03-07-2010, 11:09 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-08-2010, 02:29 AM by DragonMasterX.)
I'm making a poll and a small review (which probably will contain SPOILERS as well) on all 8 Metal Slugs, the SNK Run 'n Shoot'ems. I want YOU guys to tell me what you think about those games, to choose your favorite installment and if possible to add to my reviews.
Anyway! Let's start!
Super Vehicle 001 - Metal Slug:
The adventure englobes Marco and Tarma in their first assignment to stop General Morden from taking over the world and imposing his ideal new world order. You basically gotta tear through hordes of soldier minions that die as easily as you do, and curiously they can die in many similar manners as you do as well!
I first played Metal Slug when I was like 5-7 years old, and it took me some time before I could claim I could beat it without losing a single life let alone a single credit, but I learned through so many playthroughs that the game is very well sort and its difficulty adjusts and is limited to the different players' reflexes and how much they can abuse game maniacs, such as the temporary invulnerability you get by exiting the Metal Slug just as you're about to get hit by an unavoidable attack from the enemy.
Metal Slug will have you getting very frustrated at times and for newbies it's a pain as soon as they realize keeping your life throughout the stage is what will warrant a huge score. Why? You've to rescue Prisoners Of War (POWs) and dying means you never rescued them in the first place at the End Missions' report. Also, being inside the Metal Slug as you deal the finishing blow to the stage's boss grants a nice bonus in score, too!
The game proves to be insurmountably humorous at many intervals, mainly with the hit of the 'magic trick' every POW does when rescued. Yeah, apparently, either magic exists within the Metal Slug universe, the POWs' oversized boxers are connected to another dimension, or they simply are able to carry weapons next to their crotch section just like that.
Allen O' Neil's first appearance really took me by surprise while I was a rookie player, always thinking that his defeat meant the end of Mission 3. Sadly mistaken but hugely achieved after having defeated him the first time, I always take some time to remind myself of his characteristic quotes that make fighting him all the time so sweet: "Go back to momma!", "C'mon, boy!", "You're mincemeat!", "Gyahaha-hahaha!" and his ever insincere: "See you in Hell!" as he 'dies'.
The variety of weapons for its first title also was outstanding, making the decimation of enemy soldiers a sweet and always eager task. H, our rapid fire Heavy Machine-Gun, F, a way to kindle the way for the enemies with a long-ranged Flame Shot, R, a very dependable although barely sensible weapon which shoots projectiles larger than your multi-use weapon the Rocket Launcher and S, my personal favorite, the ever trusty Shotgun that blows anythign apart.
Interestingly enough, beating the game in a One-Player game will yield a "Sad" ending where the world is destroyed and everyone's dead, while finishing it in Two-Player co-op will grant the 'True' ending with soldiers, civilians and your organization making peace.
With these and many other reasons I could produce I say the first Metal Slug was an addictive and successful game that opened the doors to many equal-in-greatness sequels. But still, this isn't my favorite. I'd rate it 8/10 though!
Super Vehicle 001/II - Metal Slug 2:
Metal Slug 2 expands the character roster by adding two females to the Metal Slug soldiers. Whether it was to give room for girl players into the fandom or to give the guys something to oggle at, I'll never know, but now you're able to choose your character before the game starts, and even change them with every new Continue you choose to do if you run out of lives.
The second installment adds a few new gimmicks to it, namely the addition of new Slugs (Vehicles), such as the Camel Slug, the Jumper-Slug, the Air Slug and the Gold Metal Slug (Pallete swap with increased speed and jump-capability, also doesn't recoil when hit), and a twisted new way of humor: Transformation.
Yes, during Mission 2, your characters inspect a cursed Pyramid that's undergoing excavation. Mummies infest the place, and you can turn into one if you're caught by their cursed breath. If this happens, your character doesn't die like with most attacks, but instead a very brief animation of them transforming into a stiff mummy happens. While it's a negative 'status ailment' for you, it's comical to see them jumping and walking like a living dead for a change, not to mention they tend to hurl their heads as grenades sometimes. Cartoony, but fun. It's very tough to play as a Mummy but overall you pretty much get an antidote for it throughout all the Mission so it's easy to overcome.
A new weapon is added to the series, L, the Laser Gun. Like its name implies, you can tear through your opponents with this multi-colored beam-shooting arm. It's fun to watch your characters get slighty 'shocked' as they shoot. A new powerup for the Metal Slug was added, called the Armor Piercer (A.P. Shell). This changes our heavy Normal cannon shell into a fully powered straight cannon shot that tears through soldiers in quite a gorey fashion and explodes only on direct contact against a wall or a 'hardened' target. It can be reverted by picking up a "Norm" Shell.
A new POW has been added to the series, called Rumi Aikawa. This sergeant seems to be a scout carrying a backpack full of supplies, which she tends to not notice it's falling out when someone shoots at it. Rescuing her during a Mission grants more points than normal POWs.
The game, adding all the stuff I mentioned also incorporates a few new enemies (Namely the mummies, but also a few others in several stages) and also an Alien threat our heroes gotta face to save the world from otherworldy domination. The plot was sort of well worked and also humorous at the end, so I give it a 6/10, since it's second to its counterpart, Metal Slug X.
