Games We Can’t Forget #2:
Metal Slug

In this ongoing series, the OXM staff reminisces about the long-lost games that lifted our spirits, fired our imagination, and cemented our love of our dearest hobby. They’re the games we’ll always remember — the games we can’t forget.

The Neo Geo was always a plaything of the rich. The home console (known as the AES in Neo lingo) ran the same games as the arcade machines (usually called MVS), just in a different casing. Finally, the reality of arcade graphics at home! But at a price. A weird combination of expensive technology and limited production kept the prices of many home Neo carts in the $200-$300 range, and the resulting rarity has pushed some games into the collector’s stratosphere. Would you pay $2,000 for a mint copy of Metal Slug? If you did, believe it or not, you’d be getting a good deal.

And I love Metal Slug — but not that much. I’m an MVS player, with an arcade machine in my garage and a bunch of loose cartridges in shiny plastic cases. The prices go down significantly when you start talking about battered arcade cartridges with torn labels and scuffs all over the housing — it’s just $30 for that same Metal Slug experience, and I don’t have to sell any organs to have the same fun. And when I crave more, it’s easy to pop in any of the sequels (Metal Slug 1 through 5 came out for the Neo, including the bug-fix/remix of MS2 dubbed Metal Slug X). And that doesn’t even touch on Metal Slug 6 on Wii, or the DS edition of Metal Slug 7 currently in development.

Metal Slug 5 (Xbox)

But why keep churning them out? It’s just another 2D go-right shooter, right? The thing that keeps me coming back to the Metal Slug series is its combination of action and humor. Not only are the sprites gorgeously animated, but they’re legitimately funny; it’s basically a slapstick parody of military action movies (and I won't ruin any of the WTF? plot twists here). When faced with a crazy soldier with enormous weapons, enemies freak out cartoon-style and run the other way. In Metal Slug 3, you fight yeti, aliens, zombies…and you can turn into one and keep fighting. The titular Slug is a super tank, which flexes and bounces when it jumps. It’s basically Bugs Bunny Goes To War. Humor is tough to do in games; humor is even tougher to do in an action game. Somehow, Metal Slug has always pulled it off.

And it’s not like the developers are swapping jokes in for explosions. The action elements of Metal Slug require old-school skill, assessing threats, moving while firing, and facing nasty bosses…think of Moon Patrol, upgrade the weapons, throw in dozens more enemies, and get Tex Avery to animate it. Calling it a rich experience undersells it. And, as with most shooters, it’s more fun with a friend — all the games support two-player co-op, the way old-school arcade games should be. I kind of wish all developers would play Metal Slug and try to see what I see in it. 

Metal Slug 3 (Xbox Live Arcade)

Unfortunately, I only have one way to scratch my Metal Slug itch on Xbox 360. Metal Slug 3 — arguably the best game in the series, with lots of alternate paths and fun jokes — is out for XBLA. Metal Slug 3 also came out for the original Xbox, along with a combo disc containing both the weak and short Metal Slug 4 with the return-to-form action of Metal Slug 5…but neither disc is backward compatible. There’s that Metal Slug Anthology for PS2 and Wii, but you know, it’s more fun to find that second player on Live.

And if you can’t do that, I guess that means everybody’s gotta come over to my garage.

Did you see the first column? If not, take a moment and read Games We Can't Forget #1.