Metal Slug Anthology
Metal Slug Anthology Wii – Great but not perfect...
(This is a review for the UK/European version of Metal Slug Anthology published by Ignition Entertainment on the 30th of March 2007)
I just hope that there could be a "Perfect Collection" pack in a near future...
Including Metal Slug 3D maybe..?
Presentation: 4.0
Hot Pink Disc, Confusing Menus, shoddy intros and dark screens. Ignition needs to work a bit harder on their presentation.
Graphics: 8.0
Pixel perfect renditions of the arcade cabinet versions, however they're not quite next-gen graphics, but who cares these are great 2D arcade games.
Sound: 8.0
Humable tunes will keep you going through out this game, just remember this is an arcade game and not Gears of War.
Gameplay: 8.5
Metal Slug "Run 'n' Gun" goodness throughout, and with the weapon switching system in MS6, it makes the gameplay that tad bit better. However the other Motion control schemes are gimmicky...
Lasting Appeal: 7.5
The Challenge is there, but it misses the extra missions that Metal Slug 3 for the PS2 had. You may only complete each game once to then leave it under dust or never touch it if you're not an MS fan.
OVERALL 7.7
(This is a review for the UK/European version of Metal Slug Anthology published by Ignition Entertainment on the 30th of March 2007)
When it comes to Run ‘n’ Gun games, most people would think about Contra and it’s world famous cheat: Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, Start. However, as much as I like Contra, there’s another Run ‘n’ Gun that beats the likes of Contra; Metal Slug. To hear that a collection of Metal Slug games were coming to the Wii I thought it was amazing as England only ever received a few Metal Slug games, Metal Slug X (on the PS1), 3, 4, 5 (on the PS2) and Advance (on GBA of course). To hear that I’ll be able to play the Metal Slug 1 and 6, I thought “wow”. However my experience with the game wasn’t a perfect one.
The problem started as soon as I pulled off the shrink wrap and opened the DVD case; I discovered that the disc was decorated with this crazy hot pink colour, at first I thought I got the wrong game in the case, but reading the disc label it did say “Metal Slug Anthology” on it. Then when I popped the disc into the Wii, and selected the disc channel, I witnessed this somewhat shoddily made Disc Channel screen with that didn’t even use the actual logo found on the case cover, it looked as if someone making below minimum wage made it with Microsoft Word, increased the font size and used Arial to display “Metal Slug Anthology” on the Disc Channel screen.
Then came the intro, it was blurry and a little dark compared to the rest of the game, I knew that it was just a motion video but it still pretty poor for an intro sequence. Then you go to the Select screen menu, I don’t know who made this menu but it annoying as heck. You select the game you want to play by pressing left and right on the remotes D-Pad, however when you go to the options you use up and down. The reason why I’m whining about this is because I wasn’t sure if I was supposed the hold the remote in the vertical or horizontal position, why? Well it’s because when you select something you have to press the “A” button rather then the “2” button, and it was a bit odd pressing the “A” button when holding the remote in it’s horizontal position.
The Game features a bunch of control schemes you can use that you can set up in the control profile in the option screen. At first I got annoyed that I couldn’t use the control scheme I wanted, in this case I wanted to try the GameCube controller mode, and for some reason despite selecting it, it wouldn’t use that control scheme. I then discovered that I had a bit of the blond moment when I discovered that printed at the bottom of the screen it says “(+ button) save”; what’s wrong with pressing “A” or “2”?
Ok, so the presentation of the game is bad, and I’m been whining about the bad stuff, lets get into the good stuff. The games themselves work actually like the arcade cabinet versions; every pixel on the screen matches that of the arcade game and the games themselves haven’t changed in the way of gameplay at all, same great bosses, great challenges and a horde of enemy soldiers to slay. However I am going to nit pick on Metal Slug 6 in this collection; I have never played the actual arcade version, but Metal Slug 6 in this anthology looks really dark compared to the other games, I don’t mean “dark” in an evil sense, but “dark” in that “who changed my TV settings!?”. Just like the NES games on the Virtual console has brightness issues, so does Metal Slug 6, which puts me off a bit considering that this game is meant to be the graphically intense Metal Slug game; but I’m not going to bitch about it too much because Metal Slug 6 in general is still an awesome game despite it’s brightness problem.
Talking about Metal Slug 6, it’s a brilliant game that has some awesome features such as the ability to hold multiple weapons at once and switch between them. You can hold 2 other weapons and you hand gun and you switch between by pressing the “A” on the remote, or the L button on the GCN pad. This weapon switching is so handy because I have a habit of picking of a new gun after holding a gun I want to use on the boss for a while and I end up with a silly weapon like the drop shot or the Iron Lizard. This makes it so much better to prepare yourself for the boss ahead, you can still use a special weapon whilst keeping the gun you want on reserve for the boss, and if that special gun runs out of ammo, you can switch back to your hand gun without graining the ammo of the gun you want for the boss. Brilliant idea SNK, I just wish you did that with the other Metal Slug games. As for the graphics, despite the darkness that I mentioned above, the game has some awesome visuals and the backgrounds look amazing. This is by far the prettiest 2D game I’ve seen yet, it shows off what SNK’s new NeoWave board can pull off.
One thing that I am disappointed about is that even though you get arcade perfect ports of each Metal Slug game, I still miss those great bonus missions you receive in Metal Slug 3 on the PS2, the Fat Island bonus Mission is a blast with 2 players. I kind of miss them in this anthology. At the same time though, you are getting 7 Metal Slug games for the price of 2 separate Metal Slug games on the PS2, so there's value in this anthology pack. Plus the other motion control schemes such as Tilt mode and arcade mode are really gimmicky and not really that great to use, just stick to either Remote mode, the default setting, or GameCube Controller mode.
