Metal Slug 3

"A few minor flaws with the port, but still a great game"

SNK has finally starting to catch up with their ports to America, starting with this gem right here, Metal Slug 3. Considered the best of the series by many of the hardcore fans, it's a 2D Arcade shooter ported directly from the arcade. The graphics, have been touched up, the framerate steadied, and a few extras have been added. Aside from a few flaws that might discourage some, this is a great game.

Gameplay- 7/10

Metal Slug is a simple three button shooter, one to shoot, one to jump, and one to use your bombs. You must go through five levels of peril facing crabs, giant mantises, and mars people. One hit and you die, so you must use your reflexes to dodge as many attacks as you can while shooting the enemy. Most of the challenge comes from this; what I mean is that there are only one or two challenging jumps, for those who are turned off by those things (grr.. Shinobi!!). There are several weapons powerups to use, and also vehicles (which can take 3 hits instead of the normal one). It's simple fun, and is easy to master once you play around for a little bit. The game is a bit short, with each level taking only a few minutes (with the exception of the final one), but due to the new continue system it may take you a while to beat it.

The new continue system presented by this port may give people with less than stellar reflexes a lot of trouble. It took me three days to beat the final mission on easy, and I have fairly good timing from JDing and parrying in CvsS2 in the arcades. It requires a lot of memorization and good timing to be able to beat the game. The new continue system makes it so whenever you continue, you start at the beginning again, whereas in the arcade, you would just continue exactly where you last died. IMO it's no big deal EXCEPT on the last level, which is way bigger than the rest, and is extremely difficult to beat on one credit. So if you don't think you have what it takes and you get frustrated easily because you can't beat something, then this game may not be for you.

The new unlockables are pathetic though (and that's saying a lot from me). The so-called "new mission" is in fact not new; it's just a portion of the final mission except with you controlling a clumsy soldier who's controls are clunky leading a bunch of other soldiers. I hate to say it but how typical of SNK, such a pathetic rehash. The other one is "Fat Island", which is a mini-game you can play against another player or by yourself where you're on a reused screen from a previous Metal Slug and you have to kill all the soldiers you can and take their food to get fatter. The fattest one wins. Eh... it's amusing for a while I guess.

Oh, and there appear to be a few glitches in this new port, most noticeably one in the last mission where you keep scrolling on to infinity and die by time-up, but there may be some more.

So anyways the gameplay section gets a 7/10. The actual gameplay gets 9/10, but I know the continue feature will frustrate a lot of the people who aren't as good at games.

Story- N/A

The story is some vague mumbling about this dude named General Morden wanting to take over the world and you have to stop him, but it doesn't really matter. No one in the arcade plays shooters for the story anyway, and I highly doubt anyone will on Xbox.

Graphics/Sound - 8/10

Metal Slug 3 was originally released on the Neo-Geo, a 24(?)-bit system (for those who don't know, that's between a SNES and a PSX). Naturally it's graphics are showing their age somewhat and of course they're not up to the system's capabilities, but they still look decent enough. The game has been put in a higher resolution and the framerate smoothed out so there's no more slowdown on bigger attacks (though this makes the game somewhat harder, it made me have more trouble with the last boss). The sound has never been annoying, and it still isn't in this installment.

So I guess graphics gets an 8/10. I've always been more fond of 2D graphics anyway, because 3D just doesn't seem as artistic. It's harder to call 2D graphics "bad" as well...

Play Time/Replayability - 5/10

It only takes about an 60-90 minutes to beat Metal Slug 3 in one sitting IF you are good enough. Otherwise it may take you quite a while to beat mission 5, depending on your skill level/ability to see patterns. But if you're like me you'll want to play it again and again, but you may eventually grow bored of it.

That being said I can't give replay ability over a 5, since it IS just the same thing over and over after you beat it, and the unlockables are just lame rehashes.

Overall- 7/10

Overall, It's still a fun game, but if you're someone who gets frustrated the game might not be for you thanks to the new continue system. The gameplay is fun though.

Rent or buy?

Well, I'll say one thing. It's worth what people pay for it. Personally I feel the
current price of $40 is unreasonable and stupid for a 4-year-old game, but it certainly is a good game. If Playmore has any sense they will lower the price of their game soon though.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/20/04