Super Vehicle 001/II - Metal Slug X
While to the untrained eye this might just be seen as a 'remix' of Metal Slug 2, this one really took the cup during its time. This diferent version actually incorporated minor but noticeable changes to many stages and the several power-ups and bonus score items seem to also have been added, not to mention the (in)famous "Fatty" form.
X gives us a few new weapons and corresponding letters to them, which are:
C: Enemy Chaser. It shoots smaller projectiles that appear to be similar than the rockets from the Rocket Launcher. These projectiles home in to the nearest target (Even hidden items or POWs!).
D: Drop Shot. This useless thing is just for laughs in my opinion. It drops a small bouncing ball which bounces to the opposite side our character fired from and later proceeds to blow up like a grenade. Up to three can be shot at a time.
I: Iron Lizards. This weapon is fun. It basically lets out mini-robots in the shape of red-nosed, jet-powered toyplanes with wheels. They speed forwards at incredible speed and burst into a broad light-blue blast at the time they make contact with anything!
G: Super Grenade. Yep! You shoot a Cannon Shell straight forwards with your arm, isn't that nice? Sure is! Although limited in ammo, it can easily tear through most obstacles and enemies. One of my favorite weapons.
Added to this, two Grenade power ups were added, with a third being a "Bomb" grenade that reverts your hurling ammunition to normal. The "Fire" cocktail gives you Fire Bombs, an upgrade which causes your grenades to set the ground on fire for a brief period that will make enemy soldiers catch on fire simulteously, although these are a bit weaker than normal grenades. For laugh, a "Stone" was added, this enables you to hurl rocks that are slightly more powerful than your standard grenades but they don't explode so against mobs of soldiers they aren't as effective as their standard design.
Following, the 'consumption' of food bonus items might make your character suddenly fatten up to morbidly proportions, making them an obese soldier with an oversized pistol. This 'transformation' actually becomes highly benefical to the character as well as comical, as it enables every weapon to 'fatten up' and cover a broader area of effect, explosion, etc. All grenade types are affected as well, and instead of using a knife/axe for melee attacks, your characters will use a large fork to tear through soldiers. Nom! Walking around without 'eating' more food items for a set period of time, reaching a certain point in the Mission or grabbing a "Diet" jar will cause your character to revert to normal, though.
Additionally, our traditional weapons, H, F, R, S and L have now the option to appear as 'super powered', which are more effective, stronger versions of themselves that are picked up as bulging letter boxes. Very nice!
X also adds another kind of POW which is actually interesting. His name escapes me, but he's a fascimite of Ryu from Street Fighter, as he seems to be able to shoot a homing hadouken and to decimate soldiers with a single kick. This POW is the only one who doesn't run away when rescued, he doesn't leave any rewards behind but he helps you until you die which when he will run away and also grants several more points than standard POWs.
While this may just be seen as a remix, I actually think they've done a great job with this one by addint a lot more variety to an otherwise plain sequel. They even added a squeal from the killer whale that swallows Allen O' Neill when you kill him during Final Mission! <3 Hee. I give it a 9/10.
Metal Slug 3:
A masterpiece among the series. The third installment not only adds a new form, new vehicles and an incredibly comical situation for every Mission, but also is the Metal Slug that takes most of the time to beat! Its difficulty level hardly has comparison between all its brothers, mainly during the Final Mission is where it's reflected the most. There are also various modes of gameplay along with the new vehicles and also this game provides the option to change courses in-between Missions! Every single Mission sans the last one has a 'secret' passageway or a fork in the way you've to choose a road from, but it all sums up for a very nice and entertaining replayability!
Added to our stack of Slugs we get the Sub-Slug, the Red Jumper Slug (Red Pallete swap with inverse controls and increased jump capabilities), the Elephant Slug, Ostrich Slug, Robo Slug, Drill Slug (my favorite), the Copter Slug and the one-time-use Space Slug. With all these, you can guess that our game space has also been expanded, as we can have our characters (Which by the way stayed as Marco, Tarma, Eri and Fio from the last game) visit underwater areas in their diving gear, jetpack through the air and even cosplay astronauts with a fishbowl and a combustible spacepack! Fun stuff.
Mission 2 incorporates a very curious and rather abusive new transformation in the setting of a 'viral infested mountainrange with a crash-landed air craft's victims'. Zombies roam the place, and getting hit by their infected 'vomit' turns your character into one of them. Or does it? You actually have control of yourself, and they still keep trying to kill you; soldiers and the like of standard enemies will indubitably have a very hard time even harming you, but a single hit of the enemy zombies' vomit will instantly kill you, which isn't easy to avoid considering your movement and jumping speeds/range have been literally reduced to a crawl. On the plus side along with standard immortality, instead of Grenades you can make your character spit out an insanely huge and long torrent of explosive (?) blood that has the potential to wipe everything out from the screen at once. At the cost of a single Grenade. Nice, huh? Anyway, grabbing a first aid kit that some 'zombie docs' drop revert you to normal so you can just let yourself be infected, let hell loose and then grab the kit for fun.
