

Trawling through the arcades in the mid-nineties you would be confronted with a slew of 2D fighting games like Final Fight and Aliens and a handful of machines desperately trying to crack the polygon-covered virtual world like Daytona or Sega Rally. But nestled among these giants appeared a new machine that oozed traditional shoot-em-up values and had a wicked sense of humor. Mega Slug quickly gained popularity and in turn a torrent of sequels over the following decade. The series pinnacle, however, was well and truly grounded in the nineties.
Metal Slug (1996)
Released in the arcade and the Neo Geo the original Metal Slug had players spellbound as they battled through five levels of ‘nazis’. Gamers were amazed that it could run of hardware that you could have it your house. Of course, the cartridge would set you back £200 and the later Neo Geo CD being cheaper, the load times and lag times was a pain. The home variants of the game also came with an additional combat school mode which was essentially a time attack mode and the ability to start for a level you had previously completed which made it more like a home-based game but also made it easy to complete.
Metal Slug 2 (1997)
The second incarnation introduced zombies and the hilarious fat mode that, despite being very cool and funny, was an enormous drain on resources and caused slowdown when coupled with the explosions and waves of enemies. The sequel did feel a little like an extension to the first game having almost the exact same mechanics and only six levels. Additional characters included two female characters but as all the characters handled the same they did add as much as they could have.
Metal Slug X (1999)
MSX is, in my opinion, the definitive Metal Slug game as it married the two previous games and had the polish that the previous games needed. This game was also focused of the home market as the PS One version has around 20 mini-games, extra weapons and various different modes.
What Came After
At least 10 new Metal Slug games came after this in the noughties that not only took the series up to Metal Slug 7 (on the DS) but also ventured into the world of third-person 3D shooters. Sadly these never really lived up to those early incarnations. Of course revamps appeared on Xbox live arcade, Nintendo Wii and PSP which were great to see and play but it was in 1999 that the series really hit its peak.
Latest
-
Gaming on a Budget: How to Build an Affordable Gaming PC
-
Minecraft Realms: Is It Worth the Investment?
-
Tech Review: Bitdefender For Mac
-
Japanese Animated Online Casinos Are Trending – Here Is What You Need To Know
-
Trends in the Growth of Esports and Their Potential Impact on the Casino Industry
-
The History of Poker
-
Top 5 Unique Post-Apocalyptic Games
-
What are the advantages of playing slots online?
Lost Gems
-
Top 10 Meta Quest 2 Games For Children
-
Stormforce Gaming & The Prism iCue 6209
-
Licensed Xbox Games for Kids 2022/23
-
New Mods for Minecraft Bedrock 2023
-
The 6,6,6 Scariest Games of 2022
-
5 Great Udemy Courses For New Game Developers
-
Hearthstone Alternatives For Lovers of Card Games
-
My Top 10 Star Wars Games of All Time
-
5 of the Most Interesting Mobile Games at EGX Rezzed
-
11 Wicked Witches in Video Games | Halloween Special
-
Beginners Guide to Pokemon Go
-
Advanced 2D and 3D Game Development Software
-
My Top 5 Boxing Games
-
Parents Guide to Minecraft
-
10 Great Kids Games From 2016 on Xbox One
-
Rise of the Machines: 8 Radical Robots from the World of Gaming
-
Weird Ball Games You Can Play on Xbox One
-
Game Design Software that can Help Beginners Create their Own Games
-
90’s Games You Can Play On Your Xbox One Now
-
The 10 Best Books Based on Video Games
-
The End is Nigh: 9 Post-Apocalypse Games You Might Enjoy
-
20 Game Characters with Awesome Facial Hair | Movember Special
-
Halloween Special: Zombies! Up Close and Personal
-
Gaming with Choices: The Games with the Tough Decisions
-
10 Best Video Game Landscapes; Setting the Scene
You must be logged in to post a comment Login