Title Metal Slug 3 Manufacturer SNK System/Year MVS/2000 Genre 2-D Side Scrolling Players 2 Players Simultaneous Ports AES, PlayStation 2, XBox One of the most action packed, 2D shooter of all time has arrived on Xbox. SNK has brought you a flawless port of beautiful 2d graphics, intense game play, and all the challenge you can ever want. With console exclusive features that add to the difficulty and replay value, get ready for your gaming skills to be pushed to the limit. Are you ready for a slugfest, Xbox style? Overview The evil General Morden is back, along with his dream of establishing a new world order. It’s up to our heroes Marco, Tarma, Fio, and Eri to stop this madman and his wished of world domination. However, strange occurrences have broken out all over the world. Abductions of animal life and leading figures are leading to believe that another party is behind this as well. All fingers are pointing to aliens. Are aliens really behind this? There’s only one way to find out. Graphics 10/10 This is an arcade game so no flashy intros here, unless you’re a Tekken game. Menus are simple and look very nice. Everything is easily accessible with zero load times. As it should be. If there ever was a reason why 2D has survived for so long, this is one of them. Some of the best 2D graphics and animation to date. All five stages are beautifully designed. All of them are rich with life and color. Whether your fighting underwater or flying through the air, you’ll know why 2D games are truly a treat to play. Each stage has multiple paths, so there’s something new to see each time you play. You want to play the game again and again just to see what you missed. Animation is fluid and awe-inspiring as well. I was amazed at all the activity on screen, everything moving smoothly with zero slowdown. Soldiers dropping in, crawling, or screaming in fright. Crabs, wasps, and zombies moving with crazy animation. Huge bosses that fill up the screen. Just like Dan said in his review, how the hell did they do this? Your character and enemies are enriched with so much detail, I find something new every time I play. Truly a masterpiece in the series and 2D gaming. Gameplay/Controls 9/10 You never played Metal Slug? How dare you be a member of this site? I have to ask for you to leave now. Ok fine, I’ll tell you want Metal Slug is all about. Metal Slug is a 2D shooter, you choose one of four characters and take them through some of the most intense stages ever existed. You get a variety of weapon power-ups or vehicles (known as Slugs hence the name) as you take on your typical (soldiers) to the weird (mummies, man eating plants) bad guys saving hostages as you go, for power-ups and points. Each level will take your skills to the limit and you when you think you’re done, you have a nice, big boss to fight. Sounds like fun right? It is but it’s not for you casual gamers, only the hardcore can apply. Well you casual gamers can play too, just don’t use up all my credits. Metal Slug 3 is considered by many as the best in the series. Metal Slug 3 offers a wide variety of stages, from beaches to spaceships. Each stage offers something new. Fighting off hoards of zombies in level two to fending off man-eating plants in stage four. The path isn’t straight forward either. Each stage offers many different paths. They’re not just a different road, you’ll run into new enemy types or slugs to play with, some you may never see playing through the game once. This adds to the replay value that many arcade games surely lack. You have a nice arsenal to help you balance out the situation. Different weapons like heavy machine guns, flame shots, or iron lizards, you will find all of these as lay the hurt on your enemies. What if the enemy is overwhelming? Kick them in the face with one of many Slugs, which you will find during your travels. Metal Slug, Slug Flyers, Slugmariner, and even an Elephant Slug. You’ll quickly level out the opposition with this firepower. Or will you? Just because you have some nice toys to play with, doesn’t make the game easy. You will be pounding on that attack button until the stage boss is defeated, then it’s on to the next level where you get to do it all over again. Definitely one of the most intense shooters ever created. Sounds like a winner to me. So how the Xbox version hold up? First of all, you get a flawless port. Xbox handles the game extremely well, even eliminating that pesky slowdown from the arcade version. It’s just as fast and furious. Everything from the arcade version is here, even some console exclusive stuff introduced in the import only PS2 version. New slug, elephant slug, and some cool mini-games, more on