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»Metal Slug Anthology
"MISSION ALL OVER! THE FUTURE IS NOW!"
Ah, Metal Slug. Arguably SNK's most recognizable franchise. Who knew it
would last ten long years of gun-firing, knife-slashing, tank-smashing
action? Finally, after a decade of pure gaming bliss, all 7 of the
classic arcade games in the Metal Slug series have finally been
compiled into one awesome collection. Admittedly, there are kinks in
the games' emulation, but all-in-all, it's a pretty decent collection
overall.
Metal Slug Anthology is simply a collection of all of the arcade games
in the Metal Slug series. You can go through Marco Rossi's complete
history of adventures, battling such threats as the Morden army, the
invading Mars People, the terrorist group Amadeus, and other dangerous
foes. Of course, Marco's not in this alone; he's got many allies. Not
only is he joined by his earliest partner Tarma Roving, but he's joined
by his newest allies, the legendary Ikari Warriors, Ralf and Clark
(from the game of the same name and the King of Fighters games). But
will the combined might of these soldiers and the various Slug vehicles
be enough to stop such a coalition of megalomania?
The basic gameplay found in the Metal Slug games is nothing new. If
you've ever played Contra, Gunstar Heroes, or Turrican, then you have a
good idea of what to expect in these games: pure "run-and-gun"
side-scrolling action. Your character starts out armed with nothing
more than a pistol and ten grenades, but you can collect other more
powerful weapons, such as a machine-gun (or two!), a shotgun, a
flamethrower and many more weapons to kill your enemies with. You can
also trade in your grenades for Molotov cocktails and other powerful
explosives. Unfortunately, all of these special weapons (and your
standard grenades) have only a limited amount of ammo, and when you
die, you lose them for good (until you find it again, of course).
You're also armed with a knife for close-up melee fighting.
Of course, don't just think this is just some Contra clone, because
from the first game on, Metal Slug has always added in its own twists
to the Metal Slug design. First and foremost, we have the Metal Slug:
a huge, powerful tank armed with a turret and a powerful cannon, with
which you can simply trample your enemies. Of course, after the first
installment, they come in various other forms ranging from submarines
and planes to completely unorthodox vehicles (camels, mechs and even
tricked-out cars!). Another advantage of using the tanks is that they
have health meters (which can even be replenished by certain
power-ups), which means they can handle more damage then your character
(and anything's better than one-hit deaths). Of course, when their
energy runs out, you've only got a few seconds to evacuate. There's
also the ability to use the "Metal Slug" attack, which allows you to
use any of these vehicles in a devastating kamikaze attack.
The biggest differences can be seen in the latest game in the
collection, Metal Slug 6, which offers a few new quirks all its own.
Alternate melee techniques, Ralf and Clark's trademark attacks from the
King of Fighters series, and the ability to store up to two weapons at
a time and switch between them at the press of a button, all great new
features. Of course, the older games have some neat features all their
own, with varying difficulty levels and such. Not only that, but you
can elect to play the games with unlimited or limited continues (15 of 'em, way more than the default 4 on the old NeoGeo home versions). 
Now THAT, is a boss battle. Despite all of the fun that a title like MSA should promise, this game
has some major problems, namely in the load time department. Six of the
seven games (Metal Slugs 1-5 and MSX) have horrible load times placed
in the worst possible areas. As opposed to one big load time at the
start of the game (as seen in the Capcom Classics Collections), these
games have them peppered throughout the entire game, showing up at the
end of each segment of each stage. Each time you reach the end of a leg
in a stage, you can expect to see a semi-transparent "Loading..." in the
top-left corner of your screen. In fact, the long load time before each
game in Capcom's collections almost feel like nothing at all compared to
the ones found in this game. Fortunately, MS6 escapes this horrible
curse, but instead gets plagued with minor lagging (as do all the other
games, for some strange reason). To make matters worse, the in-game
pausing and options are horrible to navigate. The same can be said for
the game's menus themselves. If you've played the MegaMan Anniversary
Collection, then imagine its menu navigation, but factor in an awful
pause screen as well.
The graphics in the games on this collection are all quite similar, but
you can see a steady increase in quality from game-to-game. Just try
comparing the graphics from the original game to those from Metal Slug
6, and you'll be even more impressed by the vast improvements that the
AtomisWave system made to the game's look. All-in-all, I think the PSP
does these games justice, especially with the three screen aspect
ratios (4:3, 16:9 and original pixel), much like what Capcom did in its
arcade collections. However, the older games definitely show their age,
especially when compared to the newer entries in the series.  Metal Slug Gundam? Nah.
The sound quality follows suit in this matter. Maybe it's just me, but
I've always like the soundtracks in the Metal Slug games, mainly
because they both fit in with the tone of the game and well, a lot of
the music stems from a few common memorable themes. It's nice to hear
the recurring themes evolve and change throughout the series, but as
with the graphics, it's somewhat disappointing to hear the earlier
games side-by-side with their later counterparts, although this time,
it's mainly a NeoGeo MVS (the system used on 1-5 and X) vs. AtomisWave
(MS6) comparison. Likewise, the sound effects are still clean and the
minor voice acting (the cries of the hostages, enemy soldiers, and your
characters, of course) are there intact. Still, there is a minor sound
lag at certain parts of the game, but this is a minor inconvenience.
The replay in this game is pretty hectic. On one hand, you've got seven
classic arcade games, which, despite their flawed translation, are
still a nice play, but there isn't really that much extra to keep you
involved. Okay, there is a token system, which gives you 4 tokens each
time you complete any of the games, but it's an all or nothing deal:
either beat the game and get something, or fail and get zilch. And to
make matters worse, the payouts aren't that good - I mean, you can use
these tokens to buy downloadable wallpapers and music, not to mention art
galleries and a [text-only] interview. And the cost of these things
range from 1-3 tokens, so you pretty much feel cheated for your effort.
To make matters worse, you always get 4 tokens, regardless of what
difficulty you play on or whether you choose to use infinite continues.
To sum up the situation, the siren call of the Metal Slug games will
definitely keep you coming back, but the lack of incentive will send
you away just as quickly. So, if you're a fan of Contra, Gunstar
Heroes, or Metal Slug itself, and you don't own a Wii or PS2 (or would
simply rather play the games on the road), you should definitely pick
up Metal Slug Anthology. If you're looking for something a little more
cerebral however, then head elsewhere. Now SNK, let's talk King of
Fighters Portable...
Article by: Wolfdogg
Posted on: Feb. 27th, 2007 |
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Review Recap |
| Gameplay |
| Classic arcade goodness, but the slight lags and load times somewhat ruin the moment. |
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Graphics |
| Well-rendered 2D graphics (especially in MS6's case), but the older games in the collection definitely show their age. Also, the menus are have decent background art, but are otherwise sparse. |
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Sound |
| The soundtracks are good, but dated. Voice acting and sound effects are good too, but a minor lag in the sound can be distracting at times. |
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Replay Value |
| The reward system is flawed, that's for sure. But this collection of 7 classic arcade games will likely be revisited. |
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