan incident was Gray Fox before learning that the person in question is actually

Olga Gurlukovich The ''Metal Gear'' franchise features a large number of characters created by Hideo Kojima and designed by Yoji Shinkawa. Its setting features several soldiers with supernatural powers provided by the new advancements of science. The series in ...

. The second prequel '' Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops'' (set twenty-five years before ''Metal Gear'') featured a teenage version of the character under the codename , a masked

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-wielding assassin. Null is subjected to a secret

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

project to be the "Perfect Soldier" and recruited into

Gene In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a b ...

's corrupt FOX unit during the San Hieronymo takeover. During the game, Null fights with Big Boss (Naked Snake) twice. During the second fight, Big Boss realized that Null was a boy in

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

that used his innocence as a cover to kill dozens of government soldiers with only one knife while speaking a little German, thus how he was deemed "Frank Jaeger" (German for "Frank Hunter"). After defeating Null, Big Boss sent Null to somewhere outside of FOX for help. '' Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots'' reveals that Frank Jaeger's murder of Para-Medic was part of Big Mama's plan to free Big Boss from

Zero 0 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity. In place-value notation such as the Hindu–Arabic numeral system, 0 also serves as a placeholder numerical digit, which works by Multiplication, multiplying digits to the left of 0 by th ...

's control.

Other appearances

There is a Cyborg Ninja unique character card in ''

Metal Gear Acid ''Metal Gear Acid'', stylized as ''METAL GEAR AC!D'', is a turn-based collectible card tactical RPG video game developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Japan for the PlayStation Portable. The game was first unveiled at E3 in May 2004, and wa ...

''. Outside of the ''Metal Gear'' games, the Cyborg Ninja is featured as a

player character A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not control ...

driver in '' Konami Krazy Racers'' and as an Assist Trophy in both ''

Super Smash Bros. Brawl ''Super Smash Bros. Brawl'' is a 2008 crossover fighting video game developed by Sora Ltd. and published by Nintendo for the Wii. The third installment in the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series, it was announced at a pre-E3 2005 press conferenc ...

'' and '' Super Smash Bros. Ultimate''. A Cyborg Ninja figure was released by

McFarlane Toys McFarlane Toys is an American company founded by comic book creator Todd McFarlane which makes highly detailed model action figures of characters from films, comics, popular music, video games and various sporting genres. The company, a subsid ...

in 1998. Another figure was released by

in 2004. In 2007, a block-style figure was also released in the

Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...

line. In 2011, another Cyborg Ninja figure, as designed by Kojima himself, was announced to come from

Square Enix is a Japanese multinational holding company, production enterprise and entertainment conglomerate, best known for its ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', ''Star Ocean'' and ''Kingdom Hearts'' role-playing video game franchises, among numerous ...

's Play Arts Kai line of ''Metal Gear'' figures, and was released for the 25th anniversary of the ''Metal Gear'' series. '' Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance'' features Gray Fox's Cyborg Ninja exoskeleton and sword as a

downloadable content Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enabli ...

skin Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation. Other animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have different ...

and weapon for Raiden. In 2013, Kojima stated to be interested in developing a game with Gray Fox as the main playable character, although he does not assure it to happen.

Reception

The character was very well received by critics. In 2008, IGN ranked Gray Fox as both the third top ''Metal Gear'' villain ("whether players are rescuing Gray Fox, battling against him, or watching gleefully as he rips entire rooms of soldiers to shreds, Gray Fox never fails to impress") and the fourth best

boss Boss may refer to: Occupations * Supervisor, often referred to as boss * Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier * Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization * Fire boss, a ...

to battle in the series. That same year,

Destructoid ''Destructoid'' is a website that was founded as a video game-focused blog in March 2006 by Yanier Gonzalez, a Cuban-American cartoonist and author. Enthusiast Gaming acquired the website in 2017, and sold it to Gamurs Group in 2022. History ...

's Chad Concelmo also placed him twice on the list of ten best ''Metal Gear'' bosses, as ninth (in ''Metal Gear 2'') and seventh (in ''Metal Gear Solid'', making "one of the greatest returns in videogame history"). In 2013, Sam Smith of '' PLAY'' ranked Gray Fox as the ninth best character in the series, noting that he "remains one of ''Metal Gears most popular and iconic characters." '' Complex'' put Cyborg Ninja at number sixth on the list of characters they wished to see in ''

Super Smash Bros. 4 and ( colloquially and collectively referred to as ''Super Smash Bros. 4'' or ''Smash 4'') is a group of two 2014 crossover fighting video games developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd. and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3D ...

