I too missed out on his earlier NES adventures as the cover art resembled Kyle Reese from Terminator. So I bought Rambo instead. Lame. Regardless, so far every MGS game has been good; including the one for Game Boy Color.
Without being a spoiler, I'm willing to bet that anyone that has played the MGS series, regardless of personal opinion regarding the 4th game, is generally happy to have gone through the whole adventure. The memories and feelings it invokes as you play through the games is not always matched in video games. (Yes, I do know that games don't have to have an emotional punch to be enjoyable!) ^_^
Gracias Snake!