Wednesday 4 April 2012

They don't Make 'Em Like they Used to: Metal Slug


Metal Slug came during an era when a mighty polygon iceberg was ripping through the flat ice plains of 2D gaming. Most scrambled a bee line straight for the peaks of the polygon riding its icy faces to the warm mass market seas. Huge kudos to SNK who rolled eyes, cut a hole in the ice and landed the beauty that is Metal Slug. Few would have found too much to get excited about once the visual rush having more poly's than a tub of margarine in their games. So Metal Slug came as a breath of fresh air true to its 2D roots with just lashings and lashings of gameplay. The series still feels great today. Be it on the Saturn with a Ram Cart, On the Neo Geo CD with its load times (though the saving over the AES version shortens the feel of those times) or the full compilation of the PS2. Saving hostages who show their gratitude, looking at the sheer shock on faces as they get snuck up on by stealth, charging all guns blazing with a tidy power up.... Enough to make you well up with pride. Wearing its 2D tats with pride, Metal Slug: we salute you.

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