On this US box art, yes. That is very much the case. Though I believe that Solid Snake is much more based on Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) from Escape from NY. I recall that from early interviews with Hideo anyway.

Yup, Snake was (loosely) based on Snake Plissken. Though if you play at Metal Gear 2 on MSX, you'll notice that Snake looks more like Mel Gibson, and Colonel Campbell is clearly Richard Crenna :)

Yup, Snake was (loosely) based on Snake Plissken. Though if you play at Metal Gear 2 on MSX, you'll notice that Snake looks more like Mel Gibson, and Colonel Campbell is clearly Richard Crenna 😀

If you count the number of times Snake speaks and what he has to say, he might as well be Sylvester Stallone. One of the best things about Snake Plissken is that he only spoke when he had to, no angsty speeches raging against the evils of [insert favorite liberal complaint here].

Metal Gear 2 MSX rocks, and yes Campbell looks exactly like Crenna 😀

Starting with the Metal Gear Solid games on PSX, Snake got as chatty and touchy-feely as every other Japanese character of the modern console gaming era.