A good buy for fans, others wont be disappointed either
The Metal Slug Anthology collects the seven metal slug games and releases them in arcade-port glory. The games themselves, although not as well known as Mario or Donkey Kong, have had a vast cult following with their sense of humour, lush sprite-driven graphics, and, above all, intense everything-must-die action. You see, unlike "regular" games where you get hit several times before losing a life and starting over, if you get hit once you're dead, and you never start over - the guy just pops in and the game continues. This coupled with simple controls (run, jump, shoot, and grenades - that's it) makes for one fantastic experience.
At first, these games will hook you in - ESPECIALLY if you've never played anything like it before. After that, the first two sequels will expand upon the run-and-gun gameplay with more enemies, weapons, and levels (Metal Slug 2 features Mummies and Camels, where Metal Slug 3 has Zombies, Yetis, and an elephant with a machine gun in the same level - yes, you can turn into a zombie as well!), as well as letting you choose your character between the four heroes. But then, it goes... awry. Metal Slug 3 (the best in the series) had its own exclusive release for the XBOX where Metal Slug 4 and 5 were released on one disc about a year ago for all platforms, and now I see why. They aren't very good. At all. WAY too easy, and next to ZERO new things to be pleased about.In fact, I can't even remember a single instance in which they prove themselves as decent other than the double machine gun weapon. As for Metal Slug 6, an exclusive release to this collection, it covers some ground that the previous games lost. It has two new characters (that makes 6), but now they each have a specialty. Marco has a stronger handgun, Fio always starts with a machine gun, and the blonde girl (can't remember her name) has full control of where her grenades land. Of course, this makes the game kind of easy once you pick your favorite character - there's even one who can get hit twice before dying (BLASPHEMY!!!), but nonetheless, it was far superior to MS 4 and 5.
But a word of caution - the game's default setting gives you infinite lives and you're not allowed to choose your level (meaning you always start from the beginning of whatever game you choose). I would personally set it at "25" lives and give a "level select" option of whatever games you've beaten as a normal setting, but they don't, meaning little cheaters can blast through the game and get nothing out of it. I think it's stupid, but oh well.
Once you get to Metal Slug 6, you won't be particularly enthralled. It's really just the same game again and again, with the exception of Metal Slug 3, which is awesome beyond imagination. If you're a solo gamer, I wouldn't lose sleep over this one. As a multiplayer game, however, this game is absolutely supreme - it's perfectly crafted for taking turns and filling the entire screen with death and destruction, especially MS 6 where the characters are truly different.
Final Score - 7/10 for soloists, 9/10 for multiplayer. The games are fun, but tiring if you don't mess with the options and/or you don't have friends playing along.
In the end, I would prefer "Alien Hominid" to this collection - it's also much cheaper, on top of being more challenging and more fun to play. It's available in HD on "XBOX LIVE", as well as PS2 and GCN.
I hope this helps! -jeponcho1607Read full review
