After barely passing its last vehicle inspection, can the fifth Metal Slug get back on track?
Overview
By 2003, SNK was given a second coming as the newly named SNK Playmore. With that said, some of their famous gaming series would receive updates and upgrades in their current release that they were working on.
Metal Slug 5 was a result of trying to redeem themselves from the not so wonderful problems inside Metal Slug 4 that had derailed some players from ever going back near another classic 2D action shooter again. Could Metal Slug 5 reclaim the dignity for the series?
Graphics 8/10
The modern dress enemies litter the screen with their ruthless tactics and it helps the feeling of this version don’t feel like the same old thing we have seen before. Like Metal Slug 3, number 5 bring back twisted animals of nature like giant sea creatures and deadly small larva worms to join in as strong targets.
The stages are a hundred times better then what Metal Slug 4 consist of. Temple that have walls cracks spewing fire, war torn towns, traveling through glass tunnels in the middle of the ocean. Creativity at it’s finest. What gain the most from the graphics’ department were the machines. The flowed just the way you expect machine like them to run when active. I notice some rather questionable glitches during the initial game play, like seeing enemies disappearing from sight in a flash instead of blinking away, but after all that, it’s not too distracting.
Gameplay/Controls 8/10
The human AI brings the pain and diversely ranging from people of the jungle to black suited assassins. Even though, some of them do most of the same actions that were of Morden’s soldiers from older games, they do enough attacks to become their own threat to the player. You also get a new kind of hostage to team up with the prisoners of war in getting rescue.
The bosses are more of the tanks, tanks, and more tanks we all love. I did enjoy fun some of the bosses that tried to be different like clinging onto a side of a building and the orange tank that could tile itself back. The remaining left are a lot to be desired for, especially what lurks in the game’s finale.
Many vehicles are waiting to be found and operated on with the popular Metal Slug tank. Two old models, a plane and a sub, return with great shooting action. What I didn’t like was of the three new machines, two of them will only in use for a small amount of time and can only be found in the last stage of the game. Thankfully, the new powerful walking slug gunner has tons of fantastic usage to make up for the lack of new riding offerings. Over on the weapon side…well, nothing much really. No new weapons were made for Metal Slug 5, but like what I said earlier, there several ‘bigger’ versions of some special weapons that could be use if grab during the small amount of time when it appears. As for aliments, you can only be in fat status in the game, that’s it.
Nothing change in the control system, everything feels and reacts exactly what they been assign in like the first four Metal Slugs. The only new move is the slide tactic, by holding down and pressing B, the jump button. Let me tell you, I wasn’t feeling this at all. It sometimes interfere with you trying to shot something underneath you and could unintentionally activate the sliding and run straight into trouble. It could have been more useful if you could throw bullets and bomb while sliding, but nope. You can’t do crap while using it for that brief moment.
Sound/Music 7/10
You know, I mention that it was nice witnessing some new fresh batch of soldiers and assassins, but then to see them scream for mercy with the exact voices from older Metal Slugs games, it made me remembering the good old green suited flunkies. Not a good sign, SNKP. Don’t get me wrong, they did inject some new sound bites, but not enough for me to even know it happen. So if you were expecting something different, keep on going because the majority of it went unchanged.
As for the music aspect of number five, it does sound like most music some people would listen to in this day and age with the rock and roll type feel, with more electric guitars and drums beats. They did do some slight tune ups with most of the tracks, like the mission complete theme. Guess they really did want to be further away from their last game as far as possible.
Replay Value 5/10
The problem in Metal Slug 5 is that when you finish the game, you realize how totally confusing it was as to why you were battling all this time. After stage one we are shown a meaningless cut scene that is left unfinished since it never explain what the game's story is about. The final boss has little to no explanation of how you came to confronted it.
Also, the entire run is extremely short at only five stages and could have had much more longer stages of mayhem. Getting two players together in combat does ease the tension somewhat, but it can’t hide the fact that this game still falls flat. To put bluntly, the game could had been more…
Overall 7/10
If it wasn’t for the unfinished work, that is blatantly obvious to see for any player who pays close attention to it, the game would have had a better score overall. For every mistake seen on Metal Slug 5, there was always something positive in the game to counter them.
In the end, the game did surpass Metal Slug 4 with flying colors and did regain some of the series’ lost spark, but it wasn’t something you wanted to go back to play multiple times. If you want buy this, go right ahead. Just don’t expect to play this over and over again like you want to.
- By Mr. Boombada
