Random: Hideo Kojima's Chronic Back Pain Symptom of Carrying Video Game Industry, Fans Say

Back Hurtman's done his back again

by · Push Square

Beloved video game designer and industry icon Hideo Kojima has hurt his back again. For those of you who are not closely monitoring the situation, Kojima first publicly reported back pain on 24th September. While we are not medical doctors, in our opinion, this could be a flareup of that original injury, but the auteur creator seems to think it's a separate thing. In both instances, many, many fans suggested that this targeted pain was the direct consequence of Kojima having borne the weight of the entire video game industry on his broad, capable shoulders for so many long years.

We trawled through hundreds of replies across the two posts, with dozens of well-wishers suggesting the same thing: that Kojima's pain stems from a repetitive strain injury caused by the heavy lifting done first at Konami (Metal Gear Solid) and later at Kojima Productions (Death Stranding). One fan memorably suggested that perhaps the creator, known for his fourth-wall-breaking marketing stunts, was heralding the inclusion of a new character, "Back Hurtman", in the upcoming Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, and we'd believe it.

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Take it easy, Kojima-san. We need you to be rested to continue performing at your peak. Do you think Kojima's now chronic back pain results from having carried the video game industry for so long? Remember to lift from your knees in the comments section below.

[source x.com]

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About Khayl Adam

Khayl Adam is Push Square's roving Australian correspondent, a reporter tasked with scouring the internet for the richest, most succulent PlayStation stories. With five years of experience as a freelance journalist and mercenary wordsmith, RPGs are his first great love, but strategy and tactics games are a close second, genres in which he is only too happy to specialize.

Comments 56

Gamers: "Hideo Kojima is a legend of storytelling"
Also Kojima: Names a character DieHardman

Disclaimer: I am a fan of his work it's a joke.

Back Hurtman confirmed made me laugh.

I swear I do not understand the hype around this man at all.

Back Hurtman is maybe the funniest thing I’ve read on here since I found the place. Well done! 👏

I used to think, seeing the articles about some of the things he'd say, that he was a bit of a narcissist or full of himself. But honestly the dude genuinely seems to love what he does. And you can tell he has a lot of passion for game development and isn't afraid or embarrassed in the slightest over what he makes. And that's respectable

And I'm not just saying that cause I'm falling in love with Death Stranding the more I play it 😝

wow imagine that

If there's anything more annoying than this overrated developer, it's his "fans"

He needs a chiropractor

The best thing he's done is appear in Konpeki Plaza, Night City.

I like a lot of his games but in all honesty sometimes it is in spite of his way of doing things rather than because of them.

I'd love the guy to make a modern game without cut scenes just as an experiment, the stories are often impossible to follow in anything other than the vaguest sense anyway.

He's been carrying the video game industry for years has he? I like the metal gear solid universe and it's bonkers characters but I think kojima is massively over rated and to be honest the industry can and will survive if he ever calls it quits. I personally find it a bit insulting to other publishers and developers that this guy is described as "carrying the video game industry." So disingenerous.

I sincerely hate it when people are put on a pedestal like this. Metal gear might be an influential series but it is by no means carrying the industry as a whole. As for the man himself there are other authors wo would be just as recognized if they flashed their name on the screen at every opportunity. Can't wait for death stranding 2 kojima edition made by kojima, thougt of by kojima, soundtrsck listened to by kojima, game engine commissioned by kojima.....eh you get it....

@Northern_munkey @QiaraIris @Bigmanfan You are not alone.

I'm glad to finally see a thread about him where the majority of comments also don't get the cult following.

No one else is telling stories in games like him, no one else made video games to the high Hollywood action level like him, no one is as creative as him.
Yes, he has been carrying the industry for years. If you don’t get why he is so beloved by the gamers, you probably don’t understand gaming at all or are very narrow minded.
Only Sam Lake comes very close to this.

It probably shouldn't be taken too seriously, but carrying the entire video game industry? As in, the biggest entertainment industry on the planet, with numerous games that sell dozens of millions of copies across a wide range of genres and a vibrant indie scene that is bursting with creativity and innovation, being carried by a single man who occasionally releases a triple A game?

Yeah that makes total sense.

Wouldn't really say he's done any "carrying" since MGS 2, and even that was more genre specific than the whole of the industry.

He's a talent — no doubt. But his fans always overhype both his industry-wide contributions and overall qualitative output (Death Standing is genius and stupid in equal parts).

