![]() Variety comes in the form of prisoners you can free, which give you an end-of-mission multiplier and drop new weapons such as heavy machine guns and lasers that can make short work of your foes. You can aim up as well as horizontally, can jump with circle and you’ll need to collect weapon power ups and free prisoners in order to be fully effective (you’ll also have a bomb attack with square, which are in limited supply but can be replenished with pickups). So any 80’s or 90’s shooter should be your frame of reference for the gameplay here, as you move from left to right across the screen blowing up everything that crosses your path. Offering traditional scrolling shooter action with a sprinkling of originality during its criminally short campaign, Metal Slug 3 is undoubtedly a good time, but once I’d blasted through it I felt I was pretty much done. Still, it’s bombastic enough to be memorable when playing, framing the carnage on screen well. ![]() Music isn’t quite up there with SNK’s best in my opinion, repeated a little too often during levels so as to become monotonous. This Vita port does have a number of graphical options added including scanlines and borders, although unfortunately there is some slowdown here which is consistent with the original game – but still a little annoying. Otherwise, this is a scrolling shooter reminiscent of many others of the era, with a variety of exciting locations (sprawling orange deserts and a blue underwater paradise being particular highlights) for you to blast through. It’s incredible to see in motion even all these decades later. For example, one level will see them turn into zombies, lurching around the zones, while another will have you fighting aliens who vomit and then literally melt into goo when you dispatch them. Each of the four different playable characters moves differently, knifing and shooting at foes with their own flair, but it’s the extra little moments that really shine. So I really do have to gush praise on the animation work here, which is absolutely outstanding. Some games only get better looking with age and Metal Slug 3 is undoubtedly one of these titles, as the 2D artwork and particularly animations stand tall even in the current era. Considering when the game released and its format (arcade machine), it’s unsurprising that plot is pushed to the background, but it is a shame as the Metal Slug world is quirky and fun which comes across, it’s just never explained in-game. The above story beats I only gleaned from reading the manual and corresponding Wikipedia page, as Metal Slug 3 contains no dialogue and doesn’t even attempt story beats in between its chapters in the way SNK’s other series such as King of Fighters do. Once again allowing you to play as the Peregrine Falcon Strike Squad, Metal Slug 3 has the heroes facing down once again against General Morden and his army, before battling an intergalactic foe to secure the fate of the galaxy.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |