Metal Slug 7 Review
My tank is bigger than yours
By Ben Salter
The
Metal Slug series has attracted a strong following since it’s humble beginnings back in 1996. SNK's franchise is renowned for its run & gun gameplay, amazing arcade visuals and witty humour. 2D side-scrolling shooters are hard to find these days, and after 7 installments (in the main series) Metal Slug still delivers the goods with its extremely addictive arcade gameplay, although SNK's decision to release it as a Nintendo DS exclusive initially seems like an odd choice.
Why is Metal Slug 7 on the Nintendo DS? This is the question I asked myself after completing the game in just over an hour. I don’t by any means pretend to be a hardcore Metal Slug fan, but the series is meant to be an arcade game, and Nintendo’s handheld didn’t do that any justice. The top screen is where all the action takes place; meanwhile the second screen isn’t used for anything meaningful besides a half-hearted tacked on map that may as well have not been there at all. It’s used to show the locations of remaining prisoners of war that are crying out to be rescued but looks terrible to the point where they could have easily added a random blob and labelled it ‘map’. It shouldn’t bother you too much as the action in Metal Slug is so intense that there’s rarely a moment to glance at the bottom screen, but it basically sums up how underused the unique features of the DS are. To top this off there is no multiplayer modes when the title is clearly screaming out for at least local Wi-Fi, if not online as well. Running and gunning through a side-scrolling 2D shooter is best done with a mate and it seems odd that this wasn’t included considering it is a Nintendo DS game. Besides being able to take Metal Slug 7 with you wherever you go nothing else about the DS was used to advantage. This is most likely the underlying reason as to why the once exclusive title will be making its way to the Xbox Live Arcade shortly.
Even though it looks like one long screen it's actually 2 next to each other...Metal Slug 7 will have you working, or should I say shooting your way through seven stages. After each stage is complete you’ll be confronted by a boss who will offer a decent challenge even to experienced Metal Slug players on the hardest difficulty. For those who haven’t played a Metal Slug game before essentially you progress through a traditional left to right 2D side-scroller shooting almost everything in your path. Power-ups will appear through the levels when you release prisoners of war and will give you access to the ever so important bigger and better guns. Three new vehicles have been introduced in Metal Slug 7, including my personal favourite the Metal Gigant, which is almost bigger than the DS screen, and when we’re talking weapons bigger is better. The snow filled level which houses this beast of a machine was very well designed, hosting a range of enemies for you to trample as you powered your way through with brawn over brains.
The controls of Metal Slug 7 are as simple as running, shooting and jumping. The D-Pad will control all of your movement, while three other buttons will control firing your primary and secondary weapons and jumping. If you don’t like any of the controls SNK have allowed any of them to be remapped to a button of your chose, a nice touch which should definitely become the norm for the DS’s button setup. Considering this it’s a little disappointing that the touch screen wasn’t offered as an option to map one of the controls to, such as changing weapon. Although that’s not to say touch controls would have been a good thing, Metal Slug is meant to be played as an arcade game, and overall sticking with the traditional face buttons was the better option.
This is why the bottom screen was cropped off of other screens, the map looks awful and it's worse in gameThe seven missions will only take the average gamer 1-2 hours tops to complete on the easy or normal difficulties. Once again this comes back to the fact that this is an arcade game and the strange decision to initially release it as a Nintendo DS exclusive. To boast up the gameplay a little there are 80 training missions in combat school. The aim of these varies widely from collecting items, to rescuing prisoners of war, however they reuse the same levels found in the main game, and after a while begin to become repetitive, especially if you play them after completing the main missions where all these tasks have already been completed.
In any mode you’ll have the choice to play as one of six different characters. Each of these have their own personal characteristics, which most importantly include slight differences in weapon attributes. While some characters are better at firing more rapidly, others have more powerful but slower weapons. However when you’re actually playing through the intense battles it’s hard to really notice the difference between each character.
Bang!The arcade-style visuals are a trademark of the series and continue to look great on the Nintendo DS. Metal Slug 7 looks great for the most part considering how much is on the screen at once, and how detailed everything remains. The Xbox Live Arcade version (to be released shortly) will really benefit from this as everything has been downsized to fit the Nintendo DS screen. It still looks great besides occasional screen tearing and remains true to the visual styling that the series is memorable for.
The audio remains true to the origins of the series and sets up the intense atmosphere that is required to play a Metal Slug game. Granted there’s nothing really new here, it’s the same old sound effects and music, but this is one thing that didn’t need to be changed or improved regardless of platform. To experience everything at it’s finest you’ll want to pull out the headphones and crank the volume.
Summary
Metal Slug 7 is a fun game, and one that all Metal Slug fans should try out, although the Nintendo DS may not have been the best choice of platform. The run & gun gameplay offers a great but very short experience. You’ll want to play through the seven levels again increasing the total gameplay to a few hours at best, so it’s hard to recommend his as a full retail title. Those with an Xbox 360 should consider waiting to play the Live Arcade version, which will most likely be superior and cheaper. Ultimately the Nintendo DS version of Metal Slug 7 falls short of content, especially considering the lack of a much need multiplayer mode.
Gameplay
8.0/10
If you enjoy 2D side-scrollers where your aim is to shoot the hell out of everything then there’s no doubt you’ll love the Metal Slug series. It would have been nice to see some innovation to the 12-year-old series considering the unique features of the Nintendo DS but it was not to be.
Graphics / Presentation
6.5/10
The arcade-style graphics have been downsized to the DS reasonably well, although there is some occasionally screen tearing. The presentation of the menus and especially the second screen map is terrible though.
Sound
7.0/10
The sound really helps to set the intense Metal Slug atmosphere, but it's all rehashed from previous games.
Value
5.0/10
This really badly needed a multiplayer mode, you can have the single player missions finished within an hour and then finish off a few challenges. There’s not a lot of gameplay here for a full retail Nintendo DS title and it's more suited to an Xbox Arcade release.
Overall
7.2/10
Submitted by ICC_06
12/01/2009
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