In commemoration of the 10th Anniversary of the Metal Slug series, SNK
has released what we all have been hoping for, all 7 games are included
in this collection. That’s right, 1-6 and then Metal Gear X also.
Before this, it was actually impossible to play all of these games
outside of an arcade, which most of no longer exist. If you were
questioning as you should be if these games are all in tact and
faithful to the originals, I can safely say that, yes they are pretty
much dead on as far as graphics, speed and sound go. But there are also
some issues that really hamper this game from being the best launch
title on the Wii.
First things first. All the games are here, they play great with the
Wiimote and using the Wiimote horizontally almost as a NES controller
works very well for this collection. If you have ever played Contra
back in the day and liked them, you will love this game even more with
10x more craziness and 10x the fun. Getting into this collection is
easy and makes for a great time with a few friends. And for $39.99, you
cannot go wrong. Especially when Metal Slug 3 & 4 or 4 & 5 on
the Xbox was 39.99 each. Well that was the good, now for the bad…
The first thing you will notice when starting up Metal Slug Anthology
is that well, the game select screen is quite bland and looks like they
forgot it the day before it went gold and needed something to throw in
there. They could have made it so much more nostalgic to the seasoned
players as well as more inviting and to get a new player jazzed up
about how this game still holds up today, and is just as fun as it was
back in 1996. It would have been nice if they would have actually put
an extra couple of minutes just to flesh it out a bit more.
Next is me asking the question; “Who came up with these controller
configurations”? The default controller set up with the single Wiimote
isn’t bad. But then they have where they want you to use the Nunchuk
only, or be tilting the Wiimote to move your player left or right, or
the worst is the one where they want you to use the Wiimote and the
Nunchuk. They are over complicating the control schemes here and they
seem quite forced overall. And then there is the GC controller, but you
are still better off going with the horizontal Wiimote. My one question
is…why didn’t they include support for the Classic Controller? Wouldn’t
of that made the most sense? All they really needed was the default
Wiimote horizontal mode and then they Classic controller mode. That’s
it. I mean someone there had to think about using that classic
controller for this game. It couldn’t of been that hard to put it in. I
mean they put all the effort into making crappy controller schemes, 2
good ones would have been fine by me…
Next, no extras. For a 10th anniversary, come on, not much extra here?
I mean I know its not quite a popular game 10 years later in 2006, but
man, for fans of the series, this would have been a real bonus to see
some developer interview videos, a little mini documentary on this
series and then just some fanart or something. And then even a cooler
box or something would have made it extra special, but there is nothing
here…
Here is the real kicker. You know how when you went to the arcade or
played games before dinner at a restaurant, how you used to ask your
parents/girlfriend/boyfriend for quarters to keep pumping into that
machine before the 10 seconds ran out. Yes, you all remember that
adrenaline rush. Well in this game, there is none of that. You can die
infinite times and just keep restarting and restarting. There are no
limits, even you cant set any limits to try and break them, or if you
want you and a friend to have like 8 quarters each or maybe have each
only play on one quarter. So now, you can just sacrifice yourself to
get through a really tough area really quickly by just dying. Along
with that, there are no new modes or any type of multiplayer other than
the standard classic in the orignal games, and no online like the Xbox
versions that came out a few years ago. I am aware its prolly half
nintendo’s fault with Nintendo having no online plan and just flying by
the seat of their pants again…GC 2.0? Who knows, but some online would
have been nice, even if it were only with the craptacular friend codes
system.
Alright, my rant is now over. This is a great game if you are looking
for all 7 original games perfectly emulated and all together in one
package. But there are some real short comings that don’t make this
game stand out like it could of. I think with a bit more elbow grease,
this game could have went from being good to superb and actually get
new players hooked on an old classic.
Controller, no support for classic controller
Crappy title screen
No extras, developer interviews, history, fan art
No quarters option, makes the game much too easy
No competition or time attack sorts for gameplay with friends
No online
7/10 or 3/5 stars.