I personally love the games he makes. That said, his affliction may be connected to the fact that the characters in his games spend most of the time crouched and moving with their back stooped haha.

Some would say his games suck. I would say I prefer playing video games not watching cut scenes. MGS1-3 were peak. 4 was good, but it was a movie for 20 hours and 5 hours of gameplay. Not going to comment on deathstranding because I could not finish it.

@Bigmanfan He’s an auteur, one of the very few we have in gaming. He has a very distinctive style and approach to his storytelling that is unique. Even if you find his games overrated (I don’t), you would never mistake a Kojima game from anything, and that’s why he’s so cherished. With AAA gaming so often being by-the-numbers, we could do with a few more visionaries.

Massively overrated. Death Stranding is not a game. It's the worst quest of an RPG in long form. It's like a really cheap scifi movie made for TV. His other games feel like they were written by a 13 year old bored in math class.

I like him but this is extra

Back Hurtman 🤣🤣

@Bigmanfan
MGS is pretty much the best gaming franchise ever made.

>I swear I don't understand the hype

Yeah lmao sure

I'm sure Kojima's ego is big enough already.

I love MGS but this cult-level sh-t is beyond creepy and ridiculous. 🤦‍♂️ No, Kojima does not carry the entire industry. What the effing f? 😨

@McTwist It's almost like someone has (GASP) different personal taste than you OH THE AUDACITY!!!😱

@Keyblade-Dan
You can have whatever taste in hell you want, but denying some of the best quality of games in the industry consistently is a bit baffling.

But it's always the same though with things that are regarded as the best. You'll always get people who just want to go against the grain for the sake of it.

With how utterly uninspired, generic and just pure garbage the industry is today, we should be begging for more Kojimas who put out polished products that go above and beyond

LMAO Back Hurtman xD

@Skeletor85 This is sarcasm surely? Please be sarcasm!

This man is the most obnoxious guy in videogames. Rarely have i seen a person this overrated. Fans need to get off his dick

It's difficult for me to call him overrated, however, the only game of his that I have played to completion is Death Stranding, and even that game was an 8 at best. It was good enough for me to be looking to buy the sequel, because I'm hopeful that there will be more combat in the second game, which I believe they added to the first game, but that was after I completed it, and I couldn't face returning to it, which isn't a good sign. I did try Metal Gear Solid 5, but after about 5 hours I gave up as I found it uninteresting.

I am interested in the remake of Metal Gear Solid, but I will await the reviews for trying it. My only fear there is that too many of the professional reviewers will see this (or Kojima) as some sort of sacred cow that cannot be criticised, or will view the game with rose-tinted glasses, and score it higher than it deserves. It's possible that it's one of those games where even Steam reviews may fall into the same trap, and so they also maybe unreliable. Time will tell, I guess, but it's a game that I may get in a sale at some point...

I would say Miyazaki clears him..... by like a lot

Even his back has fallen asleep....

BenGay and Tiger Balm ads confirmed for Death Stranding 2. He’ll slather both on his lower back while drinking a Monster energy, then look at the camera and slowly say “your game is saviiiing.”

It takes 6 minutes to save every time, but who cares this guy carried the entire games industry on his back! He’s like Chuck Norris! if he made a few middling games, 2 good ones, and tanked a company with a useless mo-cap studio that closed within a year!

dont rate hideo at all only liked one game from him metal solid one everything else ive found to be a convoluted mess.

Kinda funny to see some people in here took the "Kojima carried the gaming industry" comment seriously, which i'm sure those Kojima fans was just joking / trolling around with that statement.

But Back Hurtman and Kojima carried aside, Kojima needs to be careful with his health since he's not young anymore. I've seen some mangaka who got serious back pain and it forced them to delay their manga year after year, like Hunter x Hunter author.

@Fiendish-Beaver "My only fear there is that too many of the professional reviewers will see this (or Kojima) as some sort of sacred cow that cannot be criticised"

I never see any Kojima games who never get criticised by professional reviewers. You can check yourself if Death Stranding 1 got perfect praise by every single professional reviewers. Even the ones who gave good scores still explain the game flaws.
https://www.metacritic.com/game/death-stranding/critic-reviews/?platform=playstation-4

Even Zone of the Enders 1 & 2 and Boktai got criticised despite they are pretty solid fun games.

