More like Metal Slog X am I right or am I right fellas (I'm not right in the slightest this game kinda slaps)!
The Metal Slug series blew my mind since the very first time I discovered it, back when I was a stupid and young and stupid kid that barely knew how to use the DS, 'cause holy hell these games look INCREDIBLE. As such, I've tried playing them multiple times, but my poor stupid and young and, you guessed it, stupid mind weren't really that accustomed to Arcade experiences, and so every time I attempted any game I ended up feeling frustrated and didn't finish it; but today that changed, I finally was the Metal Slug... I still ended up feeling frustrated tho.
In a technical aspect, this game is fucking surreal; the pixel-art is crisp and beautiful, as it is the art-style. It's clear that very single sprite was originally a 2D hand-drawn images, and that makes it not only have spectacular looks, but insane animations as well. The backgrounds are also amazing, and they also showcase what makes this game (and the series for that matter) be as unique as it is, it being the personality that oozes from every pixel: the smallest details like a baby just walking around a battlefield, the definitely not German inspired soldiers screaming in sheer terror when you respawn, the hair-driers that the aliens have for guns; all of these little things go from really fun and hilarious add-ons to fantastic visual clues and animations that inject the whole running and gunning with so much absurd life… which something that the soUNDTRACK ALSO DOES OH MY FUCKING GOD DOES THIS OST SLAP!. It all feels to good to be true, which is a sentiment that the game itself seems to feel ‘cause hooooooooooooooooooo boi is it full of slow-downs. It’s absolutely expectable considering that this originally released back in 1999, even before if you considered that X is an upgrade of Metal Slug 2, and also a great one that adds even more details and better balancing and even some music changes, but still, this doesn’t change the fact that it affects GREATLY the experience, and this one being a re-release, it makes it even more disappointing they just emulated without trying to fix any of these issues.
But hey, this game has Eri and that weird muscular man with a machine gun, I imagine it takes a lot to process all of that, especially the latter.
The level design also surprised me greatly, I already knew it wasn’t bad at all, but my god are these layouts fun; the way platforming and gunplay is combine gives for a fantastic feeling in the moment to moment combat, and that combined with the sheer variety of enemies, weapons and even vehicles (you can ride a plane for crying out loud, A PLANE), makes for some incredible set pieces (the boss of Mission 2 specially, that one is pure gold) and a mostly fun game… except Mission 5, I have no idea what happened there. Mission 6, the final one, even with its problems, it has really cool moments and original challenges, but Mission 5… I mean if a level had to be bad, I’m glad it wasn’t the first or the last one, but I’d rather not have a straight line full of what feels like hundreds of enemies and repetitive encounters in which the slowdown makes it impossible to distinguish what it’s happening, y’know? And it’s not like that’s the only bad thing with design wise; Metal Slug X is an arcade game, and that comes with certain design decision, for better and for worse. For better, is a quick, fast paced experience that pushes its advanced hardware to its limit (sometimes too much), and for worse it can turn into an endless and incredibly drawn-out showdown against hordes of enemies that doesn’t feel fun or fair and boss fights that feel to spongy and long that otherwise would be really fun. I get it what it’s like this, you gotta take away those pennies some way or another, and maybe if I played it in an Arcade I would value it more, but even as it stands, there are moments that just feels like they filled the screen with enemies with no consideration if it would be fun or not.
Also there are some depictions of people from certain countries that… haven’t aged all that well honestly. I’m not holding it against the game since it doesn’t really affect anything and there doesn’t seem to be any kind of ill-intent, but I know that there are some people that understandably don’t like that type of stuff, so if you are one of those people, keep it in mind if you plan to play it, ‘cause… yeah, with flaws and all, I actually recommend Metal Slug X.
Most of its problems are just results of the hardware it was released on, both in terms in how it was designed and the technical problems it has, and that, plus it being a revision of another game, it actually adds it a ton of value. What’s here is just absolutely fantastic, an achievement, and I can’t stop looking at it in awe as well as having A TON of fun in its best moments. I don’t know id this particular release is really worth checking out compared to other re-releases, but I do know that the game itself is wild and has some moments that are just the best.
…and also, I would like to take this last paragraph to say one last thing... THE HELICOPTERS FUCKING SUCK AND I HOPE THEY GUY OR GAL THAT DESIGNED THEIR ATTACKS STUBS THEIR TOE- ok maybe that’s a bit too far, nobody deserves that… the same way nobody deservES FIGHTING AGAINST THREE HELICOPETS WHILE SOLDIERS ARE SHOOTING AT YOU FROM BOTH SIDES AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-
The Metal Slug series blew my mind since the very first time I discovered it, back when I was a stupid and young and stupid kid that barely knew how to use the DS, 'cause holy hell these games look INCREDIBLE. As such, I've tried playing them multiple times, but my poor stupid and young and, you guessed it, stupid mind weren't really that accustomed to Arcade experiences, and so every time I attempted any game I ended up feeling frustrated and didn't finish it; but today that changed, I finally was the Metal Slug... I still ended up feeling frustrated tho.
