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Metal Slug
  PS1PlatformerJ  
  opened by paleface at 03:21:52 08/25/03  
  last modified by paleface at 12:25:50 03/05/24  
  paleface [sys=PS1; cat=Platformer; reg=JPN]
           
Seems like an excellent port from the Neo*Geo aside from two issues: first, it feels like it is running a little slower than it should (but maybe it does this in the arcade too, I don't really know) -- nothing major but just a slight feeling of slug-gishness. And second, that you hit mid-level loading spots. These only last a second or so, and never when there's anything shooting at you, so they aren't all that bad. Load times in fact are pretty good. You get about five continues but you can hedge a bit by raising the number of lives per continue up to five if you want.
 
So that's the game itself, but SNK also packed in a bunch of extras: four (maybe more to unlock?) extensive art galleries, a training school where you can try to beat your best time through a stage (and possibly other things that unlock later), apparently four minigames that you unlock by beating the game, and a "Vulcan Fix" option though I'm not entirely sure what this does ([later update] - I'm told that Vulcan Fix keeps the tank guns facing the same way if you aren't holding down the fire button).
 
I think the sluggishness and mid-level loads may be due in part to the fact that the designers don't seem to have cut or reduced any of the graphics in the game, as they did in the PS1 port of Metal Slug X where the explosions and similar effects are noticeably lower-resolution than in the arcade. So everything here looks absolutely gorgeous but may run a hair slower than normal.
 
The game itself is a good deal shorter than MSX (unless they added new stages here that I haven't found yet) but there's something to be said for the focused design of the first game where you're fighting fairly normal contemporary foes without all the alien weirdness that crops up in the later episodes.
    
references:
· In the Hunt (PS1)
· Metal Slug Anthology (PSP)

 
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