I_Smell
01-12-2008, 2:46 PM
If you don't like reading, here's the conclusion of this review:
If you like side-scrolling shooters, Metal Slug is tippity top cream of the crop. It's fast, hard and manly. There's no story and an explosion happens at least every few seconds. The controls are shit though, so y'know it'll take a while for you to get going. +It's cheaper than most other Wii games.
What's Metal Slug though? Well you've probably head of it somewhere, so ere's some screenshots:
http://wiimedia.gamespy.com/wii/image/article/753/753576/metal-slug-anthology-20070108003719332-000.jpg
http://gamez-vault.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/metal-slug-anthology-2.jpg
http://www.armchairempire.com/images/Reviews/wii/metal-slug-anthology/metal-slug-anthology-2.jpg
http://www.game-addicts.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/metalslug3-xbla.jpg
So, I bought this before Christmas because I've palyed Metal Slug on Gameboy Advance emulator and loved it. The game is a collection of all the Metal Slug arcade games. That's 7 seperate games. Arade ones though, so it takes less than two hours to beat each one. You'll definately play each game more than once though, because there tends to be a fork in the road, and it's hard as fuck.
What drew me in was the look of it. 2D shooters are dead, but the art in this is just amazing. Some of the bosses are spectacular, and the explosions are animated great. Once things start getting hard, the screen's just chaos and it looks mint. Whoever said graphics don't make the game was a fat lieing bitch.
You might think all this side-on shooting'd get boring, but it doesn't because everything allways changes. There's something different at every part. The levels, right:
Some are generic running and jumping, but before too long you'll have to get on a boat, which means you can't fall off. When you're in the alps, there's occasional avalanches or fallen trees you can ride down mountains. At some parts, you'll be chased by a boss and have to keep moving while dodging shit and attacking. Sometimes you'll be chased up the screen. There's limited movement underground. Sometimes you're underwater, or flying in a plane.
The best levels though, are the ones where you turn into things. There's a level where you're in a temple and if mummies attack you, you turn into a mummy. Which means you're slower, you can't jump as high and you can't throw grenades. Sometimes you'll get a load of food pickups and just get massive fat; Which means all your bullets are loads bigger, heavier, and have a bigger blast radius. There's a part in Metal Slug 3 where zombies shoot vomit at you (Or throw it) and if you or anyone nearby get's hit, you'll turn into a zombie. The great thing about this is that instead of throwing grenades, you just fire (puke) blood up the screen like a laser. It usually kills everything onscreen. (http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-5083463840169000713&q=metal+slug+zombies&total=11&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=1)
Another good point is the vehicles. There's alot of vehicles. The first one is the trademark of the series, a tank that jumps and it's got a minigun on it. There's also a similar one that's like a mech that jumps, shoots, fires missiles, stabs people and can turn into the tank. There's this thing with two miniguns on it that shits missiles. A jet and a helicopter, a submarine, a camel, this crazy robot that you ride on. There's an elephant somwhere, but I can't find it. A motorbike, an osrich, a car, about 5 more different tanks, some crazy stuff here that I can't even think of a name for.. There's alot of vehicles to find.
Also there's as many weapons as you'd expect; the pistol, machine gun, double uzis, flamethrower, shotgun, rocket launcher, laser, grenades, massive fire grenades and the usual crazy shit they just made up.
There are some bad points in the game though, most importantly the controls. There's about 6 different control schemes and 5 out of 6 are completely unusable. One of them, you use the remote like a joystick, but sideways. One of them's labelled "Nunchuck only". Yeah, think on that.
The best way is holding the Wii remote like a NES controller. It's almost perfect, but for a couple days I couldn't throw grenades. What you do is thrust the controller forwards and back. Not in a throwing a grenade type motion, you just thrust it. In some boss fights, you're shaking it like a madman. Why they couldn't just have it as a button, I don't know.
Metal Slug 6 is total bollocks. I won't go into why, but they tried to make it all up-to-date next gen and it just didn't work a bit. It's the only one I'd say was boring. It's got cutscenes for Christ sake.
You can change it to "unlimited continues" mode from the start, which kind of ruins it because it doesn't matter when you die.
The menus are shit. I mean- It doesn't matter atall, you probably won't care, but I just have to say: They suck.
So basically, it's 7 arcade games, it's a side-scrolling shooter, it's got creativity coming out it's ears, looks great, oldschool rockin soundtrack, the bosses are excellent, it's two-player, about a thousand different enemies, shit controls, crap menus, and I'd say it's got "good humour" but it's not "light-hearted" if y'know what I mean. Oh and, if you liked Alien Hominid; It was an homage to this. Oh and I got it for £15.
It's also on PS2 and PSP. I bet it makes for a good portable game actually. Might be a bit small though. Also Metal Slug 3's on XBLA if you want to try that.
If you don't like games that are about half your age, if you can't put up with the controls, if you can't play hard games, maybe it's not for you. Otherwise this is fun on a bun. Assuming you didn't just scroll down to the bottom, thanks for readin all that, I wouldn't have bothered.
