New Review Posted: Metal Slug 4&5

[Daniel Weissenberger]

I review Metal Slug 4&5, and am a little stunned by what I find:

"So, that's it? Really? Maybe it's just me, but it seems that in this day and age people expect more from a port of an arcade game than just the arcade game. Twelve years ago SNK could get away with this sort of thing. While home consoles struggled to put more than 32 colors on screen at once without major framerate issues, the Neo-Geo offered lavish arcade-quality graphics for a paltry 200 dollars per game. Then something strange happened. Or didn't happen, really. As other companies moved into the third dimension and embraced new videogame technology, SNK chugged along, producing the same sprite-based shooting and fighting games that had long been their trademark. Fighting games, if they're any good at all, have the replayability built right into them—side-scrolling shooters (which generally play the same way each time) need something more to keep the attention of an audience now used to seeing games with estimated play times that rarely drop below two digits—something that Metal Slug 4&5 sorely lacks."

Then Brad Gallaway offers his second opinion on the game:

"Dan is right on the money in saying that the lack of extras in Metal Slug 4 & 5 is very disappointing. This is my third review of a Metal Slug title for GameCritics, and over the last few re-releases, the decline in value for each game has been fairly obvious."

The rest of these articles can be found here.

[shun]

To further discredit these two games, consider this:

It is possible to zip the rom file of the entire Metal Slug series and fit all of them in just 1 CD. 1 CD!

Why SNK didn't just include the entire Metal Slug series in one DVD will always be baffling to me.

O.T. If you have the spare cash, you might consider importing SNK's Samurai Spirits: Tenka. It features all characters from Samurai Shodown I-V, with 4 new ones, and you can play the game in the "grooves" (i.e. attack system) offered by all previous games plus another one exclusively from Tenka. 40 characters+lots of different ways to play each character+Hatorri Hanzo,Yagyu Jubei,Musashi inspired Haohmaru,Andrew Jackson (will they ever have Zatoichi,Hajime Saito as playable SamSho characters?)=lots of fun!

[sleeveboy]

While I agree with the score (MS4 and 5 are the poorest games in the series) I disagree with the rationale.

At its core, MS is a decent 2D scrolling shooter (it's no Contra or Gunstar Heroes, but hey), but MS4 and 5 are basically hack jobs. A Korean company basically took all the sprites from the previous games and plugged them into slightly different backgrounds. For this reason they deserve scorn, and not some generalized apathy towards side-scrolling games.

Furthermore, playing as a zombie or mummy is not new to the MS series. These mechanics were introduced in MS3 and MS2/X, respectively.

[Daniel Weissenberger]

See, this is the problem when I don't play all the games in a series as research - I enjoy the bad ones too much.

Although, the opinion of someone who is passionate about the series would likely make a good reader op...

[sleeveboy]

In any case, fans of MS should just hold out until SNK/Playmore releases Metal Slug Collection on PSP this fall, which will have all five games on one UMD.

[ferrarimanf355]

Originally Posted by sleeveboy

In any case, fans of MS should just hold out until SNK/Playmore releases Metal Slug Collection on PSP this fall, which will have all five games on one UMD.

You mean six. There's Metal Slug 1,2,X,3,4 and 5.

[Vince]

We can now add that the Wii is getting the collection as well, with some as of now unannounced extras and full compatibility with the Wii's controller. Now if the Neo-Geo's library would be made available for download. . .

(Source is IGN)

[shun]

Originally Posted by Vince

We can now add that the Wii is getting the collection as well, with some as of now unannounced extras and full compatibility with the Wii's controller. Now if the Neo-Geo's library would be made available for download. . .

(Source is IGN)

Interesting. I wonder how it would play with a REVOLUTION controller. Do you move Marco with the REVOLUTION remote and press buttons to have him shoot? Or do you point your enemy with the REVOLUTION remote and Marco will find means of shooting that enemy?

(As of now I still refuse to call it a Wii controller. )