I'm sorry, but I don't know if it's okay to bump (unless more posters want to put something on this thread). Looks I changed my mind for Paper Mario : TTYD and SMRPG. For me, I think my favorite game (maybe from now on?) is
Metal Slug 3 (The second game (and maybe its revamp) come a close second).
SNK really went all out with this installment, especially since SNK said its 'goodbye' the same year this game came out 2000 (SNK has been revived back in 2003 as SNK Playmore, however).
I have to say that I'm impressed with the amount of work, effort and originality seen in a run n' gun game. In my opinion, the series itself attracts me more than the Contra series, which it's based off of.
LONG REVIEW IS BELOWAnyways, back to Metal Slug 3, this game contains simple but addictive gameplay, with a similar control scheme to
Contra (though you can aim in 4 directions only; the controls feel a bit more fluid than Contra (in my opinion)). The game is immense in variety, with a good number of weapons (even upgraded version) and 'Slug' vehicles to use, such as a futuristic Metal Slug tank, to the Slug Flyer hovercraft and more (there's even 'animal' slugs; you'll get what I mean by this if you see/play the games themselves). The vehicles are almost as fluid as control your human character. There's so many enemies in this installment, such as the usual soldiers
to zombies, and even Martians! Your character can even transform, such as making your soldier obese, or a zombie (that vomits blood!).
The music is also very good, with certain motifs that fit with the level. There's themes that have a military feeling, such as more renditions of the Metal Slug theme, to themes that have a heavy metal feeling, such as 'The Midnight Wandering' and 'Kiss in the Dark'. For a 16-bit arcade (I bet it doesn't look like 16-bit to many when they see it) game, they utilized the Neo Geo's sound chip to such a great degree. Many guitarists have been doing covers of the 'Midnight Wandering' seen on YouTube.
The sound effects are pretty wacky and funny, too. Hearing soldiers screaming to hearing your shotgun firing, to a certain mid-boss taunting you and telling you to '
GO HOME TO MOMMY' add to the game. The announcer is silly, especially when he yells out the weapons you pick up. When you get the
Heavy Machine Gun, he yells out '
JEVI MESHINGA.' When you get that
Rocket Launcher, expect to hear '
RAWKET LAWNCHAIR.'
The game even contains alternate routes, which adds replayability to such an addicting game. In the first stage, you could either tread through piranha-infested waters on a boat or head into underwater caverns, with giant eels as one of its obstacles.
And the
graphics--this is one of Metal Slug's trademark. Everything--your characters, the enemies, the bosses--everything has character.
The game looks like a crazy Saturday-morning cartoon with a bit of Super-Deformed art style in the mix. Soldiers will talk with one another as you sneak up on them, and they'll yell a manner much similar to what's seen in a Looney Toons cartoon. Even though the Metal Slug tank is um, a tank, it moves in a very lively manner, as its components bounce along the way as you tread through the stages. The stages themselves are a work of art, also. You'll barely find any reused background sprites in any of the five vast stages/missions. The cutscenes in between certain stages are top notch too--the final mission is a silent movie all on its own. It's amazing (I feel like I'm exaggerating too much, haha).
The first kind-of negative aspect I have for this game is that, like any Metal Slug game, especially since they were originally produced for the arcades, are difficult; this one is incredibly hard, and the final mission (which practically takes up half of the average playtime for this game (there's 5 missions in this, and the previous games contained 6 missions (the length of the 5 missions in MS3 makes up for the small amount of them (
megamario, how many parenthesis' do you need?!)))) will screw many over if they aren't experienced enough. I won't explain how the final mission flows; either play it/see it for yourself.
Crazy stuff, I'll tell you.Another minus is that whoever played any of the Metal Slug games that led up to this may feel that MS3 is a letdown, due to the fact that the game doesn't focus on much of the military-feeling as before, with a smaller amount of instances of your soldier facing against the enemy soldiers and more instances of you fighting off
crabs, zombies, man-eating plants, etc. So if you expected more of the same as before, don't expect that for Metal Slug 3 (but c'mon, you should've expected that the series would move on ever since
Metal Slug 2's last mission with the Martians and the Mothership final boss).
What's also another minus is that the installments after this are somewhat of a let down, but are still fun run n' gun arcade games. Maybe SNK will get their act together and make the ultimate Metal Slug game if they're ever near the point of impending bankruptcy yet again.
Other than that, this game inspires me to be involved in the gaming industry, for such gigantic amounts of zaniness to be inserting into an awesome game. I commend to to the teams that have created these games, and continue to use the unique sprite style for over 10 years (!!!).
Tip for anybody that's interesting in playing this game:
PLAY METAL SLUGS 1 & 2/X.
Metal Slug 1 is pretty difficult, but is the easiest and the shortest.
Metal Slug 2 is crazier, longer and has as much spirit as the first game (there's lots of slowdown, but this maybe be a godsend for newbies such as me when I first played it), but even harder (wait until you get to mission 5...).
Metal Slug X is basically
Super Metal Slug 2 : Turbo Edition (w/o the slowdown problems). They'll get you accustomed to what's in store for you in the third game. But, if you ever wanna play that Metal Slug 3 over there, you'll feel like these smilies :
, and possibly this at the end :
OR: Go watch longplays of the series on cubex55's YouTube channel.
I apologized if I went overboard, but this game, the whole series in general, should be more known to gamers, especially if you're a fan of frenetic, run n' gun arcade games. And that's all I have to say for my favorite game.
Posted: March 9th, 2014, 12:47 pm