The types of POWs now have added two new ones to their ranks. You can rescue a CEO called "President" who will call upon his bodyguards, leaving behind two rewards instead of the traditional ones (and sometimes leaving the CEO himself behind, for comic relief), and then a domesticated chimpanzee by the name of Utan who helps you like the "Ryu" POW from Metal Slug X, although all Utan does is fire from his rather useless, paw-sized uzi. Like the similar POW the monkey stays until you die. Both prisoners warrant a lot more points than common POWs if rescued, too!
Two new weapons have been added to the lore, albeit they are unconventional ones. By rescuing CEO President during Mission 2, you get a small bottle named "Thunder" which will summon a Thunder Cloud above you. As you shoot your handgun, the cloud will hover above your target and start firing lighting down them for considerable extra damage. During Final Mission, killing one of the guards in the mothership you'll find a capsule named "MOBS" which, upon grabbed, will start hovering in air and follow you as a miniature satellite; this M.O.B.S Satellite fires constant electric bolts at any nearby target (Even those which are hidden!) until it depletes its ammo, a real useful tool to have around!
The Final Boss' scenery and situation are very original to the Metal Slug lore, and you really can feel every fiber in your body cursing from the moment you step foot in the Mothership as you know it just will not be possible to rescue and maintain every signle POW to the end. Somehow, you'll get killed, and multiple times too.
3 has also granted us with several, almost uncountable amounts of 'pretty' ways to see our characters dying. From having their blood sucked out by gigantic flying bugs to being eaten alive by man-eating plants and from having their body melted by acid to being turned into a short-living amount of plant tendrils that melts when touching the floor.
For these and many other reasons, I'm placing Metal Slug 3 at the top with a 10/10.
Metal Slug 4:
Eri and Tarma have been replaced by two new characters, Nadia and Trevor, respectively. Both look kind of alright in my oppinion. This game keeps many things from its predecessors, transformations, enemies, weapons, deaths, items and slugs, but also adds a few things of its own.
New to the series, you can grab a few 'Emblem' items that open you up to Combo status. During Combo status, your destructive prowess is evaluated, and medals are awarded to you in relation to how much you've killed/blown up. Keeping those medals without dying after getting them will net you extra points (depending on their worth) at a Mission Report at the End Mission.
Also as a fairly original add-on, we can now jump inside a few enemy vehicles and turn them into our Slugs. These include the multi-rocket launcher tank the enemy has, the spiked panzer cannon tank and a leveling-box truck that are located in a few key levels. Unlike our bonafide slugs, these ones don't recoil, neither become temporarily invulnerable after being hit. Tackling an enemy with multi-hitting attacks, in other words, is suicide with these.
A somewhat 'secret' new transformation is added here. Getting hit by lab guys' rifles' bullets will cause your character to morph into a chimpanzee that looks like Utan from Metal Slug 3. You've his high jump, but also his slow speed and useless uzi. You may cure this by drinking Green Elixir also dropped by the scientist guys.
A new weapon has been added. It's the sweetest addition of Metal Slug 4. "2H" or Two Machinegun arms your character with dual Uzis that shoot Heavy Machine-Gun rounds at twice the quantity, going towards utter and swift annihilation for the enemy. Too bad for them!! :3
Alongside Metal Slug (1)'s method of acquiring different endings, you can produce your own choice depending on your actions just after destroying the Final Boss. As a "Self Destruct Sequence" is activated, you've to run away from incoming grenade-fashioned explosions. Outrunning all the blasts and reaching the goal gives you the good ending where all the playable characters gather and are fed to content obesity by Tarma and Eri in festivity. Getting caught by the explosion however causes the ending to humoristically twist to a hospital room where your character is fully bandaged (Mummy form, anybody?) in a bed in intensive care, and then Tarma and Eri enter with a very small fruit basket to wish our wounded hero to "Get Well Soon!" with a sympathetic, funny grin from Tarma.
Metal Slug 4 doesn't add many new things, but its plot is straight and consistent, sadly, no plot twists like in 2/X and 3, but we still have fun with the different endings, so 7/10!
Metal Slug 5:
Weird plot from the start in my opinion. Combo System was removed from the game altogether, and so were Trevor and Nadia, being re-replaced by the returning Tarma and Eri. We get a few new slugs, amongst one I'd like to give a special mention to since it's sweetness in the form of a steel titan. Before that, however, let me state that transformations altogether have been removed as well as many of the comical death manners and powerups. I don't know the reason, that was a big screw up in my opinion.
Either way, we get a nice plot about a bunch of people creating a new cult that's based on worshipping an inter-dimentional demonic entity that's trying to take over or destroy everything, I don't really recall. This cult also apparently has somehow got their hands on Metal Slug technology and have remodeled our Super Vehicle in sturdier, more apocalyptic versions of themselves as well as having given the Robo Slug some upgrades to benefit them.