'', adding, "the ''Metal Gear Solid'' series has plenty of other characters to choose from, but we think the Cyborg Ninja would be the perfect selection." The return of Gray Fox as a playable character in ''Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance'' was requested by several publications, including '' EGM'',

Shacknews ''Shacknews'' (originally Quakeholio, then ShugaShack) is a website that hosts news, features, editorial content and forums relating to computer games and Video game console, console games. It is currently owned by a company called Gamerhub Cont ...

and

ScrewAttack Rooster Teeth Productions, LLC is an American digital media company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Founded in 2003 by Burnie Burns, Matt Hullum, Geoff Ramsey, Jason Saldaña, Gus Sorola, and Joel Heyman, Rooster Teeth is a subsidiary of Warner ...

. He was also frequently featured in the lists of top ten fictional ninja characters in video gaming (and sometimes in all fiction), including by

Virgin Media Virgin Media is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, television and internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, England. It is owned by Virgin Media O2, a 50:50 joint ventu ...

, Nich Maragos and David Smith of 1UP.com in 2004 (ranked fifth), Devin Coldeway of

CrunchGear TechCrunch is an American online newspaper focusing on high tech and startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. In 2010, AOL acquired the company for approximately $ ...

in 2008 (ranked ninth), Unreality in 2009 (ranked second), ''

Nintendo Power ''Nintendo Power'' was a video game news and strategy magazine from Nintendo of America, first published in July/August 1988 as Nintendo's official print magazine for North America. The magazine's publication was initially done monthly by Ninten ...

'', Chris Jager of

GamePro Gamepro.com is an international multiplatform video game magazine media company that covers the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software in countries such as Germany and France. The publication, GamePro, was originally ...

(ranked fourth), and ScrewAttack (ranked second) in 2010, Becky Cunningham of Cheat Code Central in 2011 (ranked fifth), and the staff of ''PLAY'' in 2013 (ranked third). Ian Dransfield of ''PLAY'' also featured him in the 2011 list top ten ninjas for

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a di ...

consoles, adding that although Raiden "may have completely redeemed his character", he "can never outdo" Gray Fox, and in 2012 ''Complex'' Rich Knight of ranked him as the third swiftest ninja in gaming. In 2008, IGN's Jesse Schedeen compared Gray Fox to

Vergil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...

from the ''

Devil May Cry is a series of action-adventure games created by Hideki Kamiya. It is primarily developed and published by Capcom. The series centers on the demon hunter Dante (Devil May Cry), Dante and his efforts to thwart various demon invasions of Earth. ...

'' series as "two formidable warriors from the videogaming realm" who both "met their unfortunate ends in the games," stating Gray Fox has "left a big mark on the ''Metal Gear'' series." The demise of Gray Fox was featured in

GameSpy GameSpy was an American provider of online multiplayer and matchmaking middleware for video games founded in 1996 by Mark Surfas. After the release of a multiplayer server browser for the game, QSpy, Surfas licensed the software under the Ga ...

's 2008 article about the series' eight top moments, ranked as the ninth top cutscene in the series by Jeremy M. Loss of

Joystick Division Village Voice Media or VVM is a newspaper company. It began in 1970 as a weekly alternative newspaper in Phoenix. The company, founded by Michael Lacey (editor) and Jim Larkin (publisher), was then known as New Times Inc. (NTI) and the publicati ...

, included on the list of ten most depressing deaths in video games by Shubhankar Parijat of GamingBolt in 2011, and ranked as the seventh most "awesome and awful" character death in video games by Phil Hornshaw of GameFront that same year, and as the fourth top ''Metal Gear'' highlight by PSU.com's Mike Harradence in 2012. ''

FHM ''FHM'' (For Him Magazine) is a British multinational men's lifestyle magazine that was published in several countries. Its master edition contained features such as the ''FHM'' 100 Sexiest Women in the World, which has featured models, actres ...

s Gelo Gonzales placed Cyborg Ninja first on their 2009 list of most memorable hitmen in gaming, adding that he "holds the title for the deadliest ninja ever." In 2012, Matt Elliott of '' PlayStation Official Magazine'' included Gray Fox among the

's top ten scariest characters, calling him "one of the most brutally unnerving bosses ever, largely because of his jarring, staccato introduction, often at odds with linear military narrative of Snake's mission." That same year, Shelby Reiches of Cheat Code Central ranked him as the number one swordsman in gaming, commenting that "though this is more a role than an individual character, the Cyborg Ninja is a recurring reminder that, with proper preparation, sometimes a sword ''can'' beat a gun."

References

External links

Ninjas in Games - Gray Fox
at

UGO.com UGO Entertainment, Inc. was a website that provided coverage of online media in entertainment, targeting males aged 18–34. The company was based in New York, New York, United States. History The company started in 1997 as Unified Gamers Online ...

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Appearances

Other appearances

Reception

See also

References

External links