Metal Slug
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I've played Metal Slug...uh, the one where one of the first levels played is the desert level and you can turn into a mummy and lose your power-up. It's a really fun arcade shooter, and its spritework is amazing.
My bro got my twin Metal Slug 3. We never got around playing it but I'd like to one day.
My bro got my twin Metal Slug 3. We never got around playing it but I'd like to one day.
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I haven't played that game in YEARS but I remember loving it. The one I played was the one where Arabia or something was the first level, there was a tomb level where there are dog mummies and is the only level with those rat/dog gun things, there was a dude in a machine gun that gets eaten by an Orca, there was a boat with a bigass gun, there was a China level where you can get fat, there is a level where there is a ton of helicopters, and there are those gray alien things. I thought I saw one in WarioWare: Touched! in that Number Cruncher microgame...
Mcmadness
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That would be metal slug 2/X
There are 7 main metal slug games total and you can get the first 3 on steam. They have online play and I love playing em.
Also the machine gun guy who gets eaten by an Orca (named Allen O'Neil) appears in almost every game despite seemingly dying previously.
The best thing about the series was always the great sprite work.
There are 7 main metal slug games total and you can get the first 3 on steam. They have online play and I love playing em.
Also the machine gun guy who gets eaten by an Orca (named Allen O'Neil) appears in almost every game despite seemingly dying previously.
The best thing about the series was always the great sprite work.
Mcmadness said:
Yeah, everthing about the game, the mechanics, the grafxm the difficulty curve just *works*. If the only criticisms I can formulate about something are "I think the platforming in stage 3 is kind of annoying" and "I don't like how they mapped the Slug self-destruct command" (which is something the NGCD and Saturn versions fix), it may as well be perfect.
The sequels made a lot of additions, but they're not all positive. Specifically starting with X, I feel they got muddled with weapons, transformations and vehicles that may be "wacky" or "funny" but aren't very fun or useful in practise. I also didn't like how the destruction of background graphics got drastically dialed back. But they're still top tier action games. Particularly, I think 4 and 5 are much better games than people give them credit for. Metal Slug 6 is the only game in the series I truly dislike.
Mcmadness
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMx4iLp-EAcOmegaVenomous said:
Glowsquid said:
Fair enough I actually like the whackiness but I agree that a basic slug is always the most efficient.
I don't think there is any main metal slug game I dislike. 5 is my least favourite due to it being pretty unfinished but I can still get some enjoyment out of it. 6 changed somethings I didn't like, the sound effects being a big one but I ultimately still enjoyed it.
TinTinfinite
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I LOVE the Metal Slug games. Me and my little brother played MS 2/X in an arcade emulator, when I was like 7 years old. Then MS 4 on the PS2. And then the rest of the games recently (haven't completed 6 yet).
I liked its sprite animation, and the weapons. Rocket Launcher is my favourite, and the weapon with the bouncy ones is my least.
I liked its sprite animation, and the weapons. Rocket Launcher is my favourite, and the weapon with the bouncy ones is my least.
6 had a lot of problems for me.
-The ugly, washed-out backgrounds. That applies to everything SNK released around that time. I was going to type "I have no idea if I should blame the artists or the Atomiswave", but then I remember the Hokuto No Ken fightan was on it and that had really good background art that didn't look smeared in vaseline.
-The obnoxious scoring system that showers the screen in glowing coins that can obscure bullets and items on the ground. The scoring system in Metal Slug 4 was kind of dumb but it didn't hinder basic visibility.
-Sound effects are low and subdued, the screen is dark-tinted, the soundtrack is dull and forgettable (well I do kind of like the "tribal" mix of the original theme, but everything else kind of scuks). The presentation lacks the bombast of Metal Slug.
-How the only new vehicle added is a crappier and useless version of the Slug Walker from MS5. What's the point?
-Being able to hold multiple weapons was a good idea, but to "balance" that, they reduced the number of ammo to a ridiculous degree. You get the Enemy chaser in the 2nd screen of the first level and if you don't play as Fio, it has like 9 shots, wtf.
-I hated the new enemy alien enemies, or more precisely I hated the basic "fodder" enemy, how they took multiple hits to kill and had those cheap moves like they can slam you from an huge distance.
I'll shaddup now.
-The ugly, washed-out backgrounds. That applies to everything SNK released around that time. I was going to type "I have no idea if I should blame the artists or the Atomiswave", but then I remember the Hokuto No Ken fightan was on it and that had really good background art that didn't look smeared in vaseline.
