Metal Slug 7 (DS) Review

The Metal Slug series has been delighting platform shooter fans since 1996 in all it’s various guises. Initially released in Japan mid 2008 and the US at the tail-end of last year it’s now the EU/UK’s turn for some pocket sized platform destruction courtesy of UK publisher Ignition Entertainment. In this latest edition The Peregrine Falcon Strike Force and the SPARROWS are, as usual, on a mission to stop General Morden and his army. Their mission was to stop General Morden’s latest attempt to over throw the government. This all goes swimmingly until just on the brink of defeat an army from the future came to his aid (as you do!). Now the Strike Force must take on this new strengthened foe to stop General Morden once and for all. You take control of one of 6 character, Marco, Tarma, Fio, Eri, Ralf & Clark. Each having their won merits and weapons.

The series began life on the Neo-Geo hardware and as such you would expect the DS to struggle with such a title. Well if there is one thing the DS can do it’s chuck sprites around at a very pleasing rate of knots. The game looks good, with detailed sprites work with enemies and explosions routinely filling the screen. Slow down is kept to a minimum with only the really large Boss showdowns taking a hit in performance. The backgrounds are a little more sparse than previous additions to the series but are still colorful and more than functional. An unfortunate side effect of the setting of mountains and caves is that variety is minimal and there is little room for lush environments like the jungles and towns of the earlier titles. This said you spend 99% of your time staring unblinking at the action going on not soaking up the ambiance. The game, visually ticks all the right boxes, the sprites are clear and well defined, not that’s something you will be concerned with as all hell breaks loose and explodes around you. Character animations are great and enemies will cower in fear if your laying down some serious firepower. This plus some other neat touches help make the whole experience all the more visceral.

If you have never played a Metal Slug title then first, shame on you! Second, they are great fun. I am a huge platform fan-boy and Metal Slug has always left me very satisfied. The basic premise is simple. Your character + a nice selection of weapons + relentless enemies + POW’s to rescue + coins to collect + some cool tanks (Slugs) + cartoon-like graphics = hours of mayhem and fun. The action in all Metal Slug titles has always been solid and satisfying and MS7 does not disappoint in the department. The character you choose is really a personal choice ( I like to mix it up but choose Marco or Fio more often than not) and does impact on your game enough that you will want to try the game with other characters after completing the title.  This time out you collect coins littered around the level and spewed from downed enemies. In a similar mechanic to LBP on the PS3 you get more points the more coins you collect at anyone time. These coins can then be used to continue your mission.

You make your way through the levels laying waste to anything that might look threatening.  On the way you can pick up various power-ups to your weapons by freeing the POW’s. You also have grenades at your disposal and can pickup weapons along the way such as grenade launchers, missile launcher and lasers. The selection of tools of destruction are very satisfying indeed. The Slugs are always great fun to drive and Metal Slug 7 has 3 new ones. The Slug Truck, Slug Gigant and the Heavy Armour Slug. An awful lot of destruction can ensure once one of these babies come in to play. The game plays very well and at times it’s pure platform run and gun gaming gold. You will die – a lot – but it’s great fun just to get back up again and wade in. This iteration of the franchise seems to rely more heavily on “locking” you in to small areas where you must clear out the waves of attackers before you can continue (ala Final Fight et all). This has always featured in the games but seems to be used more freely in this one, and at times, it’s at detriment to the overall game. That said when the bullets are flying and everything is exploding around you in the small enclosed area it becomes pretty intense. The ability to jump back in to the main story at the mission you previously reached is a welcome addition too and it lends itself beautifully to the casual lunchtime play.

Sound is well used and various screams and yells can be heard clearly and lend greatly to the mayhem. The soundtrack is suitably rocking and was released on iTune back in 2008. The explosions are meaty and all weapons sounds great – many developers could take notes from the weapons sounds in these games!

Replayability depends on your point of view. There are 7  levels to work your way through and man they can get totally nuts in the later stages. The multiple characters and difficulty levels, combined with the coin collection and POW saving elements does afford you a lot of options for replay and I personally love to jump in a game and blow the snot out of everything that even looks like it might move using the combat school option.

The only real down points for me are the lack of polish on some of the sprites and backgrounds (probably due to scaling to the DS) and the slow down at points. Combined with hard to see holes in some areas it sometimes left me frustrated as hell as I plunged to death yet again. 7 levels might seem a low count but they do stretch over a good few hours of play and, as mentioned, with repeated play you get more and more from it.  To give you an idea I finished the first 3 missions on my first play through in about 25 mins.  It took a fair bit longer to get through the later stages though   On the face of it 2 hours of play from your game seems  ludicrous but it’s the jump in and blast nature of Metal Slug that keeps you coming back for more.

The game does not really employ the touch element of the DS in more than using it to navigate a level map, but it is a nice feature that helps at times to locate that last POW. The difficulty can ramp up serioulsy at times and even on the easy setting you might find yourself totally overwhelmed, but it all adds to the challenge. The only other niggle is the issue of having to jump to shoot below you, it can lead to bullets in the face and crushing frustration at times.

Bottom Line: If you had expected a reboot of the classic franchise then you’re going to be disappointed.  If you like the Metal Slug series, then you will like Metal Slug 7 – it does what all the others have before it. If you have never tried the games but enjoy old-skool platform antics, then give it a try. If you are in need of a good stress reliever then the combat school mode is just for you as you can dip in for 10/20 minutes and blow the shit out of everything.  I presonaly enjoyed the title and it satisfied what I wanted from the title, MetalSlug, no more – no less.  Just good honest blasting fun.

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