So, what the conclusion to Metal Slug Anthology then? It’s got great Gameplay and pixel perfect graphics, despite MS6’s dark screen. However the presentation of this game is really poorly done and I’m wondering if Ignition has been spending too much time making Mercury Meltdown then making a nice presentation for this game. I say buy this game if only you’re a fan of the game, don’t buy it if you’ve never played or got a little bit of interest for the Metal Slug series, because it’s presentation will put you off.
The problem started as soon as I pulled off the shrink wrap and opened the DVD case; I discovered that the disc was decorated with this crazy hot pink colour, at first I thought I got the wrong game in the case, but reading the disc label it did say “Metal Slug Anthology” on it. Then when I popped the disc into the Wii, and selected the disc channel, I witnessed this somewhat shoddily made Disc Channel screen with that didn’t even use the actual logo found on the case cover, it looked as if someone making below minimum wage made it with Microsoft Word, increased the font size and used Arial to display “Metal Slug Anthology” on the Disc Channel screen.
Then came the intro, it was blurry and a little dark compared to the rest of the game, I knew that it was just a motion video but it still pretty poor for an intro sequence. Then you go to the Select screen menu, I don’t know who made this menu but it annoying as heck. You select the game you want to play by pressing left and right on the remotes D-Pad, however when you go to the options you use up and down. The reason why I’m whining about this is because I wasn’t sure if I was supposed the hold the remote in the vertical or horizontal position, why? Well it’s because when you select something you have to press the “A” button rather then the “2” button, and it was a bit odd pressing the “A” button when holding the remote in it’s horizontal position.
The Game features a bunch of control schemes you can use that you can set up in the control profile in the option screen. At first I got annoyed that I couldn’t use the control scheme I wanted, in this case I wanted to try the GameCube controller mode, and for some reason despite selecting it, it wouldn’t use that control scheme. I then discovered that I had a bit of the blond moment when I discovered that printed at the bottom of the screen it says “(+ button) save”; what’s wrong with pressing “A” or “2”?
Ok, so the presentation of the game is bad, and I’m been whining about the bad stuff, lets get into the good stuff. The games themselves work actually like the arcade cabinet versions; every pixel on the screen matches that of the arcade game and the games themselves haven’t changed in the way of gameplay at all, same great bosses, great challenges and a horde of enemy soldiers to slay. However I am going to nit pick on Metal Slug 6 in this collection; I have never played the actual arcade version, but Metal Slug 6 in this anthology looks really dark compared to the other games, I don’t mean “dark” in an evil sense, but “dark” in that “who changed my TV settings!?”. Just like the NES games on the Virtual console has brightness issues, so does Metal Slug 6, which puts me off a bit considering that this game is meant to be the graphically intense Metal Slug game; but I’m not going to bitch about it too much because Metal Slug 6 in general is still an awesome game despite it’s brightness problem.
Talking about Metal Slug 6, it’s a brilliant game that has some awesome features such as the ability to hold multiple weapons at once and switch between them. You can hold 2 other weapons and you hand gun and you switch between by pressing the “A” on the remote, or the L button on the GCN pad. This weapon switching is so handy because I have a habit of picking of a new gun after holding a gun I want to use on the boss for a while and I end up with a silly weapon like the drop shot or the Iron Lizard. This makes it so much better to prepare yourself for the boss ahead, you can still use a special weapon whilst keeping the gun you want on reserve for the boss, and if that special gun runs out of ammo, you can switch back to your hand gun without graining the ammo of the gun you want for the boss. Brilliant idea SNK, I just wish you did that with the other Metal Slug games. As for the graphics, despite the darkness that I mentioned above, the game has some awesome visuals and the backgrounds look amazing. This is by far the prettiest 2D game I’ve seen yet, it shows off what SNK’s new NeoWave board can pull off.
One thing that I am disappointed about is that even though you get arcade perfect ports of each Metal Slug game, I still miss those great bonus missions you receive in Metal Slug 3 on the PS2, the Fat Island bonus Mission is a blast with 2 players. I kind of miss them in this anthology. At the same time though, you are getting 7 Metal Slug games for the price of 2 separate Metal Slug games on the PS2, so there's value in this anthology pack. Plus the other motion control schemes such as Tilt mode and arcade mode are really gimmicky and not really that great to use, just stick to either Remote mode, the default setting, or GameCube Controller mode.
So, what the conclusion to Metal Slug Anthology then? It’s got great Gameplay and pixel perfect graphics, despite MS6’s dark screen. However the presentation of this game is really poorly done and I’m wondering if Ignition has been spending too much time making Mercury Meltdown then making a nice presentation for this game. I say buy this game if only you’re a fan of the game, don’t buy it if you’ve never played or got a little bit of interest for the Metal Slug series, because it’s presentation will put you off.
I just hope that there could be a "Perfect Collection" pack in a near future...
Including Metal Slug 3D maybe..?
Presentation: 4.0
Hot Pink Disc, Confusing Menus, shoddy intros and dark screens. Ignition needs to work a bit harder on their presentation.
Graphics: 8.0
Pixel perfect renditions of the arcade cabinet versions, however they're not quite next-gen graphics, but who cares these are great 2D arcade games.
Sound: 8.0
Humable tunes will keep you going through out this game, just remember this is an arcade game and not Gears of War.
Gameplay: 8.5
Metal Slug "Run 'n' Gun" goodness throughout, and with the weapon switching system in MS6, it makes the gameplay that tad bit better. However the other Motion control schemes are gimmicky...
Lasting Appeal: 7.5
The Challenge is there, but it misses the extra missions that Metal Slug 3 for the PS2 had. You may only complete each game once to then leave it under dust or never touch it if you're not an MS fan.
OVERALL 7.7
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