After putting an end to General Morden and his army in "Morden's Battle 2" (Metal Slug 2/X) and putting a stop to his ambition of constructing a "New World Order", Marco and Tarma were hoping to be discharged. The Government Army had other plans for them, though. They were ordered to continue their leadership of the PF Squad and take out the remaining troops of Morden's army. On top of that, they also have to deal with the strange occurrences that's been going on around the world: animals being abducted, unusually large crabs and insects, and kidnappings of CEO presidents. With all this going on, the Intelligence Agency has forced the PF Squad and SPARROWS (Fio and Eri) to work together on a special mission. Are extra terrestrial beings behind this? And are Morden's Army involved in this as well? Well, that's for you to find out. ;)
Once you pick your soldier (Marco, Eri, Tarma, and Fio, the gang's all here), you'll immediately get thrown into five intense filled missions of pure 2D side scrolling pandemonium chaos. Seriously, since there's ZERO slowdown in this port, everything moves incredibly fast at all times. It'll certainly be an adjustment for those who played this in the arcade/NEO-GEO port. If you liked such games as the Contra series or other Contra type games, then you're in for one hell of a treat here. This game is not afraid to throw everything it has at you all at once, and it expects you to do the same. And the only thing standing between you and death, is a handgun and some grenades, well, most of the time. You can get ahold of other weapons, most of which you can get from the hostages that you've rescued. From heavy machine guns, enemy chasers, to waket lawnchas, laser shots, and shotguns, all can be pretty powerful weapons when used right. Then you have certain hostages that'll fight with you, the orangutan with a machine gun, and Hyakutaro Ichimonji, the projectile throwing warrior. Don't depend on the orangutan too much, though, he'll mostly wonder off and fall asleep sometimes. Then of course, there's the vehicles, like the Metal Slug, Slugmariner, Ostrich Slug and more. Most of these vehicles have tremendous power, but each also having weaknesses. Like how slowly the ostrich turns, with all the fast bullets flying at you, that's a major disadvantage.
You need all the firepower you can get hold of too, especially with the slew of enemies you'll be pitted against. Don't expect to fight them one on one, too, they'll fight in groups. Rarely would there be an instant where you'll only see one enemy on screen. You'll be up against a variety of enemies, all of which having very unique ways of attacking. Of course, there's the return of Morden's army (grenade throwers, tanks, helicopters, etc.) and mummies that can turn yourself into a mummy. There's also new types of enemies, like huge crabs, giant flying insects, and big venus flytraps that can stretch out long distances and eat you up. Then there are zombies that can spit out and throw some strange goo that can turn you into a zombie (which gives you a powerful vomiting attack in return). There's no doubt that this sequel has the most variety of enemies in a Metal Slug game that's come before it. You'll be fighting them in a variety of locations too, really. From a beach with a bunch of nuclear missiles scattered about in the first mission, and a creepy deserted place with remnants of a destroyed plane throughout the second mission. To an epic final mission that throws you all over the place, from the cloudy skies, a vastly long forest and beyond (literally). Another new addition to the MS series is the inclusion of different paths. During certain parts in every mission, you get to chose to go in different directions, some being easy, others being incredibly hard. This is a great addition, and just adds more replay value to an already replayable series.
The bosses are just as big and difficult here then they were in previous outings, but they're also more varied here too. In previous Metal Slugs, you'll mostly just fight super powerful machinery from Morden's army. The bosses you fight in this sequel are more diverse and, well, just plain weird at times. Like the mission 2 bosses, you start out fighting a bunch of giant weird aliens that shoot dozens of balls at you, then you proceed to fight an odd looking structure that throws giant black walls at you. Mission 4 has you fighting a giant pissed off floating statue faced thing, which has an insanely hard to dodge attack where he shoots dozens of shots throughout the screen. I'm not saying the previous games didn't have interesting looking bosses, but here, everything is just either really creative or boarder lining on abstract. And you're in for a ride when you get to mission 5, it's almost basically one big boss mode. You end up fighting at least six bosses in that mission, and that's all I'm gonna give away about that....
Other then the absence of slowdown, there's also a couple more additions and changes in this port. One of which is the new continue system, I think it was pretty clever of SNK to do this.....when you're playing a one player game. Basically, once you lose all your lives and continue, you'll be sent back to the beginning of the mission, instead of continuing in the last place you died. Some people would be turned off by this, but I think it adds more of a challenge. It forces you to become a better player, instead of just continuing in the previous spot and plowing through a couple enemies with limited invincibility and ten fresh grenades. But it's horrible when playing a two player game. If one of the players die, they have to either wait for the other player to die or wait for the next mission to start to continue playing. This blows, and almost destroys the whole reason you're playing a two player game in the first place.