that later. Metal Slug 3 is uncensored, about time, so all the red blood is there. With online ranking, thanks to Xbox Live, you’re good to go. There’s one problem though, replay value. Thanks to the continue system in the PS2 version, gamers were flying through it, tossing it back on their shelves never to touch it again. SNK sought out to rectify this for the Xbox version. You are now limited in lives and continues, no free play here. Also when you use a continue, you must start the stage over again, hardcore gamers rejoice. This poses a problem though. The game is not easy, many hardcore gamers can tell you that, introducing this new continue system sends the difficulty through the roof. Many casual gamers looking for a good time will be turned off by this, screaming in frustration. To balance this out, there’s a Level Select mode where you can start off the stage you died on. It’s a relief for those who don’t want to play through the game all over again, just to get to stage five. This mode acts exactly like the arcade mode, so you can progress normally from here and unlock bonus modes. The game is still not easy and starting over on stage five is a bitch. Two players share the same continues and you don’t continue from where you die. When one player dies, he/she must wait for the other player so they can start the stage over together. All of these leaves Metal Slug 3 a must buy for hardcore gamers and fans, casual gamers won’t like this at all. Maybe SNK should tweak this a bit in the Metal Slug 4/5 bundle. Flawless, you can’t ask for better controls. The Xbox controller works extremely well, so the only thing that’s causing you to die is your lack of skills. Both the analog stick and the d-pad work very nice and you can customize your buttons. Force feedback works when you use sub weapons, very cool. Sound/Music 9/10 If you played Metal Slug, you know what to expect. All the sounds and explosion sound the same. The music sets the mood or action and intensity. The music fit’s the mood in every stage, alien-type fare in stage five, creepy music in stage 2 when you’re facing zombies, the music really gets you pumped up for the trials ahead. Metal Slug never disappointed in this department and MS3 is no different. Replay Value 10/10 The game is decent in length, as arcade games go. The first four stages can take ten-fifteen minutes, shorter depending on your skill. The last stage is long, and when I say long I mean LONG. The game has multiple paths, stage four having four different ones, so there’s plenty of reasons to keep going back. The continue system will keep you from beating the game too quickly. The game is hard, but not impossible, even if you have to start over. Two player co-op is always a blast. When you finally beat the game, probably via Level Select, you’ll unlock two min-games: Fat Island and Storming the UFP Mother Ship. Fat Island is a two player game, you can play by yourself for training, and the object is to gain weight and rack up points. Storming the Mother Ship, you choose one of three enemy soldiers and you must take on spaceship part of level five. You will save other soldiers as you go and they will join the fight against the aliens. If you good enough you can have a legion of soldier shooting and lobbing grenades along side of you. Both are short and sweet, but they are a lot of fun. Overall 10/10 Metal Slug 3 rocks, no doubt about it. You’ll be fighting through five levels of intense action, multiple paths, legions of enemies, and giant bosses, all with amazing animation and beautiful designs. The mini-games are cool too. SNK knows how to make 2D games and Metal Slug 3 is one of their crowing achievements. My only gripe is the continue system and lack of co-op play online. I’m perfectly fine with the continue system, but casual gamers won’t be. They need to adopt the Ikaruga or Time Crisis style and have you earn lives or free play. Level Select does help, so you can start off on the level you died at or get some practice in. Make it an option so casual and hardcore gamers alike can enjoy this game. Also, co-op on Xbox Live is a must. I don’t want to see Metal Slug 4/5 released without it. If you’re a fan of the series or a hardcore gamer, chances are you’re both, and want a great challenge, you can do no wrong by buying this game now. Pros: - Beautiful graphics and well designed levels. - Multiple paths, it will take a few tries to see everything. - Insane animation, some of the best in gaming. - Cool mini-games. - Intense action, kick ass game play. - Very challenging, great for hardcore gamers. Cons: - Continue system, not great for casual gamers. - No Xbox Live co-op? WHY? - By Cold Man X