Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Chris Miller

Pure arcade action.  Its a term gets thrown around quite a bit, but has become more of a marketing bullet point than an actual design template.  Most of us can remember plugging quarter after quarter (after quarter, after quarter, repeat ad nauseum…or until our allowance ran out) into our arcade machine of choice when we were kids, mainly because the developers of these games were masters of dangling that carrot just out of reach.  Whether it be the next level, the high score, or the prospect of rescuing that ever-elusive damsel in distress, we were more than willing to plug away at wave after wave of nigh impossible enemies on the odd chance that we would finally be the one to break through that final barrier.   All we wanted was to hear those magic words (as put so succinctly by Nintendo):  “A Winner Is You”.

Metal Slug 7 is the latest attempt from SNK and developer Ignition Entertainment to recreate that feeling of standing in front of an arcade cabinet and plugging in our virtual quarters.  The Metal Slug series has seen more than its share of games in both the arcade and home consoles, so how does this latest version measure up?  Strap on your rocket launcher, jump into your Metal Slug tank, and let’s get to it.

In Metal Slug 7, you take control of a lone hero who is apparently tasked with single-handedly destroying an entire invading army.  No small feat, that.  You’ll be (mostly) doing the standard arcade action of moving left to right across the top screen of the DS.  Once you hit the end of a particular area, giant neon “GO” signs will instruct you to move on.  Nothing terribly fancy about the design here, and it is impossible to get lost.

MS7 keeps with its long tradition of aiming far more for “Saturday morning cartoon” than ultra-realism.  Your missions will take you to a variety of locales, each of which is beautifully hand-drawn in a cartoon manner.  You’ll be slaughtering enemies in a bombed out battlefield, mowing down men on snowy plains, hacking your way through a jungle, and fighting your way across a ruined city.   You can tell the Ignition team put a ton of effort into each area, as the artwork is truly fantastic.   It does earn it’s “T” rating with a bit of cartoonish blood and guts, but nothing over the top.

As is the case with most Metal Slug titles, you won’t be doing much standing around enjoying the scenery, since there will be all manner of nasty artillery pointed directly at you.  Wave after wave of green clad baddies will be attempting to take you out with glowing bullets, rocket launchers, tanks, planes, robot walkers, and mortar shells.  Fortunately, MS7 game animates beautifully.  It’s a testament to the developer’s programming skill that even with what seemed like thousands of explosions, projectiles, enemies, and other nonsense on the screen, I never once encountered any sort of slowdown.   The down side to all the action is that it can get so crowded that it becomes incredibly difficult to make sense of it all.  When the entire screen is filled with flying death, finding that one postage-stamp size safe spot is pretty much impossible.

Most of the audio in MS7 is very well done.  Enemies have a wide variety of death screams and rattles, and my guess is that this DS cart holds more explosion sound effects than many of the sound effects libraries in Hollywood.  This is a good thing since you’ll be blowing up…well…everything.

I could swear that SNK has one composer on staff that has created the music for every single one of their games over the last 20 years, and they certainly didn’t break with tradition here.  You could drop the MIDI-military tunes from MS7 into any of their past arcade hits, and it would seem right at home.  It mainly just serves as background noise for the carnage that you create, but combined with the constant explosions, gun blasts, and wailing from enemies, it really drives home the arcade feeling of the game.

Controls for MS7 are about as basic as it gets.  Movement with the D-pad, shoot with Y, jump with B, toss grenades with A.   You pick up different weapons, and switching between them and your standard issue machine gun is done by tapping the right shoulder button.  For the most part, the controls work fine, but the occasional quirk will rear its ugly head.  For example, from a standing position you can shoot up at a 45 degree angle, but there’s no way to shoot down at an angle.  Since you’ll often encounter enemies that are below you, the only way to hit them is to jump in the air and shoot down, which makes you much more vulnerable.  I also wasn’t crazy about the levels which required you to float between platforms on a slow-moving parachute.  It didn’t really seem like there was any way to avoid the barrage of missiles headed your way, and you end up a sitting duck for the horde of baddies below you.  These are pretty minor gripes though, and overall, the controls in MS7 are responsive and easy to use. 

