I remember playing Metal Slug in the arcades at various times in my life. Inevitably it would be one go, realisation of how hardcore it was and then find something else to play.
Fortunately for me the anthology has been released for PSP and I can get stuck in knowing I don’t have to put more money in when I die.
And die I did… lots.
First of all let me just say this is a really sweet package – 7 Metal Slug games on one UMD and the pacing of the levels makes this perfect for on the move gaming.
There are a few issues. The most major is some heavy slow down in the last two games, something I didn’t expect from a PSP title. It’s not enough to ruin the experience but is certainly very annoying.
Secondly, unless you love Metal Slug you probably won’t want to play through these in one go. It took me near enough a year to go through these as I did them one a month so I didn’t get bored.
And that isn’t a slight on the gameplay per se. Just that repeatedly pressing square over 7 entire games back to back wouldn’t float my boat.
The games themselves are full of weird and wonderful characters. You play as one of the Peregrine Falcon (PF) Squad – trying to stop the takeover of the world. Whether that’s against a dictator or alien lifeforms depends on what game you’re up to
For me that was where this game kind of cleaned up – it’s so charming and quite unlike anything else I’ve ever played.
Not only do they have these crazy storylines of Mummies, Aliens or Zombies but they mix it up by letting you become infected in some instances. So rather than just dying as per usual if a Zombie kills you it reanimates you with the slow walk and everything
All of the games take the same layout, with a big boss battle at the end of each level spicing things up.
Metal Slug isn’t a taxing game as you have unlimited continues and I feel it should applauded for that. You have the option to just set yourself a limit (say 5 continues) and then get on with it and see how far you get but it was great to experience these rich comical stories all the way through to the end.
The main thing about it was that, although repetitive in nature, Metal Slug Anthology was a really fun set of games and holds a lot of value for PSP owners.
Rating: 8/10
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