Metal Slug 7 - 7/10
Upon writing this review I had the privilege of playing the 7th installment of the Metal Slug series fully and completely. For those who are not familiar with Metal Slug, it is a popular 2-D arcade game that induces comedy and parody to a Contra style, run-and-gun, side-scrolling shooter.
Action games have never been about storylines, but they tell good stories. Similarly, the Metal Slug series portrays its story throughout their games as you're playing within the scenery.
Part 1: Metal Slug: Super Vehicle-001
Team Pelegrine's duo: Marco and Tarma, are sent out to fight the rebels of General Morden to prevent the overthrow of the government and the creation of a New World Order governed by him.
Parts 2, X and 3
Two more skilled soldiers from the SPARROW force joins the cast named Eri and Fio -- giving birth to a new "Metal Slug Team". This new alliance and the rebels join forces to do battle against a bigger threat, The Mars People!
Part 4
You are back to fighting the rebels. Two more recruits join the Metal Slug team, Trevor and Nadia. Due to Morden's past failures, he becomes desperate and tries to conquer the world cybernetically. He allies with middle eastern terrorists, bio-terrorists, cyber-terrorists (a lot of terrorists) and pirates.
Part 5
The plot changes dramatically in part 5. General Morden and his army are no where to be seen in this version. Instead, you are now dealt with guerrillas, tribes, bio-terrorists and a group from a strange sect donning silver masks who worship a demon shadow with a scythe! (The storyline failed here. Metal Slug 6's timeline changed to enact the events after Metal Slug 3.)
Part 6
The storyline takes place just before part 4. The Ikari Warriors: Clark and Ralf join the Metal Slug team from parts 2, X and 3. The new force, the rebels and The Mars People unite in battle to overcome a bigger threat -- alien eating aliens!
So, now that you have caught up, you can play the latest!
Metal Slug 7's story is a continuation of events after Metal Slug 6's timeline. At this time Morden was defeated but encountered some unexpected assistance, which were apparently his own forces from the future. Because of this, it is believed that Morden's army had actually succeeded in their mission in an alternate time space. Team Pelegrine, the SPARROWS and the Ikari Warriors join forces to defeat Morden's new army and prevent yet again, an attempt to overthrow the government and the creation of a New World Order.
While nothing can beat the feel of Metal Slug 1 to 3, the system is exciting nonetheless. You have the regular -shoot-/-bomb-/-jump- scenario along with all the extras inherited from Metal Slug 6. Each selectable character has an attribute exclusive to them. For instance, choosing Fio will allow you to have extra ammo or Ralf can get shot once before he loses a life. Also each player is able to perform melee attacks using a button combination. For high-score mongering, melee attacks on your enemies are paramount!
Like its past console versions, it includes a combat school which allows you to play for different goals instead of clearing missions. You will probably spend most of your time doing this because it requires you to complete the same stage several times under different circumstances. Yes, it sounds boring and tedious but it's Metal Slug! The game that has such a high replayability factor that I'm still playing Metal Slug 3 despite finishing it on one credit several years ago. If you don't do it now, you will do it later!
Fortunately, it still has all the intricacies that made it a true Metal Slug game, such as hidden gems and hidden POWs, Rumi Aikawa and her backpack of goodies, head army commander Allen O'Neill (remember phrases such as "C'mon boy" and "See you in Hell!"), the fireballing POW and much more! And the new slugs? ...I'll leave that up to you. Unfortunately, there aren't any animal slugs. But it compensates through a rather giant robot slug in a later mission. Gundam anyone?
One thing SNK was great at was delivering 2-D graphics in outstanding detail. Unfortunately, Metal Slug 7 doesn't have the same flair as its 6 predecessors. This although, is the DS's fault. Practically all commercial DS games are designed to fully utilise the entire screen.
If you have played Metal Slug using the homebrew application NeoDS, the graphics on it deliver a more crisp and correctly scaled output in comparison to Metal Slug 7. This is because you can choose to play it in two graphical modes: it's natural aspect ratio or a stretched-to-fit-screen image. Metal Slug's res* without distortion is actually larger than the DS screen and since Metal Slug 7 is a commercial game, they had to scale it down. But in any case, it plays and feels like a Metal Slug game nonetheless.
There is nothing much to be said about sound. Metal Slug is all about sound effects throughout, which SNK Playmore has delivered adequately to the DS.
Maybe I'm just thinking too far ahead but seeing Clark and Ralf feature in Metal Slug 6 and 7 just begs for these characters to be featured in the next one. From left to right they are Leona, Heidern and Whip from the Ikari team.
A game for arcade enthusiasts. Like all Metal Slug titles, you play for a few hours, then put it away till the next time you crave a bit of Metal Slug again. If there was any reason to play this game, it'd be to prove to yourself that you are a Metal Slug champion. After that, just shelve it and let it be a collectors item. Then go back to when Metal Slug was the best: 2, X and 3.
Pros:
Faithful to the series in visual, sound and gameplay.
Good replayability if you like the run-and-gun genres.
Cons:
The game lacks in features that are quite evident among Metal Slug fans such as submitting high scores through WiFi or a multiplayer option.
The practicality of the touch screen is questioned from the fact that you're always moving in one direction and guided by visual signals.
The graphic scaling is a bit dodge. It would have been better if they had developed new templates to suit the dimensions of the DS screen.
Submitted by jons2ann
28/11/2008
166
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