Review
Release Date: 05.15.2004
Platform:
XboxDeveloper:
SNK Co.Publisher:
SNK NeoGeo USA CorporationReviewed by
Wade Monnig on 8.18.2004
| Review Rating: 8/10 | User Rating: 8.33/10 |
Ahhh, the ever-elusive Metal Slug. If there is one franchise that gives Konami’s Contra a run for the 2-D sidescrolling crown, it’s SNK’s masterpiece. Alas, it’s appearance on the SNK premium system (with a roughly $200 price tag just for the game) and the lack of localized ports for the more mainstream systems, means that, for most gamers, Metal Slug is a franchise that they only seek out at the arcades. Finally, we have Metal Slug on a home system thanks to the Xbox.
While Contra was busy making ill fated forays into 3-D, Metal Slug was staying true to the pixel world of 2-D side-scrollers and the joystick bashing difficulty the genre is famous for. As a matter of fact, Metal Slug 3 has a whole host of “classic” game archetypes. You earn points and try to achieve the highest score, snag power-ups, and waste everything in sight. SNK knows you don’t fix what isn’t broken, so they kept the gameplay classic and simply gave gamer’s what they wanted: More of everything. More weapons, more vehicles, more mayhem. Of course, nothing makes a side-scroller better than being able to bring along a flame-thrower toting friend, so blissful 2-player co-op action is included.
SNK wasn’t just satisfied with giving fans more – they also made things better. The graphics, sporting the classic super-deformed look, are extremly detailed and offer some the best animation to grace the genre. Explosions are huge, details are exact and some of the animations themselves are laugh out loud funny.
As a port of an arcade game, you can expect a steep difficutly – the better to keep you pumping in the quarters. SNK did add a continue/save system as a nod to the console crowd. In the arcade, when you ran out of lives, you simply popped another quarter in and continued from the very spot you perished. With the Xbox version, when you press continue, you are returned to the start of the level. SNK was in a lose/lose situation in regards to making a choice on the continue system. Keep the arcade way, and people will complain its “Too Easy.” I can hear them now “I beat it in two days!” but what they would fail to mention would be the 2,587 continues it took them to accomplish it. With this new continue system, starting at the beginning of the level can be frustrating but, its just so damn much fun blowing stuff up getting back to where you were, the disappointment doesn’t last long. The continue/save system also allows you to begin at any level you have already conquered, so don’t worry if you need to turn off the game to do those little things like eat and sleep, you can use the level select to make another run at the final level, or any level you have completed, the next time you return to the game.
Replay value, always a concern for arcade ports, is a non-issue with Metal Slug. It’s just as fun rampaging though the levels, leaping into a submarine and unleashing death the 10th time through, as it is the first. Branching paths also allow you to mix things up and serve double-duty by allowing you to bypass areas that are giving you a hard time.
SNK is famous for their prowess with 2-D, in both the fighting and side-scrolling realm. They have it down to an art – if you can call vomiting zombies and ostriches with rockets mounted to them art. Call it old school. Call it classic gameplay. In the end, it’s just damn fun.
