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Metal Slug 7 (DS) [Review]

Monday, October 27th, 2008

Metal Slug 7 is a lot of fun. Worth the price, a lot of replay and challenge.

The end.

Is it weird that I’m reviewing a game that isn’t for sale for another 3 weeks? (And I’m not press)

Well, how I got the game doesn’t matter, you can guess for yourself, but Metal Slug 7 is nonetheless, challengingly, frustratingly, addictive fun.

Why?

Combat School Mode. Yes, that’s the only reason.

If you like Metal Slug (MS), well, there’s nothing new. You have 2D side scrolling shooter action, 1 hit you’re dead gameplay. With MS 7, there are new weapons and characters that have different abilities, but ultimately, you need to shoot everything on screen and don’t get hit (ever) in the process. You pick a character, you have a gun to kill before being killed, you earn some better guns, and it’s all a survival thing.

Sound and animation for the MS series have always been good, especially the animation of all the sprites- the characters, vehicles, weapons, everything. It’s not bloody, but actually a little cartoony with hints of humor. You’re a solider in some kind of war or battle, who knows? There really is no story that I know of.

Metal Slug has always been fun in occasional play in arcades or on emulators, but I have questioned why anyone would want buy a home version. Normal arcade mode is super tough- you have a limited number of continues to try to beat all the missions. Only the most hardcore shooter fan would be happy with just that and most people wouldn’t enjoy it enough to buy it.

But then there’s the Combat School Mode. There’s a list of 80 (Amazon says so) missions that are more focused to a special goal. So it’s no longer beat the game in 4 quarters but beat this mission in 1 life, or beat this mission with just the standard gun without dying, etc.

And this is the real fun of Metal Slug. You can get your MS fun in smaller, more concentrated chunks, with a clear goal, and work you way through domination of the game. That is, it’s harder to really learn the game only through arcade mode- just too long and frustrating. But with the school missions, you can focus on one goal one at a time, and along the way, you’ll just learn so much more about the game that you’ll be able to take that knowledge for the normal mode if you want.

For a portable game, the school mode really makes sense. Go to the airport, play a few missions, get frustrated get on the plane. After you land, get in the taxi, turn the DS back on, try them again. In the more focused missions, you start to get that ooooh, I was so close! I need to give it another try that doesn’t exist in the normal game mode.

This is the kind of game that you’ll always want to pack with your DS whenever you go somewhere.