-The obnoxious scoring system that showers the screen in glowing coins that can obscure bullets and items on the ground. The scoring system in Metal Slug 4 was kind of dumb but it didn't hinder basic visibility.
-Sound effects are low and subdued, the screen is dark-tinted, the soundtrack is dull and forgettable (well I do kind of like the "tribal" mix of the original theme, but everything else kind of scuks). The presentation lacks the bombast of Metal Slug.
-How the only new vehicle added is a crappier and useless version of the Slug Walker from MS5. What's the point?
-Being able to hold multiple weapons was a good idea, but to "balance" that, they reduced the number of ammo to a ridiculous degree. You get the Enemy chaser in the 2nd screen of the first level and if you don't play as Fio, it has like 9 shots, wtf.
-I hated the new enemy alien enemies, or more precisely I hated the basic "fodder" enemy, how they took multiple hits to kill and had those cheap moves like they can slam you from an huge distance.
I'll shaddup now.
Mcmadness
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No by all means keep talking. I enjoyed six (though only due to it coming together with other games) but I can see why you'd feel that way.
I didn't hate the Invaders for the Invaders since it did lead to some cool moments (riding with rootmars from MS3) but compared to the Rebel army and the Mars People they didn't have the same level of charm.
I didn't hate the Invaders for the Invaders since it did lead to some cool moments (riding with rootmars from MS3) but compared to the Rebel army and the Mars People they didn't have the same level of charm.
The original Metal Slug has a very interesting development history. Back in 2014, two French guys met some of the Nazca developers behind the original MS as well as its spiritual predecessors (Gunforce 2 and In The Hunt) and produced two videos about the development of those games, featuring even original production art.
I posted the details on TV Tropes a few months back but I don't think they're still very well known (and some of my recollection of the video was wrong OxO) so I'll repost the summary here for the sake of discussion.
-The first iteration of MS was played with the tank. There was no pedestrian gameplay and Marco and Tarma did not exist at this point.
-The tone was more somber and lacked any humour, being more in line with the team's previous post-apocalyptic games at Irem.
-The backgrounds were redrawn. For example, the entire first stage, and not just the second half, was set inside a swamp.
-The game was much shorter: Stage 2 did not have an equivalent in the original version ("Metal Slug Zero" was supposed to have 6 levels like the final one, but the Kobe earthquake prevented one of the designer from coming over), and levels were shorter and simpler (for example, level 3 did not have the climbing portion or a mid-boss battle). The game was lengthened after SNK refused the original build, the developers reasoning being that since the Neo Geo was also sold as an home system, the game should be of reasonable length.
-The original plot was that General Morden had spent years planning a coup and managed to conquer all of the worlds major cities in his opening salvo, helped by the horiffic tactic of using POWs as human shields. The original player character, Phil John, was an engineer for the Regular Army who was working on the Metal Slug prototype, and took it with him to join the resistance. Player 2 was a gold Metal Slug piloted by one named Michiko Nakajima.
-The bearded POWs originally were blue pallete swaps of the enemy soldiers. Furthermore, instead of giving items, rescued PO Ws would either climb to the top of the Metal Slug and fire their bazooka, or stay next to it and throw grenades.
-Speaking of the POWs, apparently all of them were named after real POWs 0_0
-The prototype was completed and demo'ed at SNK's Osaka location 1995. While it was well-received by outlets like Gamest, neo geo fans and SNK itself didn't care much for it, saying it felt too short and subdued, that it didn't have the "fun spirit" of a Neo Geo game. After this, the developers went back to the drawing board and conceived the green trooper enemy, a development that set the direction of the final game.
-The video also reveals that rearranged themes from Metal Slug 1 were composed for X and are still present in the ROM, that an "X" version of Metal Slug 3 was planned, and that the antagonists of Metal Slug 4 would have been fish-people (as hinted in the ending of Metal Slug 3).
-Nazca was always a SNK joint: they were set up to port SNK's games to the Saturn and Playstation. They insisted to be able to make an original arcade game. SNK allowed them to make it on their off-time.
-The developers categorically deny the popular rumour Irem employees went to work to Aicom and made Pulstar as a successor to R-Type. Infact, they didn't care much for that game, perceiving it more as a "rip-off" than an "hommage" to their work on R-Type.
-The developers also deny Dolphin Blue (another run & gun game for the Atomiswave) was intented as a spiritual successor to MS' saying "only two MS developers worked on it" and that it was "a complete coincidence".
-The random UFOs that can appear in Stage 3 and Stage 6 were random details the main graphic artist added because he thought "it was neat" and they were not setting up for the sequels, as some thought.
