

The song was written for the soundtrack to the film Sacco & Vanzetti, which told the true story of a pair of Italian immigrants who were wrongfully accused of arson and subsequently sentenced to death, though it's suspected they were targeted based their political views. government's Les Enfants Terribles program - which is, after all, French for "the terrible children." This song showed up in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes already, and a cover of it played during the credits for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of The Patriots. It's hard to tell if there are any deeper meanings to the bubblegum lyrics, but if you want to work in some Metal Gear symbolism, you could argue that kids in America are the clones of Big Boss created by the U.S. In spite of its catchy tune, there's always been something somber about Kim Wilde's pop ditty.

Between my love of Metal Gear and music from the seventies and eighties, this seemed like the perfect chance to compile a Phantom Playlist - which you can hear for yourself on YouTube or Spotify. It would stand to reason that one licensed song in a massive open-world video game might suggest more licensed music, and, given that The Phantom Pain is set in 1984, that the music would be from the same time period.

Lang tweeted out that he'd come across a boombox in the game that was playing Kim Wilde's new wave pop hit "Kids in America." During this time, AP Entertainment writer Derrik J. Impressions from the bulk of Konami's recent two day preview event for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain are still under tight embargo, but members of the press were allowed to tease some of their thoughts about the first hour of game on social media.
