It’s hard to believe that once upon a time, the shooter genre – one that is now essentially relegated to niche market status – was one of the largest and most profitable in the videogame industry. As 2-dimensional graphics become more and more advanced, increasing the layers of parallax and number of objects on screen, the genre truly hit its stride as companies like SNK routinely produced several fantastic games in the span of a year. There was no indication that the shift to three dimensions would harm what appeared to be strong genre at the conclusion of the 16bit genre (albeit, by this point it had already dropped from its peak in popularity due to the emergence of fighting games and immersive racing games), but as the arcade business began its slow descent into extinction as the Playstation rose to dominance, the shooter genre fell by the wayside along with most of the fan support for 2D gaming. As 3D became the accepted means of presentation through the 32bit era, one company essentially stood as an oasis of 2D gaming – a haven of hand drawn beauty and classic gameplay; SNK, probably most well known for their fighting franchises (most notably Samurai Showdown and King of Fighters), continued to produce 2D titles throughout the 32bit genre for their Neo Geo game console. One of those titles was a side-scrolling shooter by the name of Metal Slug, critically acclaimed by reviewers and fans alike for the none-stop adrenaline rush the simplistic gameplay provided, as well as the stylistic charm that the game emanated with. Four years, two sequels, one bankruptcy and subsequent resurrection [under the name SNK Playmore] later, and we have Metal Slug 3 on the Xbox. The question remains, however – how does a four year old, 2-dimensional arcade shooter compare to the rest of the Xbox library, and is it worth the money to console owners accustomed to a more technologically-advanced, complex gameplay experience?

Gameplay

When a game doesn’t bring anything new or fancy to the table, the developers better make damn well sure that the fundamentals of the gameplay are [at least] near-perfect. The gameplay in Metal Slug 3 is admittedly about as complex as the average person’s first word, but the fundamental design is so sound that the game remains astoundingly fun, regardless of its simplicity. This is primarily due to the fact that the action – while straightforward - is just non-stop; MS3 is an intense adrenaline rush of a game that will test every facet of a gamer’s pattern-recognition and reflexes. Over the course of 5 stages, each with its own central theme and inhabitants, the player will take control of one of four characters (differences between the characters are entirely aesthetic) and proceed to shoot anything that moves, and more than a few things that don’t. While most of the missions have various routes from start to finish [which do add slightly to the replay value of each mission], players are not capable of getting lost, nor will their choices have any impact on the way the game unfolds in the long term – they simply provide a different assortment of enemies to eliminate with extreme prejudice. Navigation is not intended to occupy much of the gamer’s time or thought, and there are no puzzles to be solved; the seemingly indomitable waves of foes are the only thing the player need concern themselves with, and avoidance is not an option. From mutated crustaceans, through vomiting zombies, all the way to alien invaders and the massive screen-filling boss characters at the culmination of each level; Metal Slug 3 boasts one of the most varied and amusing casts of cannon fodder ever seen in a videogame.

Complimenting this ensemble of enemies is an arsenal of weaponry quite unlike any other. Starting with a basic pistol with unlimited ammo and a limited number of grenades, the player will come across more powerful weaponry as they destroy enemies and free hostages. While the first few upgrades are relatively straight forward, such as the heavy machine gun or the rocket-propelled grenade launcher, it won’t be long before the player comes across more creative artillery such as the iron lizard - which shoots explosive remote controlled cars across the ground. In addition, players will also come across weapons that they let loose, adding to the destruction the player brings about with their primary firearm; for example, in the first stage players will have the opportunity to unleash a monkey that fires an Uzi at oncoming enemies. Finally, there are the namesakes of the franchise, the combat vehicles know as the slugs. Ranging from bipedal tanks, to submarines to various animals (you have not lived until you have fired high-powered weaponry whist riding an ostrich). While all of the weapons have their own advantages and disadvantages, and players are likely to find a favorite means of unleashing pain, the player never has the option of switching between weapons – weapon management is nothing more than a matter of picking up the latest weapon upgrade, expending all the ammo, and reverting back to the pistol until the next weapon upgrade is found. While this seems limiting, as it prevents players from choosing the best weapon for any given situation, in practice it hardly detracts from the gameplay experience. With the amount of action happening on screen at any one time, any pause to produce a thought along the lines of ‘what weapon would be best for this scenario?’ would likely result in a lost life. As it is, the player need not concern themselves with anything other than avoiding enemy fire, aiming, and hammering the fire button.

Controlling the game is a simple and painless endeavor thanks in part to the documented minimalism inherent to the gameplay, and the responsiveness of the controls. Fewer than half the buttons on the Xbox controller are utilized and either the d-pad or the left analog stick can be used to maneuver the player character, the latter being the preferred means since little more than a roll of the thumb is necessary to turn a horizontal stream of fire into a diagonal of vertical torrent of doom. While controlling the game is a simple affair, completing the game will be a test for even the most hardened veterans of the shooter genre. Even on the easiest difficulty setting, the game will pose a fair challenge for many gamers, and I tip my hat to anyone who has the skill and patience required to complete the game on the most difficult setting. The frantic pace of the game in conjunction with the fact that it only takes one hit to lose a life was enough to make the original arcade game challenging, but the new continue system that SNK has implemented into the Xbox version increases the difficultly and, at times, the level of frustration by a huge margin. As with most arcade games, Metal Slug 3 rewarded the player for inserting another quarter by allowing them to start off at, or very close to, the point where they lost their final life. In the Xbox version of the game, players are whisked back to the beginning of the stage upon continuing. After fighting ones way through the entirety of a challenging, action-packed stage, returning to the beginning as if all the progress meant nothing is likely to infuriate, or at least frustrate, quite a few gamers. On the plus side, the ability to play through the game cooperatively with a friend not only serves to increase replayability, but the challenge of the game is also more manageable between two people.