-SNK didn't have faith in the game and didn't produce a lot of home cartridges as a result. The success of the game was a surprise for everyone involved.
The video ends with the two guys teasing they may have found a lead on a prototype cartridge, but whatever they found is "sleepy" and it won't be until a long time. There's been no news since then.
I posted the details on TV Tropes a few months back but I don't think they're still very well known (and some of my recollection of the video was wrong OxO) so I'll repost the summary here for the sake of discussion.
-The first iteration of MS was played with the tank. There was no pedestrian gameplay and Marco and Tarma did not exist at this point.
-The tone was more somber and lacked any humour, being more in line with the team's previous post-apocalyptic games at Irem.
-The backgrounds were redrawn. For example, the entire first stage, and not just the second half, was set inside a swamp.
-The game was much shorter: Stage 2 did not have an equivalent in the original version ("Metal Slug Zero" was supposed to have 6 levels like the final one, but the Kobe earthquake prevented one of the designer from coming over), and levels were shorter and simpler (for example, level 3 did not have the climbing portion or a mid-boss battle). The game was lengthened after SNK refused the original build, the developers reasoning being that since the Neo Geo was also sold as an home system, the game should be of reasonable length.
-The original plot was that General Morden had spent years planning a coup and managed to conquer all of the worlds major cities in his opening salvo, helped by the horiffic tactic of using POWs as human shields. The original player character, Phil John, was an engineer for the Regular Army who was working on the Metal Slug prototype, and took it with him to join the resistance. Player 2 was a gold Metal Slug piloted by one named Michiko Nakajima.
-The bearded POWs originally were blue pallete swaps of the enemy soldiers. Furthermore, instead of giving items, rescued PO Ws would either climb to the top of the Metal Slug and fire their bazooka, or stay next to it and throw grenades.
-Speaking of the POWs, apparently all of them were named after real POWs 0_0
-The prototype was completed and demo'ed at SNK's Osaka location 1995. While it was well-received by outlets like Gamest, neo geo fans and SNK itself didn't care much for it, saying it felt too short and subdued, that it didn't have the "fun spirit" of a Neo Geo game. After this, the developers went back to the drawing board and conceived the green trooper enemy, a development that set the direction of the final game.
-The video also reveals that rearranged themes from Metal Slug 1 were composed for X and are still present in the ROM, that an "X" version of Metal Slug 3 was planned, and that the antagonists of Metal Slug 4 would have been fish-people (as hinted in the ending of Metal Slug 3).
-Nazca was always a SNK joint: they were set up to port SNK's games to the Saturn and Playstation. They insisted to be able to make an original arcade game. SNK allowed them to make it on their off-time.
-The developers categorically deny the popular rumour Irem employees went to work to Aicom and made Pulstar as a successor to R-Type. Infact, they didn't care much for that game, perceiving it more as a "rip-off" than an "hommage" to their work on R-Type.
-The developers also deny Dolphin Blue (another run & gun game for the Atomiswave) was intented as a spiritual successor to MS' saying "only two MS developers worked on it" and that it was "a complete coincidence".
-The random UFOs that can appear in Stage 3 and Stage 6 were random details the main graphic artist added because he thought "it was neat" and they were not setting up for the sequels, as some thought.
-SNK didn't have faith in the game and didn't produce a lot of home cartridges as a result. The success of the game was a surprise for everyone involved.
The video ends with the two guys teasing they may have found a lead on a prototype cartridge, but whatever they found is "sleepy" and it won't be until a long time. There's been no news since then.
I remember liking 7 when I got it, but it's the game I've played the least by far and I haven't palyed it in like.. five years I think. The backgrounds were horifically ugly, but it fixed the ammo issue of MS6 and I remember the boss battles being quite creative. I liked the clawed robot who can split into two parts.
I've never played XX or even looked much into it.
I've never played XX or even looked much into it.
Mcmadness
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XX is just 7 with minor alterations.
7's locations are lackluster and the new future rebels wasn't as developed a concept as it could have been but I think it's level design is good and the boss fights are pretty cool too.
Also amuses me that after a decade they actually let Morden be the final boss again.
Btw 7 has by far my favourite rendition of Final Attack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbQgC8N7hWc
7's locations are lackluster and the new future rebels wasn't as developed a concept as it could have been but I think it's level design is good and the boss fights are pretty cool too.
Also amuses me that after a decade they actually let Morden be the final boss again.
Btw 7 has by far my favourite rendition of Final Attack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbQgC8N7hWc