Metal Slug 3

"SNK's greatest creation"

Ah, Metal Slug 3. Many have called it the best Metal Slug ever. I agree. But I go further, I think that it is the best 2D game of all time, it is the best action game of all time, and the best arcade game of all time. It's just plain amazing. Everything about it screams quality. This game was releaced when SNK was on the rocks, almost gone, to be later made into SNK Playmore, but that's another story. Metal Slug 3 came as a bit of a surprise to me, and I just hated it at first, for being different, but after playing it more, I realized that this game is purely the best. I beat it at LEAST 5 times, and still wanted to play. So... on with the review.

Graphics: 10/10

Quite simply the best sprites I've ever seen. Everything is extremely detailed, and slowdown is very uncommon. The character sprites are basicly copied over from Metal Slug 2/X, but theres no problem with that. They still look perfect. The new enemys look, for the most part, perfect. The crabs have a amazing amount of detail, as do the new backgrounds, and other things. Perfect.

Music/Sounds: 10/10

Again, simply amazing. The music features a few reused tracks from MS1/2/X, but it also has a few new ones. This is one of the first Neo-Geo games that I heard use rock music, for example, in the Final Mission, and that rock song is fantastic! It's catchy, cool, everything positive. The other new songs are great, as are the reused songs. The sound effects are the same quality. The new and old SFX sound great.

Controls: 9/10

Wow, the only area that doesnt get a 10 is the only area that SNK didn't touch. The controls are EXACTLY the same as they were in 1/2/X. Nothing new here. Not a whole lot to say, just A is shoot, B is jump, C is grenade, and D is nothing.

Gameplay: 10/10

Ok, I'll state this first. There's only 5 missions on MS3, as opposed to the other MSs, which have 6. But, that doesn't mean that this one is short. Oh, heck no. It's long. It's very long. Especially the Final Mission. That's basicly 3 or 4 missions in one. Simply amazing on SNKs part. Every boss is fun to fight... with exception to the Mission 4 Boss. But everything else is so perfect, it more then makes up for Mission 4's stupid boss. Mission 5 has at least 2 bosses, and 2-3 minibosses, depending on what you want to call them. Other then that, most levels have maybe a miniboss, and one regular boss. This game absolutely shines in almost all areas, and is by far my favorite side scrolling action game.

Overall: (Not an Average) 10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/21/04