Metal Slug 3 for Xbox 360 Review: Classic shooter reborn

Metal Slug is the be-all of 2D shooters.

This, is Metal Slug 3. This is the hardest 2D shooter you will ever play. And that's a fact. I'm not saying that based just on my personal experience. No, if you go to any gaming board, MS3 will surely get the vote as hardest shooter to date. I'll tell you straight up- if you ever get so frustrated with some games to the point where you throw the controller down on the ground or anything like that, stop reading this review, and lose all interest in the Metal Slug series. Because this game will make you cry. While the game doesn't really get hard until probably 2/3 through, there's no denying that the last stage is a test of skill and sanity. I mean it- SNK's so mad that their games don't sell well here in the US, and so they threw every bit of their rage into this level. I was so close to hate Metal Slug 3, give in and get a rapid fire controller just to beat it. But when I took down the final boss, it was like I conquered games in general.

If you've been living in a cave for the past decade, Metal Slug is a simple 2D shooter series. You pick one of four characters, all of which are the same aside from appearence, and run around shooting the bad guys. That's all there is to it. No deep storyline or character development here. If you see an enemy, you shoot them and keep running to the right. And if you get hit once, you die. It's that simple. Now, beating the game is another story. There's an impressive assortment of weaposn you'll find as well. Machine guns, flame throwers, lasers, seeking rockets, bouncing shots, shotguns, and the most humorous of all when the announcer says its name: the RAWKET LAOUNCHAIR. Well, it's really the rocket launcher, but when the announcer says it, it in a league of its own. And there's the usual grenades, and various vehicles to pick up along the way. Anyway, the first level has you take on opposing forces in the jungle, where you're lead to branching paths- one of which has you on a boat in the river freeing hostages from the vines above and taking out truckloads of enemies. It's chaos. Soldiers are everywhere, and you have to wait until your boat gets under the hostage before freeing them, since they'll not officially be freed unless they salute you after touching your character. The boss for the stage is a huge crab that launches fireballs at your character while escaping on a bridge in the Metal Slug- a god damn awesome tank with unlimited ammo and a huge cannon. The second level is probably the most fun to play- you run around a stage where zombies are on the loose. And there's other humans in the level, so if a zombie attacks them, they become an enemy as well. This applies for your character as well. When attacked, you turn into a wacked-out zombie version of yourself, and your bomb attack becomes something so priceless you'd have to see it to believe it. You vomit a HUGE streak of blood, capable of taking down helicopters and lines of enemies in one hit. The only problem is that you barely jump, and are slower than Louie Anderson trying to get out of bed. And the end boss here has two forms. You better have saved some bombs for this one.

I'm not going to go into detail about every level, but I do have to mention the fifth and final stage. It's a pain in the ass, plain and simple. And it also brings out the only real con in the game. The level itself spans roughly 5 sections. You start out in either a helicopter or jet, and take down some enemy fighters in the sky (and some unfortunate para-troops). After this, you zoom down to ground-level and dispose of the enemy forces there. Most of which are in covered wagons and tanks. But then, comes the first boss of many- an angry guy with a machine gun in a heavily armored plane. If you lost your vehicle prior to this part, start over. You'll need the extra hits because for first-time players, his grenades can be hard to see. Following this section is the second half to it where you fight another boss in a helicopter while using a mounted gattling gun. This part isn't too hard, and can be finished in no time. But, once defeated, your character gets captured, and another comes to save them. The guy in the helicopter turns out to be an alien, and goes off into space. Guess where you go next? That's right. It's off to the alien mothership in your tiny rocket. This part is fast-paced and enemies come from all sides of the screen. Luckily, you'll get more weapons than you'll know what to do with here, and taking them out isn't too much of a hassle. Keeping the rocket though, is a whole other story. Since I've played this level so many times, I've memorized it, and don't lose it anymore. But again, first-timers will go nuts at this part probably. If you can finish this section, you'll start flying into the mother ship which at first, seems like a living thing. The walls are all organ-like, but aliens are flying around in here too. Beating this finally gets you to inside the real ship where you'll probably die in the first 3 minutes. There are limitless enemies here. Some take dozens of shots before dying, and others have cheap attacks. Moving on, you have to rescue your partner, who was cloned trillions of times, hope for the best, escape while avoiding zombie-clones THAT CAN DO THAT BAD-ASS BLOOD ATTACK WHICH KILLS YOU ALMOST ANY TIME THEY DO IT, and THEN you'll make it to the last boss. Yes, this is the entire last level. And there are no save or checkpoints. This is where that con kicks in. With the arcade versions, you just popped in more quarters to continue from where you died. But in the Xbox version, once your lives are up, you start over from the beginning of the level. Not the section you died in, the -very- beginning of the level. Yeah, try beating the last level in one shot and you're a gaming god. The only way to do this is to plug in a second controller and hit 'start' immediately after your character dies, and before the countdown begins. This'll net you the second player's character with a full stock of lives, which is your only shot at beating the game. Believe me, when/if you beat this last level, it'll be the finest moment in gaming that you'll ever accomplish.

There are two added mini-games for the Xbox version here. Fat Island and Storming the Mother Ship. They're both fun, epecially Fat Island. You try to reach a set weight by eating all the food that appears on the screen and dodging enemies with the help of your snowman bombs. Two-player chaos ensues. Storming the Mother Ship is a total jerk though. You play as one of the three different enemy soldiers in the game, but this time, you're on the good side. One has grenades, another has a bazooka (grenades in gun-form more or less), and the other has a shield and melee attack. Play through most of the last level as any one of them and see how far you can make it. Here's a hint- the shield and melee attack is a big plus.

For the graphics, I can't give Metal Slug 3 a real score. It's almost 10 years old, and 2D, AND originally for the NeoGeo system. You know, that ancient thing with games that were in the hundreds of dollars per cart. It looks good though. Character animations are great, as are the backgrounds. There's a lot of detail to be found. While some say it's the "best looking 2D game ever made", that's hardly the case. Go check out Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike and say otherwise. As for the sound, the music is so good that I got the soundtrack, and the voices are to die for. RAWKET LAOUNCHAIR!

Only, and I mean ONLY get Metal Slug 3 if you think you can handle it. I'm not trying to make myself sound high and mighty, but it -is- a tough game. Probably the toughest I've played mostly thanks to that last level and screwed up continue system. And don't you dare play it with two players (at the same time) on that part. Any level where you have two players leads to twices as many enemies, and the bosses seem to have even more health. 'not a good idea for the last level at all. But pick up MS3 if you can still find it. And if it's too hard, try 4+5 which were just released, and are much easier. I so kicked your ass MS3. Of this, I am proud.
Read full Story

Source / Author / Credit: Zergwatch