Out of nowhere comes the 'steel titan' I had mentioned before, which takes the form of an hybrid between the Robo Slug and our canon Metal Slug. How is this possible? Okay. We're basically seeing the influence Transformers had on the programmers. Our Metal Slug can now morph into an assault robot! Yup. It has our favorite machinegun, although it can only fire upwards and forwards. It has a dangerous melee attack that literally tears through enemies with a huge knife installed on the other arm and it has the jump booster and hoverjet from the Robo Slug. The cannon is the same as before, but this vehicle has another sweet secret to it: If pushing down on the control stick or d-pad, its legs will fold and the tank treads will appear instead! We can still roll over the enemies, yay! Additionally, tank rolling is faster than moving, unfortunately, the Mecha-Slug can only change directions of the machinegun by standing up and turning around, and even that takes a whole lot of time.
This game also seems to have taken some of our different POWs away- but has added a new type I like to call the 'Civilians', that work in a similar way yet they've an entirely different sprite design/animation. And of course, they are located in the urban sides of the latter missions.
Even if they've taken many of our favorite stuff away, they at least seem to have had the decency of adding a new weapon. Z, or also known as the Zangetsu Sword. You basically attack with a ranged slash with your knife, it can damage enemy mechs and deal a lot more damage than conventional weapons but in turn you gotta get up front the enemy at an even more dangerous range than with the Shotgun. Its lack of ammo really is a big drawback as well, so it's not a very nice asset in my honest opinion.
Anyway, the plot is hardly explained, which is why fighting the Final Boss made no sense at all until I started researching in the internet and checking a few other sources, and formulating my own hypothesises as well. Nevertheless, a great game to enjoy if anything. 5/10.
Metal Slug 6:
We get nothing new item-wise. Our powerups and transformations still haven't been returned to us, and we don't get any new weapons either. Custom prisoners are still nowhere to be seen, with the exception of the Final Mission giving us the chance to rescue 'Aliens' and one of them hopping onto one of their mini-saucers to combat our new threat.
We get a lack of ammo with every box we pick up for some reason, making for considerably less destructiveness, and an outright nerfing of our rights as mass-destruction soldiers to blow stuff up indiscriminately without caring about ammo. That sucks, but a new sort of addition kind of balances out: Grabbing a weapon box while having a different one already will not cause the new one to overwrite the old one but will rather become a 'stock' which can be switched by pressing Weapon Swift.
On the plus side, we get a few new slugs (Although I hardly can call them terribly likeable in fact) and a revamp on our character roster, and even in the character themselves! I'll go in depth here:
Choosing Marco now means your Handgun shots will be twice as powerful in comparison to every other character.
Eri starts every mission/life with 20 Grenades, and she has the ability to aim where she throws them by pressing the d-pad as she hurls one. Picking up Grenade ammo also doubles the amount she gets.
Tarma has mastery over every armored vehicle. They last for 5 to 6 hits instead of the normal 3. While riding a Slug, he can use Vulcan Fix to shoot at everywhere in a fixed manner by simply holding down the Fire button. Additionally, getting Cannon ammo doubles the amount he gets for the vehicle.
Fio starts every mission/life with 150 rounds of Heavy Machine-Gun, fun fun, right? She also gets slightly more ammo for every weapon she picks up, so she comes in quite in handy for boss fights!
Ralf (Cameo from Ikari Warriors/King of Fighters!) is the tough new guy added to the roster. He's able to take two hits before dying, and by holding 'Special' and Up in the D-pad you're able to execute his trademark Vulcan Punch that can harm enemies as well as tanks! It's cool, but unfortunately he gets half ammunition from the standard for any weapon.
Clark (Cameo from Ikari Warriors/King of Fighters!) is the other new guy. As well as I'm aware, bar his Super Argentine Back Breaker that racks up lots of points by standing next to the enemy, holding 'Special' and Up in the D-pad there isn't a lot about this guy.
Okay. So, that's all about characters. Still, there's something new added to the series. Very similar to the 'Combo' system, now we get a 'Destruction Meter'. This meter has to be filled four times in a row by shooting and destroying things, and upon being maxed it'll glow and start to quickly deplete. During this state, attack power is doubled against enemies, and any target hit by a bullet that results in its elimination will yield Coin items. These are cumulative bonus point items that yield 10, 20, 40, 80, 160 and so in in points (up to a maximum of 6400 per coin) if picked up in succession without a brief rest in-between. A very useful thing to have during boss battles and a score maximizer during mob fights.
This game actually could've been more interesting if transformations, powerups and all the stuff from 3 had been kept. Unfortunately it wasn't and many chances at making a legendary game were lost, but at least the final fight made me remember of Contra III: The Alien Wars. Good old times. I give this a 7/10.
Metal Slug 7:
This DS version, and continuation to the series, is basically the same as 7 gameplay wise. The only difference with it is that we get a new weapon, T, or Thunder Shot, which penetrates everything in its way pretty much like the Laser Gun, although it bounds off enemies as it touches them. The plot is kind of better than 5, but not better than 6. There isn't much to say about this version since nothing I was hoping for returned to it and all we got was a revamp of Laser Gun (sigh), so let's continue if there's any 8 it'll be better. 6/10.
