Metal Slug Anthology

"Bangs, Booms and Kabooms for your buck"

Just a few weeks ago, I gave into my ravenous hunger for some not-so-healthy food. That's right - I ordered an extra large battered fish and an equally gigantic scoop of chips from the local takeaway. While I was waiting for all of two minutes, I plopped myself onto a seat in front of an ancient-looking arcade cabinet; the game on it was Metal Slug. Many NZ'ers grown up on the Friday fish'n'chips will have no doubt been placed in a similar situation. All that's needed is some loose change, and you're pretty much good to go for a fun military romp which lasts just long enough ‘til dinner is served. Metal Slug is fast, furious and funny, but many times an unforgiving all-out shooting bonanza. However, it still makes for a wonderful non-greasy appetiser. In accordance with the new healthy food guidelines, you no longer need to risk breaking your diet every time you want to go kill some one thousand and one green-backed scum. All you need is your Wii.

Metal Slug Anthology heralds the 10th anniversary (1996-2006) of this esteemed franchise. To celebrate, the cream of the crop have all been compiled into one massive collection for both veteran and newbie gamers to slog through. All seven of the numbered titles are included in this package (excluding the recent 3D iteration and the GBA incarnation), so that's Metal Slug 1, 2, X, 3, 4, 5, 6 - there's enough here to save you from going to the fish'n'chips outlet to lose yourself about 7 kilos!

In each game, the underlying premise remains unchanged. You choose your freedom fighter, you are placed in the middle of a warzone, and now you have to make sure that someone spills blood or something blows up into smithereens every two seconds or so. There's a story in here... somewhere, but Metal Slug has been, and always will be, known for its wanton destruction rather than eloquent narratives.

But you don't need a good story to deliver a wicked sense of humour, and in this respect, Metal Slug Anthology delivers in spades.

It's a military-themed, side-scrolling platform game. Over the course of ten years, graphics have been made sharper and sound quality has been bumped up by a couple of bits, but each sequel pretty much plays out just like the original did. That should tell you that this series is as far removed as possible from the likes of modern war-games such as Call of Duty and Brothers in Arms. It's in no way a realistic portrayal, what with the opposing army at the helm of hulking, anthropomorphic tanks, in cohorts with aliens from planet X, or seen roasting up a pig before you come crashing onto the scene. It's all animated violence, with all the bloodshed and carnage actually provoking a chuckle rather than a squirm. It doesn't take itself seriously, and if you can tolerate that, you will have blast taking your shotgun, heavy machine gun or rocket launcher through the thirty-something levels that this ultimate compendium offers.

Exclusive to the Wii edition are a variety of control schemes that attempt to use the Wii remote and nunchuk attachment in seemingly every way possible. You can play using both components together, or just with a single nunchuk. You may opt to go for traditional pad controls with the Wii remote held at length, or you may decide to emulate an arcade joystick with the Wii remote positioned vertically. Unfortunately, out of all of the myriad set-ups, there will only be one or two that are acceptable for anything longer than five minutes of play. In a game where responsive actions and reactions are paramount to surviving more than a few seconds, anything other than traditional controls will see you reloading your heroes more often than you can blink – seriously. But they still had to force a gimmick with this translation, and the all-important ability to lob grenades is now handled by shaking the Wii remote and/or the nunchuk. While fun for a while, it becomes rather tiresome having to bounce around every time you just want to throw a damn grenade, enough so that you won't want to bother all too soon -- Catch-22: because a man (or woman) who can't rumble in this jungle, won't live to see the next five seconds.

The difficulty level is a throwback to the games of old. The casual gamer may not see what all the fuss is about here, and especially with the insane amount of bullets whizzing, rockets flying, and mutant crabs er, side-walking, death comes swiftly to those not attune to dodging anything that is even remotely flickering.

It's hard to recommend Metal Slug Anthology given the sheer quantity of proper next-gen games that audio-visually make a much bigger impact. However, those that were enamoured by the hi-jinks of Marco Rossi, Tarma Roving and the other lesser-known crew members over the past decade, will find that this anthology is quite possibly the best thing that anyone could ask for since good-old greasy fish'n'chips.

GCNZ August 2007

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/06/07