The other additions are two "Xbox exclusive" bonus games (that appeared in the PS2 port), which you can play once you beat the arcade game. One is Storming the Mother Ship, here you get to pick one of three different Morden soldiers and fight your way through the mother ship. You won't be alone though, you'll be leading a bunch of other soldiers through the game. The screen can get really crowded because of this and sometimes you won't see the enemy attacking. This can be annoying at times, especially since you will get sent back to the title screen after getting hit once. You can also summon Sergeant Allen (the bald headed guy) for a limited amount of times to wipe out everything on screen. It's a pretty fun bonus game, but it would've been nice to add more missions for the soldiers to do. Interesting concept, too, they could make an entire game out of this if they wanted, with a little tweaking, of course. The other bonus game is Fat Island, the objective here is to eat as much as possible. There's a one player training mode, but it's obviously meant to be played as a two player versus game. They're nice little bonus games, but I wouldn't go crazy trying to beat the arcade mode just to play them.
The visuals really bring the game to life, everything that moves in the game has incredibly fluid and detailed animation. In mission 2, you'll see the cold breaths coming out of your soldier's mouths, shivering and trying to warm themselves at times. After firing off what seems like a thousand shots, if you stop, you'll watch them reload or cock their weapons. When zombies attack, you'll see their insides open up, from their heads or stomachs that briefly and clearly show inside organs when they open. You need to see the transformation your player goes through after getting hit with some zombie goo. After getting knocked down, they'll slowly get up in a very detailed and eerie manner, then attempting to walk forward, head rocking back and forth, while the rest of the body struggles to move. You also need to see the orangutan in action, he's hilarious at times. When he picks his nose, you'll see a sticky line of snot, from his nose to his finger, slide it's way down. He'll also grab bananas from his diaper, peel them open, and eat them and would even eat from the ground. Items scattered around are just as detailed, apples and watermelons will roll around on the ground and sometimes break open. In this case, you can see the inside of a watermelon, all red and black seeds a plenty. A banana bunch will fall into separate pieces and fly all over the place when hitting the ground.
The character death animations are just as detailed and really varied. You'll be surprise at the different ways an enemy will die depending on how you kill them. Crabs will shrivel to the ground when you shoot them to death, and pieces will spin and fly off as you blow them away with super grenades. Giant flying insects get torn into nothingness as they hit the ground, accompanied with the their wings that float to the ground. When you shoot a zombie to death, their bodies will explode, then see a quick gasp of horror on their faces before everything disappear. When things gets destroyed, they actually look like they're being destroyed. Like the mission 1 boss fight, as the giant crab/giant tank thing chases after you on a narrow bride, big and small pieces of wood and red barrels will fly into the ocean as he slowly tares up the bridge. A group of Modern's soldiers will shriek and get ripped to shreds as you run through them with an enemy chaser. It's all truly a sight to see, too bad you'll be too busy trying to stay alive through all the chaos. And what makes all this incredibly impressive is that it was all created using ten year old hardware (about, and I'm counting all the way up to the original game's release). It just makes you appreciate the graphics and the extra effort the animators put into it.
To accommodate the chaotic action that appears on screen is a very fitting soundtrack. One way I can describe it, is that it's "dramatically catchy". Like the upbeat and energetic tune that plays as you begin the first mission, it'll give you a sense that you're about to jump into something big here. The eerie guitar solo fits perfectly with the theme in mission 2, battling zombies at night while you see civilians fear for their lives. Most of the music from previous Metal Slugs also appear in this game, like the chaotic boss battle music. But most of the favorite classics appear in the final mission, along with other new catchy tunes. It's like you're listening to a "The Best of Metal Slug" soundtrack here, and it really helps give off the epic feel of the last mission. From the moment you start, to the very end after the credits finish rolling, the soundtrack doesn't fail to deliver. Too bad there wasn't a sound test option. The sounds are just as good, too. From the sounds of your gun piercing it's bullets into metal, to many different sound effects of exploding chaos as you wreak havoc on everything. Then there are the different types of screams your poor enemies give off as you shoot them up. To the cries of Morden's soldiers, the moaning of zombies, squealing of aliens, and the whimpering of mummy dogs, it's all disturbingly a delight to hear.
Although some may consider this a short game because of the "lack" of missions, there's plenty of replay value here. There's a list of the various items picked up and a list of hostages you've rescued (1040 total). People who like to collect everything in a game will be playing through this to search every inch to find them all. Then there's the challenge of trying to play through the game on one credit, or even attempting to beat it without dying, and believe me, that's not an easy feat. You can also submit your highest score on the MS3 Xbox Live scoreboard. And then there's the fact that this game is just plain enjoyable, so you can't help but play through it over and over again. The only major flaw is how the continue system works in a two player game. Hopefully SNK will fix this problem in Metal Slug 4&5, but I don't think it's gonna happen. Anyway, if you want a seriously challenging game with plenty of replay value, and you don't get a heart attack that it's a "4 year old 2D game that costs $40", then you may want to pick this up. You'll have a blast.
Overall Rating: 9/10