SO! Finished with the reviews. Didn't really note Metal Slug Advance from the GBA due to it not having the classic elements of every other Metal Slug, neither Metal Slug First Mission or First Mission 2, but that's due to me not having played them. In any case, you've already heard it from me, the non-specific mass-destruction nerd, Metal Slug 3 rocks above all! What is YOUR opinion, soldier? :3
Anyway! Let's start!
Super Vehicle 001 - Metal Slug:
The adventure englobes Marco and Tarma in their first assignment to stop General Morden from taking over the world and imposing his ideal new world order. You basically gotta tear through hordes of soldier minions that die as easily as you do, and curiously they can die in many similar manners as you do as well!
I first played Metal Slug when I was like 5-7 years old, and it took me some time before I could claim I could beat it without losing a single life let alone a single credit, but I learned through so many playthroughs that the game is very well sort and its difficulty adjusts and is limited to the different players' reflexes and how much they can abuse game maniacs, such as the temporary invulnerability you get by exiting the Metal Slug just as you're about to get hit by an unavoidable attack from the enemy.
Metal Slug will have you getting very frustrated at times and for newbies it's a pain as soon as they realize keeping your life throughout the stage is what will warrant a huge score. Why? You've to rescue Prisoners Of War (POWs) and dying means you never rescued them in the first place at the End Missions' report. Also, being inside the Metal Slug as you deal the finishing blow to the stage's boss grants a nice bonus in score, too!
The game proves to be insurmountably humorous at many intervals, mainly with the hit of the 'magic trick' every POW does when rescued. Yeah, apparently, either magic exists within the Metal Slug universe, the POWs' oversized boxers are connected to another dimension, or they simply are able to carry weapons next to their crotch section just like that.
Allen O' Neil's first appearance really took me by surprise while I was a rookie player, always thinking that his defeat meant the end of Mission 3. Sadly mistaken but hugely achieved after having defeated him the first time, I always take some time to remind myself of his characteristic quotes that make fighting him all the time so sweet: "Go back to momma!", "C'mon, boy!", "You're mincemeat!", "Gyahaha-hahaha!" and his ever insincere: "See you in Hell!" as he 'dies'.
The variety of weapons for its first title also was outstanding, making the decimation of enemy soldiers a sweet and always eager task. H, our rapid fire Heavy Machine-Gun, F, a way to kindle the way for the enemies with a long-ranged Flame Shot, R, a very dependable although barely sensible weapon which shoots projectiles larger than your multi-use weapon the Rocket Launcher and S, my personal favorite, the ever trusty Shotgun that blows anythign apart.
Interestingly enough, beating the game in a One-Player game will yield a "Sad" ending where the world is destroyed and everyone's dead, while finishing it in Two-Player co-op will grant the 'True' ending with soldiers, civilians and your organization making peace.
With these and many other reasons I could produce I say the first Metal Slug was an addictive and successful game that opened the doors to many equal-in-greatness sequels. But still, this isn't my favorite. I'd rate it 8/10 though!
Super Vehicle 001/II - Metal Slug 2:
Metal Slug 2 expands the character roster by adding two females to the Metal Slug soldiers. Whether it was to give room for girl players into the fandom or to give the guys something to oggle at, I'll never know, but now you're able to choose your character before the game starts, and even change them with every new Continue you choose to do if you run out of lives.
The second installment adds a few new gimmicks to it, namely the addition of new Slugs (Vehicles), such as the Camel Slug, the Jumper-Slug, the Air Slug and the Gold Metal Slug (Pallete swap with increased speed and jump-capability, also doesn't recoil when hit), and a twisted new way of humor: Transformation.
Yes, during Mission 2, your characters inspect a cursed Pyramid that's undergoing excavation. Mummies infest the place, and you can turn into one if you're caught by their cursed breath. If this happens, your character doesn't die like with most attacks, but instead a very brief animation of them transforming into a stiff mummy happens. While it's a negative 'status ailment' for you, it's comical to see them jumping and walking like a living dead for a change, not to mention they tend to hurl their heads as grenades sometimes. Cartoony, but fun. It's very tough to play as a Mummy but overall you pretty much get an antidote for it throughout all the Mission so it's easy to overcome.
A new weapon is added to the series, L, the Laser Gun. Like its name implies, you can tear through your opponents with this multi-colored beam-shooting arm. It's fun to watch your characters get slighty 'shocked' as they shoot. A new powerup for the Metal Slug was added, called the Armor Piercer (A.P. Shell). This changes our heavy Normal cannon shell into a fully powered straight cannon shot that tears through soldiers in quite a gorey fashion and explodes only on direct contact against a wall or a 'hardened' target. It can be reverted by picking up a "Norm" Shell.
A new POW has been added to the series, called Rumi Aikawa. This sergeant seems to be a scout carrying a backpack full of supplies, which she tends to not notice it's falling out when someone shoots at it. Rescuing her during a Mission grants more points than normal POWs.
The game, adding all the stuff I mentioned also incorporates a few new enemies (Namely the mummies, but also a few others in several stages) and also an Alien threat our heroes gotta face to save the world from otherworldy domination. The plot was sort of well worked and also humorous at the end, so I give it a 6/10, since it's second to its counterpart, Metal Slug X.