In a technical aspect, this game is fucking surreal; the pixel-art is crisp and beautiful, as it is the art-style. It's clear that very single sprite was originally a 2D hand-drawn images, and that makes it not only have spectacular looks, but insane animations as well. The backgrounds are also amazing, and they also showcase what makes this game (and the series for that matter) be as unique as it is, it being the personality that oozes from every pixel: the smallest details like a baby just walking around a battlefield, the definitely not German inspired soldiers screaming in sheer terror when you respawn, the hair-driers that the aliens have for guns; all of these little things go from really fun and hilarious add-ons to fantastic visual clues and animations that inject the whole running and gunning with so much absurd life… which something that the soUNDTRACK ALSO DOES OH MY FUCKING GOD DOES THIS OST SLAP!. It all feels to good to be true, which is a sentiment that the game itself seems to feel ‘cause hooooooooooooooooooo boi is it full of slow-downs. It’s absolutely expectable considering that this originally released back in 1999, even before if you considered that X is an upgrade of Metal Slug 2, and also a great one that adds even more details and better balancing and even some music changes, but still, this doesn’t change the fact that it affects GREATLY the experience, and this one being a re-release, it makes it even more disappointing they just emulated without trying to fix any of these issues.
But hey, this game has Eri and that weird muscular man with a machine gun, I imagine it takes a lot to process all of that, especially the latter.
The level design also surprised me greatly, I already knew it wasn’t bad at all, but my god are these layouts fun; the way platforming and gunplay is combine gives for a fantastic feeling in the moment to moment combat, and that combined with the sheer variety of enemies, weapons and even vehicles (you can ride a plane for crying out loud, A PLANE), makes for some incredible set pieces (the boss of Mission 2 specially, that one is pure gold) and a mostly fun game… except Mission 5, I have no idea what happened there. Mission 6, the final one, even with its problems, it has really cool moments and original challenges, but Mission 5… I mean if a level had to be bad, I’m glad it wasn’t the first or the last one, but I’d rather not have a straight line full of what feels like hundreds of enemies and repetitive encounters in which the slowdown makes it impossible to distinguish what it’s happening, y’know? And it’s not like that’s the only bad thing with design wise; Metal Slug X is an arcade game, and that comes with certain design decision, for better and for worse. For better, is a quick, fast paced experience that pushes its advanced hardware to its limit (sometimes too much), and for worse it can turn into an endless and incredibly drawn-out showdown against hordes of enemies that doesn’t feel fun or fair and boss fights that feel to spongy and long that otherwise would be really fun. I get it what it’s like this, you gotta take away those pennies some way or another, and maybe if I played it in an Arcade I would value it more, but even as it stands, there are moments that just feels like they filled the screen with enemies with no consideration if it would be fun or not.
Also there are some depictions of people from certain countries that… haven’t aged all that well honestly. I’m not holding it against the game since it doesn’t really affect anything and there doesn’t seem to be any kind of ill-intent, but I know that there are some people that understandably don’t like that type of stuff, so if you are one of those people, keep it in mind if you plan to play it, ‘cause… yeah, with flaws and all, I actually recommend Metal Slug X.
Most of its problems are just results of the hardware it was released on, both in terms in how it was designed and the technical problems it has, and that, plus it being a revision of another game, it actually adds it a ton of value. What’s here is just absolutely fantastic, an achievement, and I can’t stop looking at it in awe as well as having A TON of fun in its best moments. I don’t know id this particular release is really worth checking out compared to other re-releases, but I do know that the game itself is wild and has some moments that are just the best.
…and also, I would like to take this last paragraph to say one last thing... THE HELICOPTERS FUCKING SUCK AND I HOPE THEY GUY OR GAL THAT DESIGNED THEIR ATTACKS STUBS THEIR TOE- ok maybe that’s a bit too far, nobody deserves that… the same way nobody deservES FIGHTING AGAINST THREE HELICOPETS WHILE SOLDIERS ARE SHOOTING AT YOU FROM BOTH SIDES AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-
2 Comments
@cdmcgwire I sometimes call this series Metal Gear Slug, so it may be a more common confusion than I thought xD
cdmcgwire
10 months ago