As I mentioned, all the gameplay takes place in the top screen.  The bottom touch screen displays a map of the area that can be moved around with the stylus, and doesn’t play a significant factor.  In fact, I only used it once or twice during my play time, so those who enjoy touch screen control capabilities are going to be disappointed.

Anyone who has ever played an arcade shoot-em-up knows exactly what to expect here.   Take Contra, throw in a pinch of Gradius, a dash of Ikari Warriors, add a hefty dose of Rush-N-Attack, and you're there.   The main gameplay in MS7 can be best summed up by borrowing one of my favorite lines from Zero Punctuation’s brilliant reviewer, Yahtzee:  “Badguys over there.  Kill.  They.  Ass.”.   There are no frills and not many surprises; just a constant stream of enemy soldiers, tanks, missile launchers, and killer robots for you to put a bullet through.   The game will throw an occasional curveball - such as a level that requires you to outrun a giant rolling ball of death, Indiana Jones style – but it’s mostly a straight-up, jam the fire button, melee of wanton death and destruction.

You will come across collectibles, both in the form of POW’s you rescue, and random pickup items that provide bonus points.  When you rescue a POW, they typically drop a new type of ammo, which serves to mix up gameplay a bit.  You’ll be shooting every thing from basic guided rockets and shotguns, to laser guns, drop shots (shells that bounce a few times before exploding), and Iron lizards (projectiles that slither across the floor to their targets).   While this additional weaponry is fun, it only stays with you during your current life.  Since I found myself dying almost constantly, the heavy weapons ended up being more of a fun diversion than a real game-changer.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the titular Metal Slugs.  At certain points in the game, you’ll get to hop in these robotic machines of mayhem and take them for a spin.   You will end up controlling a mechanical walker, a tank, an airplane, and even fight a boss battle in a gigantic robotic gorilla.  While these machines are fun while they last, they’re few and far between and don’t really provide a huge advantage.

The main menu allows you to choose from either the Main Mission or Combat School.    The Main Mission walks you through a series of increasingly difficult levels, 7 in all.  It’s fun while it lasts which, unfortunately, is not very long.  It only took me about 2 hours to finish all the main missions, and I was fairly surprised to see the credits roll so quickly.    Each level allows you to choose from one of 6 characters, each of which (supposedly) has their own strengths and weaknesses.  However, I found them to be nearly indistinguishable from each other when it actually came down to gameplay, so there’s not much point in making a choice.   You can also designate one of three difficulty levels.  These don’t change anything in terms of actual gameplay difficulty; the easier levels simply provide you with more “continues”. 

The Combat School is where the meat of the game will lie for most people.  80 individual missions are available, each one with it’s own set of objectives.  These objectives range from simple “kill everyone” missions to some of the more complex “base assault” missions.  Maybe it was just because I sucked, but I had a heck of a time completing even the most basic missions.  I’m sure gamers with better twitch reflexes will have a great time trying to get high scores in the Combat School, but it was far more frustrating than fun for me.

I’m a bit torn on how to score this category, as I think the value of MS7 will depend on what type of gamer you are.  If you’re the type that plays a game just to get through the main storyline, you’re going to be sorely disappointed with MS7.  It only takes about 2 hours to get through from start to finish.   However, if you are all about going for high scores and some ridiculous challenges, you’ll probably have an absolute blast with this game.  Just like it was back in the day, there’s something that's just awesome about inputting your initials next to your score on the leaderboard at the end of a level. I think there’s a certain subset of gamers that will absolutely adore MS7, and a larger group of us that will find it fun, but ultimately somewhat unsatisfying.  While it is a great reminder of the non-stop action games of days gone by, its incredibly short length and very difficult challenges will be a turn-off for lots of folks.  At the end of the day, MS7 is a good - but not great - arcade shooter.  I certainly wouldn't dissuade anyone from buying it, but it's not one that ranks terribly high on my recommendation list either.  It's fun for what it is, but won't be everyone's cup of tea.

Gaming Trend Score

75

1. Graphics: 86
2. Audio: 82
3. Controls: 79
4. Gameplay: 70
5. Value/Replay: 65
6. OVERALL:75