Super Vehicle 001/II - Metal Slug X
While to the untrained eye this might just be seen as a 'remix' of Metal Slug 2, this one really took the cup during its time. This diferent version actually incorporated minor but noticeable changes to many stages and the several power-ups and bonus score items seem to also have been added, not to mention the (in)famous "Fatty" form.
X gives us a few new weapons and corresponding letters to them, which are:
C: Enemy Chaser. It shoots smaller projectiles that appear to be similar than the rockets from the Rocket Launcher. These projectiles home in to the nearest target (Even hidden items or POWs!).
D: Drop Shot. This useless thing is just for laughs in my opinion. It drops a small bouncing ball which bounces to the opposite side our character fired from and later proceeds to blow up like a grenade. Up to three can be shot at a time.
I: Iron Lizards. This weapon is fun. It basically lets out mini-robots in the shape of red-nosed, jet-powered toyplanes with wheels. They speed forwards at incredible speed and burst into a broad light-blue blast at the time they make contact with anything!
G: Super Grenade. Yep! You shoot a Cannon Shell straight forwards with your arm, isn't that nice? Sure is! Although limited in ammo, it can easily tear through most obstacles and enemies. One of my favorite weapons.
Added to this, two Grenade power ups were added, with a third being a "Bomb" grenade that reverts your hurling ammunition to normal. The "Fire" cocktail gives you Fire Bombs, an upgrade which causes your grenades to set the ground on fire for a brief period that will make enemy soldiers catch on fire simulteously, although these are a bit weaker than normal grenades. For laugh, a "Stone" was added, this enables you to hurl rocks that are slightly more powerful than your standard grenades but they don't explode so against mobs of soldiers they aren't as effective as their standard design.
Following, the 'consumption' of food bonus items might make your character suddenly fatten up to morbidly proportions, making them an obese soldier with an oversized pistol. This 'transformation' actually becomes highly benefical to the character as well as comical, as it enables every weapon to 'fatten up' and cover a broader area of effect, explosion, etc. All grenade types are affected as well, and instead of using a knife/axe for melee attacks, your characters will use a large fork to tear through soldiers. Nom! Walking around without 'eating' more food items for a set period of time, reaching a certain point in the Mission or grabbing a "Diet" jar will cause your character to revert to normal, though.
Additionally, our traditional weapons, H, F, R, S and L have now the option to appear as 'super powered', which are more effective, stronger versions of themselves that are picked up as bulging letter boxes. Very nice!
X also adds another kind of POW which is actually interesting. His name escapes me, but he's a fascimite of Ryu from Street Fighter, as he seems to be able to shoot a homing hadouken and to decimate soldiers with a single kick. This POW is the only one who doesn't run away when rescued, he doesn't leave any rewards behind but he helps you until you die which when he will run away and also grants several more points than standard POWs.
While this may just be seen as a remix, I actually think they've done a great job with this one by addint a lot more variety to an otherwise plain sequel. They even added a squeal from the killer whale that swallows Allen O' Neill when you kill him during Final Mission! <3 Hee. I give it a 9/10.
Metal Slug 3:
A masterpiece among the series. The third installment not only adds a new form, new vehicles and an incredibly comical situation for every Mission, but also is the Metal Slug that takes most of the time to beat! Its difficulty level hardly has comparison between all its brothers, mainly during the Final Mission is where it's reflected the most. There are also various modes of gameplay along with the new vehicles and also this game provides the option to change courses in-between Missions! Every single Mission sans the last one has a 'secret' passageway or a fork in the way you've to choose a road from, but it all sums up for a very nice and entertaining replayability!
Added to our stack of Slugs we get the Sub-Slug, the Red Jumper Slug (Red Pallete swap with inverse controls and increased jump capabilities), the Elephant Slug, Ostrich Slug, Robo Slug, Drill Slug (my favorite), the Copter Slug and the one-time-use Space Slug. With all these, you can guess that our game space has also been expanded, as we can have our characters (Which by the way stayed as Marco, Tarma, Eri and Fio from the last game) visit underwater areas in their diving gear, jetpack through the air and even cosplay astronauts with a fishbowl and a combustible spacepack! Fun stuff.
Mission 2 incorporates a very curious and rather abusive new transformation in the setting of a 'viral infested mountainrange with a crash-landed air craft's victims'. Zombies roam the place, and getting hit by their infected 'vomit' turns your character into one of them. Or does it? You actually have control of yourself, and they still keep trying to kill you; soldiers and the like of standard enemies will indubitably have a very hard time even harming you, but a single hit of the enemy zombies' vomit will instantly kill you, which isn't easy to avoid considering your movement and jumping speeds/range have been literally reduced to a crawl. On the plus side along with standard immortality, instead of Grenades you can make your character spit out an insanely huge and long torrent of explosive (?) blood that has the potential to wipe everything out from the screen at once. At the cost of a single Grenade. Nice, huh? Anyway, grabbing a first aid kit that some 'zombie docs' drop revert you to normal so you can just let yourself be infected, let hell loose and then grab the kit for fun.
