Ageing icons generate geriatric trend

What do Indiana Jones, John Rambo and Solid Snake have in common?They all qualify for the pension, or go close to it.

Indiana Jones, played by the 65-year-old Harrison Ford, nurses his joints as he swings through South American jungles in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Earlier this year, Rambo was roused from his weary retirement in the Burmese bush at the ripe age of 61.

The tagline: "Heroes never die . . . They just reload."

The latest ageing entertainment icon is Solid Snake, the stealthy operative at the centre of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, a video game that shimmered on to store shelves recently.

The game, exclusive to the Sony's PlayStation3, is one of the electronic giant's best hopes for catching up in the video-game console race.

Technically, Solid Snake is only 43 years old in the game.

But in the final episode of this decade-old franchise, he suffers from a rapid ageing disorder that wreaks havoc on his complexion and adds years to his rugged features.

There's a conspiracy behind this ageing business, and Solid Snake races against time - and a bad back - to thwart the evildoers.

"It just seems funny to see Solid Snake running around a battlefield with his grey hairs and wrinkles," said Geoff Keighley, editor of Gameslice, a website with video-game news and reviews.

"But he seems to be as agile as ever."

The average age of gamers is 35, according to the Entertainment Software Association.

That's why audiences - many of them ageing video-game enthusiasts and baby-boomers - are tolerant of the geriatric trend in pop culture.

They reward the creators with blockbuster sales - so long as those heroes can still crack the whip, beat the terrorists and take on rogue paramilitary armies.

Solid Snake is the creation of Japanese developer Hideo Kojima (44).

Unlike Grand Theft Auto and other top game franchises that rode the PlayStation train to riches, Metal Gear Solid hasn't messed around with the other next-generation consoles.

Having sold more than 22 million copies for various versions of the PlayStation over the past decade, Metal Gear Solid is available only for the PS3, not Microsoft's Xbox 360 or Nintendo's Wii.

Sony is hoping the title can energise sales of the console, which is running third in the multibillion-dollar race.

Consumers worldwide have bought 24 million Wiis and 19 million Xbox 360s but only 13 million PS3s.

"For Sony, this game is really its best shot at closing the gap with Xbox," Keighley said.

Peter Dille, senior US vice-president of marketing for PlayStation, said the title could very well give the 48 million owners of the PS2, which came out in 2000, a reason to upgrade to a PS3.

"For us, Metal Gear is arguably one of the most compelling and valuable exclusive titles we have," Dille said.

"It has never disappointed." - Alex Pham