SNK Playmore
Metal Slug

How many mornings, how many afternoons, how many evenings, and even how many summer and non-summer nights. How many "kilos" of tokens drained with our pocket money trying to reach the end level without dying even once. How many, I ask you. How many?

This time I won't do the usual review of any album I've happened to listen to. This time I want to change, I'm fed up. And so I've decided to focus on something different. More precisely, to focus on a passion I've cultivated since I was little, long before music. And that's how I focused on a game that never tired me, despite replaying it a billion times. Both on arcade machines and emulators. This time, as a review, I'll do a roundup of all the chapters of the greatest side-scrolling shooter the arcades have ever hosted. Indeed, Metal Slug.

The first chapter dates back to 1996, and even then it was a resounding success, which led to the creation of subsequent chapters. The "plot," if you can call it that, is essentially this: in an unspecified future, a general, born from a cross between Hitler and Saddam, goes mad and declares war on the entire world. We will embody a mega-angry soldier who, with the mere power of a pistol, will commit genocide against enemies and armored vehicles from level to level, until facing the big bad, killing him, and bringing peace to the world. And it's this exaggeration that makes the game epic from every perspective and the main reason for its fame. Just think of the enemies: pseudo-Nazi-Fascist soldiers who, despite having an arsenal and equipment more outdated than World War I, can afford futuristic mega-machines inconceivable to the human mind. The total opposite for the protagonist, capable of firing surface-to-air missiles from an assault rifle. And during our journey divided into six levels, we will pass through various real-world locations, like London, the Swiss Alps, and even an Italian village. An enormous concentrate of epicness and delirium that will have you replaying over and over.

As I already said, the success was enormous, so much so that, after only two years, Metal Slug 2 arrives. Even more exaggerated, even more destructive, even more epic. New vehicles, new weapons (a damn laser!), new enemies (including the Martians and the mummies. Damn mummies!), new characters (4 to choose from, compared to 2 in the first), and the addition of transformations (into a mummy and "fat bum"!). The gameplay obviously remains unchanged, something that will be for all subsequent chapters, but there is a problem. Not very annoying, but in certain cases, you just can't help but notice it, and sometimes it's indeed bothersome. That is the presence of some frame rate drops in certain stages of the game.

But this problem is resolved the following year, with the release of Metal Slug X, an improved and revisited version of 2, with many new weapons of mass destruction and other damn cool stuff. Personally, I consider this version significantly superior to the previous one, for the reasons just explained and because it's the Metal Slug I played the most in the arcade.

And here we arrive at the best chapter of the whole saga, which is Metal Slug 3. Released in 2000, it is the apotheosis of any video game belonging to this genre. Let's analyze the various points in favor:

- The Warp Gates, or the possibility to take secondary paths, which makes the title replayable over and over;

- It is the most enduring chapter of the saga, which infinitely increases the replayability factor and also the fun;

- Excellent soundtrack, among the best in the saga;

- New monsters, which make the game even more fantastic, first of all the zombies, the giant crabs, the yetis, the carnivorous plants, and the return of the mummies and Martians, who will be the enemies in the last level, just like in 2 and X;

- And of course, yet more new weapons and new vehicles with which to obliterate anything that blocks our path, and also a dizzying increase in enhanced weapons, also featured in X.

I don't want to seem too repetitive, but even the simplest and most trivial thing in these games rules the scene, and without it, it probably wouldn't be the same.

Yes, "it wouldn't be the same." This phrase fits perfectly to describe chapters 4 and 5. The problem now is that the producers have vomited all their genius and craziness stuffed in their heads into one game, which is 3. And from then on, it became almost impossible to do better. Or at least try to match the achieved result. For example, Metal Slug 4 is boring, empty, with little interest (apart from level 4, with the badass return of zombies and mummies), made by stitching pieces of previous chapters. All this due to a change in development management, entrusted to Mega Enterprise. A slightly different story for Metal Slug 5, a barely sufficient title in the end, with modest changes for the enemies and piloted vehicles, if it weren't for that cursed Slide Move, or the slide, which makes the movement commands a real unbearable mess. At least in this case, SNK had returned to oversee the production, given the disaster concocted by Mega.

But a slight breath of fresh air will arrive only after 3 years of waiting, with the release of Metal Slug 6, where this time, to lend a hand, there will be dear SEGA. It's a breath of fresh air because finally, after 5 publications, formidable gameplay modifications have been made. First and foremost, the holy disappearance of the Slide Move, together with a renewed and less cumbersome point accumulation system, initially introduced in 4, and the introduction of the Weapon Stock System, or the possibility to roam with two types of weapons simultaneously, with the option to switch them whenever desired, and characters who will have personal characteristics. An absolute novelty is also the addition of two new special characters, borrowed from the King Of Fighters universe. And, as expected, yet more new weapons and new vehicles. But the most important thing is a new race of alien enemies, the so-called Martian-eating Venusians. Oh, and also the return of the same Martians, but this time they will be our allies in the final level.

A last brief mention for Metal Slug 7, released only on Nintendo DS in 2008 (for PSP in 2009, under the title of Metal Slug XX), a chapter that doesn't deviate much from the previous one regarding gameplay, except for the usual novelties that I won't even tell you.

This is, essentially, the bizarre and amusing universe of Metal Slug, a saga that has thrilled young and old, a cornerstone of arcade video games, which all of us gamers of the first adult age (also, if willing, the second) must obligatorily pass on to future generations, and not allow a legend of the gaming world to be easily forgotten in the future. In the meantime, I'll open the emulator and dust them off a bit!

RATINGS:

Metal Slug = 92/100

Metal Slug 2 = 85/100

Metal Slug X = 90/100

Metal Slug 3 = 95/100

Metal Slug 4 = 70/100

Metal Slug 5 = 75/100

Metal Slug 6 = 82/100

Metal Slug 7/XX = 80/100