4th Generation Game - Neo Geo - Metal Slug

In 1996 a new force of side scrolling 2D side scrolling shooter emerged. Metal Slug was created by SNK originally made for the NEO GEO arcade machines and game console. Due to the console supporting only 2D graphics and lots of sprites this game was ideally made for that console. The game is about a group called the Peregrine Falcon Squad , a small group of soldier who fight against a rebel army colliding with aliens and other forces all with primary of world domination. 

The game consisted of ALOT of fire power with continuous action and very distinct hand drawn environments. Large number of enemies attack you from all directions while you try to doge their projectiles and kill them using extremely powerful weapons. In most run and gun games contact with an enemy will generally result in a death but in this game's case when you bump into and enemy you have the chance to do a melee attack and so does your enemy, so be quick and finish him off. The melee attack did quite allot of damage and so enemies which required allot of shots a effort could be easily one-shotted with the knife.

The game starts-off simple with a handgun. You can play with either Cpt.Marco Rossi (left one) or Lt. Tarma  Roving (right one). The game has 6 levels all with distinctive design and backgrounds. If you manage to get through the level using your overpowered weapons found by destroying objects or dropped by POW (stands for ''prisoners of war'') when freed, you will face a boss fight at the end.

 

The Famous Melee attack used when near enemies.

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The first game had a total of 6 bosses which included:

• Tetsuyuki (shown below)
• Hairbuster Riberts
• Tani Oh
• Shoe and Karn
• Iron Nokana
• Hi-Do

Along the years a whole series of metal slug came out on all different consoles and almost all kept the same 2D sprite based side scrolling graphics. These included Metal Slug 1 - 7 and Metal Slug X and XX.

 One game that came out tried to put in the 3D perspective of the game. Metal slug 3D came out only on playstation 2 and was released in 2006. The game received a large number of bad reviews due to the fact that it lost the whole idea of what made metal slug a fun side scrolling game and lost its definitive aspect.

Here is some gameplay of the original metal slug played on the NEO GEO.

Bibliography:
YouTube, (2015). Retrospective: Metal Slug. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCsyn4sFudw [Accessed 6 May 2015].

YouTube, (2015). Metal Slug: A History of Violence. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-wmAdpbcvM [Accessed 6 May 2015].

Wikipedia, (2015). Metal Slug (series). [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_Slug_%28series%29 [Accessed 6 May 2015].

Wikipedia, (2015). List of Metal Slug video games. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Metal_Slug_video_games [Accessed 6 May 2015].

Metal Slug Wiki, (2015). Metal Slug: Super Vehicle-001. [online] Available at: http://metalslug.wikia.com/wiki/Metal_Slug:_Super_Vehicle-001 [Accessed 6 May 2015].

IGN, (2015). Metal Slug Review - IGN. [online] Available at: http://www.ign.com/articles/2008/05/30/metal-slug-review [Accessed 6 May 2015].