Metal Slug 4

"More like Metal Slug XX."

>Game: Metal Slug 4
>System: Arcade
>Difficulty: Medium to Hard

HEY LOOK! A NEW METAL SLUG!

That's what most of us said when Playmore bought the rights (correct me if I'm wrong) of all of SNK and developed this thing. The sad thing is, they hired some unknown korean studio to develop it, and those lazy jerks just did a hack job of the glorious Metal Slug 3. Seriously, the most innovative thing you'll see here is the ability to use two machineguns at once.

Gone are fan favorites Tarma and Eri, replaced by Chett and Gwendolyn, or something. This was done so fans wouldn't skin them alive for reusing every single sprite from previous games (Tarma and Eri are still there to assist you between levels though).
The plot revolves around the same old "X" army we fought in the prequels, but controlled by someone else (Dr. Wily from megaman). You'll fight almost everything you fought in MS3, along with revolutionary new Bosses like the evil blimp, which looks horrible and happy-mister-chainsaw-guy who has been obviously cloned several times because noone can survive being eaten by a killer whale.

There's a new addition to the game system, namely badges, they give you a bar that quickly depletes and does absolutely freaking diddly squat, nothing. So I guess it's not an improvement after all, but without a doubt it's new so give them a break.

Aliens are gone too, they have been replaced with colored versions of the "X" army, some intel guys and robots. they take more shots than usual and well, that's about it. You also get to pilot new "vehicles" a crawling robot thingy and a shielded anti aerial tank that was used as an enemy in previous versions of the game (this time, it's blue!).

The music you won't care about, it's metal slug style with new additions. They not only reused every sprite in the game, they also reused every sound effect, so you'll feel right at home. The music is brand new but you wont find yourself humming one of the tunes after you play.

The fun factor is there, it's an enjoyable experience, showing even a mod of metal slug can be damn fun. You won't get much level variety like in Slug 3 (we had every genre of shooter in that one, from a horizontal shooter to space invaders to in the hunt) but the core MS gameplay is good enough, if not worthy of a full fledged sequel.

If you played this game without knowledge of the previous ones, you'd praise it to no extent. Even if they did hack most of it from previous ones and didn't put as much "soul" into it as SNK would have, It is highly playable and recommended for both metal slug fans and gamers overall, It features non stop action, challenging enemies and a good soundtrack and as Sir Winston Raleigh said once, It's the closest you'll ever get to a Metal Slug sequel.

With a 3D metal slug in the works (sweet, merciful Jesus, no!) and an improved sequel in the form of Metal Slug 5, this game remains as the poorest of the series but still pretty good, showing that you can't go wrong with metal slug.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/12/04