If you like side-scrolling shooters, Metal Slug is tippity top cream of the crop. It's fast, hard and manly. There's no story and an explosion happens at least every few seconds. The controls are shit though, so y'know it'll take a while for you to get going. +It's cheaper than most other Wii games.
What's Metal Slug though? Well you've probably head of it somewhere, so ere's some screenshots:
http://wiimedia.gamespy.com/wii/image/article/753/753576/metal-slug-anthology-20070108003719332-000.jpg
http://gamez-vault.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/metal-slug-anthology-2.jpg
http://www.armchairempire.com/images/Reviews/wii/metal-slug-anthology/metal-slug-anthology-2.jpg
http://www.game-addicts.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/metalslug3-xbla.jpg
So, I bought this before Christmas because I've palyed Metal Slug on Gameboy Advance emulator and loved it. The game is a collection of all the Metal Slug arcade games. That's 7 seperate games. Arade ones though, so it takes less than two hours to beat each one. You'll definately play each game more than once though, because there tends to be a fork in the road, and it's hard as fuck.
What drew me in was the look of it. 2D shooters are dead, but the art in this is just amazing. Some of the bosses are spectacular, and the explosions are animated great. Once things start getting hard, the screen's just chaos and it looks mint. Whoever said graphics don't make the game was a fat lieing bitch.
You might think all this side-on shooting'd get boring, but it doesn't because everything allways changes. There's something different at every part. The levels, right:
Some are generic running and jumping, but before too long you'll have to get on a boat, which means you can't fall off. When you're in the alps, there's occasional avalanches or fallen trees you can ride down mountains. At some parts, you'll be chased by a boss and have to keep moving while dodging shit and attacking. Sometimes you'll be chased up the screen. There's limited movement underground. Sometimes you're underwater, or flying in a plane.
The best levels though, are the ones where you turn into things. There's a level where you're in a temple and if mummies attack you, you turn into a mummy. Which means you're slower, you can't jump as high and you can't throw grenades. Sometimes you'll get a load of food pickups and just get massive fat; Which means all your bullets are loads bigger, heavier, and have a bigger blast radius. There's a part in Metal Slug 3 where zombies shoot vomit at you (Or throw it) and if you or anyone nearby get's hit, you'll turn into a zombie. The great thing about this is that instead of throwing grenades, you just fire (puke) blood up the screen like a laser. It usually kills everything onscreen. (http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-5083463840169000713&q=metal+slug+zombies&total=11&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=1)
Another good point is the vehicles. There's alot of vehicles. The first one is the trademark of the series, a tank that jumps and it's got a minigun on it. There's also a similar one that's like a mech that jumps, shoots, fires missiles, stabs people and can turn into the tank. There's this thing with two miniguns on it that shits missiles. A jet and a helicopter, a submarine, a camel, this crazy robot that you ride on. There's an elephant somwhere, but I can't find it. A motorbike, an osrich, a car, about 5 more different tanks, some crazy stuff here that I can't even think of a name for.. There's alot of vehicles to find.
Also there's as many weapons as you'd expect; the pistol, machine gun, double uzis, flamethrower, shotgun, rocket launcher, laser, grenades, massive fire grenades and the usual crazy shit they just made up.
There are some bad points in the game though, most importantly the controls. There's about 6 different control schemes and 5 out of 6 are completely unusable. One of them, you use the remote like a joystick, but sideways. One of them's labelled "Nunchuck only". Yeah, think on that.
The best way is holding the Wii remote like a NES controller. It's almost perfect, but for a couple days I couldn't throw grenades. What you do is thrust the controller forwards and back. Not in a throwing a grenade type motion, you just thrust it. In some boss fights, you're shaking it like a madman. Why they couldn't just have it as a button, I don't know.
Metal Slug 6 is total bollocks. I won't go into why, but they tried to make it all up-to-date next gen and it just didn't work a bit. It's the only one I'd say was boring. It's got cutscenes for Christ sake.
You can change it to "unlimited continues" mode from the start, which kind of ruins it because it doesn't matter when you die.
The menus are shit. I mean- It doesn't matter atall, you probably won't care, but I just have to say: They suck.
So basically, it's 7 arcade games, it's a side-scrolling shooter, it's got creativity coming out it's ears, looks great, oldschool rockin soundtrack, the bosses are excellent, it's two-player, about a thousand different enemies, shit controls, crap menus, and I'd say it's got "good humour" but it's not "light-hearted" if y'know what I mean. Oh and, if you liked Alien Hominid; It was an homage to this. Oh and I got it for £15.
It's also on PS2 and PSP. I bet it makes for a good portable game actually. Might be a bit small though. Also Metal Slug 3's on XBLA if you want to try that.
If you don't like games that are about half your age, if you can't put up with the controls, if you can't play hard games, maybe it's not for you. Otherwise this is fun on a bun. Assuming you didn't just scroll down to the bottom, thanks for readin all that, I wouldn't have bothered.