The designer of this game (who also worked on Castlevania II and III) was working on this without Hideo Kojima's (the series creator) knowledge or consent until he and Kojima met at a subway station. He told Kojima that he was "working on a Snake game, but knew that it wasn't the true Snake", so he requested to Kojima that he should be making a Metal Gear sequel himself, which led to the development of Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (1990). In an interview conducted by game journalist Steven Kent, Kojima admitted that he likes Snake's Revenge.
Despite not being canon to the Metal Gear series, this game was still included in the "Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1" as a bonus.