The types of POWs now have added two new ones to their ranks. You can rescue a CEO called "President" who will call upon his bodyguards, leaving behind two rewards instead of the traditional ones (and sometimes leaving the CEO himself behind, for comic relief), and then a domesticated chimpanzee by the name of Utan who helps you like the "Ryu" POW from Metal Slug X, although all Utan does is fire from his rather useless, paw-sized uzi. Like the similar POW the monkey stays until you die. Both prisoners warrant a lot more points than common POWs if rescued, too!
Two new weapons have been added to the lore, albeit they are unconventional ones. By rescuing CEO President during Mission 2, you get a small bottle named "Thunder" which will summon a Thunder Cloud above you. As you shoot your handgun, the cloud will hover above your target and start firing lighting down them for considerable extra damage. During Final Mission, killing one of the guards in the mothership you'll find a capsule named "MOBS" which, upon grabbed, will start hovering in air and follow you as a miniature satellite; this M.O.B.S Satellite fires constant electric bolts at any nearby target (Even those which are hidden!) until it depletes its ammo, a real useful tool to have around!
The Final Boss' scenery and situation are very original to the Metal Slug lore, and you really can feel every fiber in your body cursing from the moment you step foot in the Mothership as you know it just will not be possible to rescue and maintain every signle POW to the end. Somehow, you'll get killed, and multiple times too.
3 has also granted us with several, almost uncountable amounts of 'pretty' ways to see our characters dying. From having their blood sucked out by gigantic flying bugs to being eaten alive by man-eating plants and from having their body melted by acid to being turned into a short-living amount of plant tendrils that melts when touching the floor.
For these and many other reasons, I'm placing Metal Slug 3 at the top with a 10/10.
Metal Slug 4:
Eri and Tarma have been replaced by two new characters, Nadia and Trevor, respectively. Both look kind of alright in my oppinion. This game keeps many things from its predecessors, transformations, enemies, weapons, deaths, items and slugs, but also adds a few things of its own.
New to the series, you can grab a few 'Emblem' items that open you up to Combo status. During Combo status, your destructive prowess is evaluated, and medals are awarded to you in relation to how much you've killed/blown up. Keeping those medals without dying after getting them will net you extra points (depending on their worth) at a Mission Report at the End Mission.
Also as a fairly original add-on, we can now jump inside a few enemy vehicles and turn them into our Slugs. These include the multi-rocket launcher tank the enemy has, the spiked panzer cannon tank and a leveling-box truck that are located in a few key levels. Unlike our bonafide slugs, these ones don't recoil, neither become temporarily invulnerable after being hit. Tackling an enemy with multi-hitting attacks, in other words, is suicide with these.
A somewhat 'secret' new transformation is added here. Getting hit by lab guys' rifles' bullets will cause your character to morph into a chimpanzee that looks like Utan from Metal Slug 3. You've his high jump, but also his slow speed and useless uzi. You may cure this by drinking Green Elixir also dropped by the scientist guys.
A new weapon has been added. It's the sweetest addition of Metal Slug 4. "2H" or Two Machinegun arms your character with dual Uzis that shoot Heavy Machine-Gun rounds at twice the quantity, going towards utter and swift annihilation for the enemy. Too bad for them!! :3
Alongside Metal Slug (1)'s method of acquiring different endings, you can produce your own choice depending on your actions just after destroying the Final Boss. As a "Self Destruct Sequence" is activated, you've to run away from incoming grenade-fashioned explosions. Outrunning all the blasts and reaching the goal gives you the good ending where all the playable characters gather and are fed to content obesity by Tarma and Eri in festivity. Getting caught by the explosion however causes the ending to humoristically twist to a hospital room where your character is fully bandaged (Mummy form, anybody?) in a bed in intensive care, and then Tarma and Eri enter with a very small fruit basket to wish our wounded hero to "Get Well Soon!" with a sympathetic, funny grin from Tarma.
Metal Slug 4 doesn't add many new things, but its plot is straight and consistent, sadly, no plot twists like in 2/X and 3, but we still have fun with the different endings, so 7/10!
Metal Slug 5:
Weird plot from the start in my opinion. Combo System was removed from the game altogether, and so were Trevor and Nadia, being re-replaced by the returning Tarma and Eri. We get a few new slugs, amongst one I'd like to give a special mention to since it's sweetness in the form of a steel titan. Before that, however, let me state that transformations altogether have been removed as well as many of the comical death manners and powerups. I don't know the reason, that was a big screw up in my opinion.
Either way, we get a nice plot about a bunch of people creating a new cult that's based on worshipping an inter-dimentional demonic entity that's trying to take over or destroy everything, I don't really recall. This cult also apparently has somehow got their hands on Metal Slug technology and have remodeled our Super Vehicle in sturdier, more apocalyptic versions of themselves as well as having given the Robo Slug some upgrades to benefit them.
Out of nowhere comes the 'steel titan' I had mentioned before, which takes the form of an hybrid between the Robo Slug and our canon Metal Slug. How is this possible? Okay. We're basically seeing the influence Transformers had on the programmers. Our Metal Slug can now morph into an assault robot! Yup. It has our favorite machinegun, although it can only fire upwards and forwards. It has a dangerous melee attack that literally tears through enemies with a huge knife installed on the other arm and it has the jump booster and hoverjet from the Robo Slug. The cannon is the same as before, but this vehicle has another sweet secret to it: If pushing down on the control stick or d-pad, its legs will fold and the tank treads will appear instead! We can still roll over the enemies, yay! Additionally, tank rolling is faster than moving, unfortunately, the Mecha-Slug can only change directions of the machinegun by standing up and turning around, and even that takes a whole lot of time.
