Metal Slug Advance (Game Boy Advance) - Review by Andrew

Introduction

For a long time Metal Slug was one of the best reasons to own the now defunct Neo Geo Pocket Color and, like many handheld collectors, I still dig out my old machine just to give this arcade classic another try. Its origins are buried in the arcade though, so finding one of these cabinets in an airport, train station or indeed anywhere meant that waiting time felt far shorter albeit considerably more expensive. It's important to review this game now for a number of reasons. Firstly it could be one of the true gems of the Q4 line-up as judging by what we've already seen our hopes are reasonably high. Secondly, as we nabbed the last copy from Ignition's Offices we've clearly upset the member of the PR team who was about to take this home for the weekend. So, apologies to him and here's the review...

Gameplay

Metal Slug Advance puts you in the role of a lone soldier battling against an unknown enemy (it says unknown on the box anyway). Fortunately you have your skills, training and most importantly, a huge arsenal of weapons at your disposal, which does make life a little easier than having to rely on good old hand-to-hand combat. That's not all either, one of the things that made Metal Slug so unique originally was the ability to jump into one of the many SV-001 tanks that just happen to be lying around. As unimaginable as it seems you will actually need everything at your disposal as the enemy attacks you from all angles; on foot, with rockets, helicopters and, yes, tanks and even when you think you?ve cleared the last one, enemy troops will continue to appear. In addition to surviving the various levels with your body parts intact you?re also encouraged to rescue some of the many POWs hidden away in caves and trees. This isn't just about being a Good Samaritan though because most prisoners have bonus items that can help make your quest a lot easier.

One thing you will notice is that the developers have clearly pitched the gameplay just right and although there are only five main missions they should take you some time to complete thanks to their intelligent design, which while tough is also reasonably fair. There are also checkpoints throughout the levels and you are granted an endless amount of 'continues' though this not much help when you're battling it out with one of the end of level bosses armed only with a standard gun and no grenades. One thing that may aid you is the newly introduced 'Card Collection'. These are acquired by fulfilling a series of criteria and once you have them they can make your life (how ever long it happens to last) somewhat easier by enhancing weapons and abilities. Again this is yet another side mission that encourages you to explore rather than just try and get to the exit as quickly as possible. Saving is done automatically after each level allowing you to view both POWs rescued and cards collected. The obvious gaps in your collection may encourage you to enter battle once again but, if you felt like we did on completion, maybe a nice rest back at base camp would be better.

Controls

As with most advanced arcade games Metal Slug utilized most of the available controls with only 'select' escaping. It's all pretty intuitive though and, with pixel perfect collision detection, a real joy to play. My only real quibble is with the inability to lock the gun in a certain position so, as the end of level boss on the third level appears below you, the only way to destroy it is to jump whilst firing and pushing down. As you can imagine this is serious punishment on the old fingers and thumbs but I suspect if this feature were available the whole experience would be significantly easier and therefore a great deal less rewarding.

Graphics

Visually the game is almost identical to its arcade counterpart and the attention to detail is incredibly impressive. The first thing you'll notice are the detailed locations with spot animation effects to bring them to life whilst multi-parallax scrolling gives an element of depth to the environment. The characters are also well up to scratch with the tiny sprites occasionally demonstrating personalities far beyond their individual pixel count. It's also nice to see that they've maintained the level of humor that has been evident throughout the series with the odd Gung Ho general whipping out a concealed machine gun from nowhere and enemies meeting their demise in the strangest ways. In the middle of all this though there have been compromises made, presumably to eliminate any notion of slow down on the GBA's less capable hardware, most notably with explosions and the occasional finer detail. Overall though the end result is impressive, to say the least, and if sales of this game please SNK's head office we may just see a few more arcade classics heading Nintendo?s way.

Sound

The audio is just as you remember it; a bold military soundtrack accompanied by lots of guns and explosions and other sound effects generally associated with war. It's been some time since a game has featured a soundtrack that truly enhances the gameplay. This really is one where all outside noise should be blocked out in order to fully immerse yourself in the experience but, if you can't manage this, the humble SP speakers still do a fine job of pumping out the audio so all is not lost.

Final comments

Whether it's the arcade or the NGPC, Metal Slug was always a highly entertaining game and I'm pleased to report that its conversion to the GBA has been seamless retaining everything that was great about the series. In fact the whole thing works so well you'd swear it was originally designed for the GBA platform. Forget your puzzles, mini games or key collection, this is an all out action fest and as soon as you?re dropped into the next area you become a target for seemingly everything around. We were pleased to learn that this is a completely new game so even if you do own or have played any of the above there are still more than enough reasons to shell out for this version. On the downside (for some anyway) the game can get very tough and if you're not a shooter fanatic then this probably isn't the best place to start. For everyone else, strap yourself in to quite simply the best arcade shooter that the GBA has ever had. Don't take our word for it either, go and get it now!

Pro: Action Packed Gameplay
Con: Can Be Tough
Final score: 8.7

Share on Twitter or Facebook

Comments