Fair enough, @PuppetMaster, but my comment was primarily aimed at the remake, and whether that will have its flaws glossed over. Very often with remakes, they seem to be reviewed with a view to how the original game was perceived, rather than looking at the remake alone and then not only reviewing it as a standalone product, but also failing to review it in line with current releases, rather than harping back to when the original game released. What I'm getting at is that a game that scored a 10 twenty years ago, whilst still a good game today, were it to be reviewed today, and judged by modern standards, probably would not still score a 10. The controls, the graphics, the performance, if compared to modern games, would be seen as not as good and thus not warrant a score of 10. However, when a remake is reviewed, I often feel that it is not reviewed in isolation, but also with reference to the original game, and how that game reviewed. Thus a game that was given a 9 twenty years ago, when remade couldn't possibly score less than that now, even if, based on modern review standards, it would not receive a 9 were it to be an original game and not a remake. Hopefully that makes sense!

@Fiendish-Beaver So you haven´t played Snake Eater, arguably the greatest video game of all time (next to Resident Evil 4 and Dark Souls)?

Love this guy and his fascination with kino, big mechs and other cool technology. He makes fun and creative games that I like playing.

@Fiendish-Beaver Ah sorry i missed out the remake part but i get what you mean right now.

Well MGS 1 remake was scored lower than the original game and it was supervised closely by Kojima.
https://www.metacritic.com/game/metal-gear-solid-the-twin-snakes/critic-reviews/?platform=gamecube

I don't know if MGS Delta will get lower scores than the original game though. But if Delta has good QoL and improved gameplay, i think it will get a good score from reviewers at least close to the original game.

No, @Yagami, I've not played any of them, and I'm terrible now at going back to play older games. The controls and the graphics alone always put me off. Unless it is a game that I previously played, and really enjoyed, I just cannot tempt myself into playing older games. I guess I'm a bit of a snob in that regard! 😂

The cult continues to amaze lol. How exactly did he "carry" the industry all these years? What innovation? The strand genre? 😂😂😂

@Fiendish-Beaver I gotta say I´m glad I grew up playing janky early 2000s PC games, so nothing really fazes me in terms of graphics or controls. You should definitely check out the Remake of Snake Eater then, once it launches.
If it´s even remotely close to what they are promising, it´ll probably be one of the definitive best video games of all time.

Although, for being a PS2 game, MGS3 looks incredibly great in my opinion. I´d recommend giving it a shot!

@arsmolinarc All MGS games were technological marvels for the time they released. Many games even today struggle to replicate the attention to detail in both graphics and gameplay.

@Oram77

Miyazaki has made one game over multiple installments. His fan following, which is just because he makes his games hard and inaccessible to most gamers, is the real blind cult following.

MGS is great, but his importance to the overall games industry is being vastly overstated.

I am interested, @Yagami, and am hoping it turns out to be as good as it looks. I'm just wary of pre-ordering it having not played it (or any of the other games) before. Will be interested to see what you think when you get it...

@MikeOrator Have you played any LaD on Legend difficulty? It´s way more engaging

The difficulty in Demon´s/Dark Souls was originally set high so as to immerse the player far more into the world. You would engage a lot more with all of the systems, if you faced continuous resistance.
Considering Elden Ring is their most difficult game next to Sekiro, and their most successful one by far, I don´t think your point about it being inaccessible carries much weight. I do think they kind lost the plot though as to why the games were difficult in the first place

@Fiendish-Beaver Well not like there´s much point in preordering nowadays. Here is hoping they can do it justice

@Yagami

Mostly pushing back at a comment being hyperbolic and proving we can all say outrageous stuff that is merely mouth noises.

@Northern_munkey i really like the metal gear series, but it's by far not perfect, zone of enders and also his previous work, but death stranding has really got me questioning his auteur status.

@MikeOrator true, Miyazaki games are good, but the fanbase think they have special bragging rights for obsessing a challenging series. So what, ninja gaiden is tough as nails, but I don't see people getting all cultish and condescending over that.

Get well soon, Kojima-san!

I wish him a speedy recovery.

I wouldnt take these comments seriously if his fans werent serious themselves. There are several aching backs in the game industry lol

He's responsible for a handful of games in 25 years he's not carrying an industry he just sets a good example of things u should do

People will critique other games for having busywork while glazing death stranding a game where all you do is deliver packages and hope you don't get dragged into goop by shadows to do the same fight over and over just because kojima made it.

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