This game also seems to have taken some of our different POWs away- but has added a new type I like to call the 'Civilians', that work in a similar way yet they've an entirely different sprite design/animation. And of course, they are located in the urban sides of the latter missions.
Even if they've taken many of our favorite stuff away, they at least seem to have had the decency of adding a new weapon. Z, or also known as the Zangetsu Sword. You basically attack with a ranged slash with your knife, it can damage enemy mechs and deal a lot more damage than conventional weapons but in turn you gotta get up front the enemy at an even more dangerous range than with the Shotgun. Its lack of ammo really is a big drawback as well, so it's not a very nice asset in my honest opinion.
Anyway, the plot is hardly explained, which is why fighting the Final Boss made no sense at all until I started researching in the internet and checking a few other sources, and formulating my own hypothesises as well. Nevertheless, a great game to enjoy if anything. 5/10.
Metal Slug 6:
We get nothing new item-wise. Our powerups and transformations still haven't been returned to us, and we don't get any new weapons either. Custom prisoners are still nowhere to be seen, with the exception of the Final Mission giving us the chance to rescue 'Aliens' and one of them hopping onto one of their mini-saucers to combat our new threat.
We get a lack of ammo with every box we pick up for some reason, making for considerably less destructiveness, and an outright nerfing of our rights as mass-destruction soldiers to blow stuff up indiscriminately without caring about ammo. That sucks, but a new sort of addition kind of balances out: Grabbing a weapon box while having a different one already will not cause the new one to overwrite the old one but will rather become a 'stock' which can be switched by pressing Weapon Swift.
On the plus side, we get a few new slugs (Although I hardly can call them terribly likeable in fact) and a revamp on our character roster, and even in the character themselves! I'll go in depth here:
Choosing Marco now means your Handgun shots will be twice as powerful in comparison to every other character.
Eri starts every mission/life with 20 Grenades, and she has the ability to aim where she throws them by pressing the d-pad as she hurls one. Picking up Grenade ammo also doubles the amount she gets.
Tarma has mastery over every armored vehicle. They last for 5 to 6 hits instead of the normal 3. While riding a Slug, he can use Vulcan Fix to shoot at everywhere in a fixed manner by simply holding down the Fire button. Additionally, getting Cannon ammo doubles the amount he gets for the vehicle.
Fio starts every mission/life with 150 rounds of Heavy Machine-Gun, fun fun, right? She also gets slightly more ammo for every weapon she picks up, so she comes in quite in handy for boss fights!
Ralf (Cameo from Ikari Warriors/King of Fighters!) is the tough new guy added to the roster. He's able to take two hits before dying, and by holding 'Special' and Up in the D-pad you're able to execute his trademark Vulcan Punch that can harm enemies as well as tanks! It's cool, but unfortunately he gets half ammunition from the standard for any weapon.
Clark (Cameo from Ikari Warriors/King of Fighters!) is the other new guy. As well as I'm aware, bar his Super Argentine Back Breaker that racks up lots of points by standing next to the enemy, holding 'Special' and Up in the D-pad there isn't a lot about this guy.
Okay. So, that's all about characters. Still, there's something new added to the series. Very similar to the 'Combo' system, now we get a 'Destruction Meter'. This meter has to be filled four times in a row by shooting and destroying things, and upon being maxed it'll glow and start to quickly deplete. During this state, attack power is doubled against enemies, and any target hit by a bullet that results in its elimination will yield Coin items. These are cumulative bonus point items that yield 10, 20, 40, 80, 160 and so in in points (up to a maximum of 6400 per coin) if picked up in succession without a brief rest in-between. A very useful thing to have during boss battles and a score maximizer during mob fights.
This game actually could've been more interesting if transformations, powerups and all the stuff from 3 had been kept. Unfortunately it wasn't and many chances at making a legendary game were lost, but at least the final fight made me remember of Contra III: The Alien Wars. Good old times. I give this a 7/10.
Metal Slug 7:
This DS version, and continuation to the series, is basically the same as 7 gameplay wise. The only difference with it is that we get a new weapon, T, or Thunder Shot, which penetrates everything in its way pretty much like the Laser Gun, although it bounds off enemies as it touches them. The plot is kind of better than 5, but not better than 6. There isn't much to say about this version since nothing I was hoping for returned to it and all we got was a revamp of Laser Gun (sigh), so let's continue if there's any 8 it'll be better. 6/10.
SO! Finished with the reviews. Didn't really note Metal Slug Advance from the GBA due to it not having the classic elements of every other Metal Slug, neither Metal Slug First Mission or First Mission 2, but that's due to me not having played them. In any case, you've already heard it from me, the non-specific mass-destruction nerd, Metal Slug 3 rocks above all! What is YOUR opinion, soldier? :3
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