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Metal Slug





CVG Information

  title Metal Slug: Super Vehicle-001
  developer Nazca Corporation
  publisher SNK
  release May 24 , 1996
  genre Run And Gun
  modes Single Player , 2 player Co-op
  cabinet Upright
  arcade System Neo-Geo (193 Mbit Cartridge )
  display Raster , 304 x 224 pixels (Horizontal), 4096 colors
  input 8-way Joystick , 3 Buttons
  platforms Arcade , Neo Geo CD , PlayStation , Sega Saturn , Xbox , Wii


is a Run And Gun Video Game for the Neo-Geo console/arcade platform created by SNK . It was released in 1996 for the MVS arcade platform. The game is widely known for its sense of humour, extremely fluid hand-drawn animation, and fast paced two-player action. It is the first title in the ''Metal Slug'' Series .


STORY

The ''Metal Slug'' storyline stretches from the beginning of the era of modern-day terrorism, set in the near-future of 2028. There are two militant factions that struggle for power: the Rebellion and the Regular Army. The Regular Army is a well-equipped, modern-day force run by various nations around the world. The Rebellion is comprised of various small, organized militant groups, ranging from terrorists to splinter groups of military forces driven by a hunger for power.

The Regular Army is a very formidable force. However, it lacks effectiveness due to the widespread corruption within the Chain Of Command . Other officials often deny the reports and recommendations given to them by intelligence officers. This often leads to intelligence failures that result in dramatic consequences.

Vice Admiral Donald Morden of the Regular Army Marine Corps is one of the main characters that sparks the events of ''Metal Slug''. He has a reputation of being a tough, efficient, and caring officer of the Regular Army, and is held in high regard by his troops. He is also a caring father to his son. However, Morden immediately defects over to the Rebellion when his son is killed in the Central Park bombing caused by an intelligence failure on the part of the Regular Army. He self-promoted to General .

In 2026, a year after the attempted assassination of the President Of The United States launched by the Rebellion under General Morden 's command, the Rebellion launched a massive attack against the Regular Army forces around the world. Although the Regular Army intelligence agency had many indications that such an attack was imminent, Regular Army officials again ignored the warnings. With the Regular Army forces surprised, the Rebellion nearly annihilated them with their superior numbers and emergent technologies.

The Regular Army planned a massive counter-attack against the rebellion. Advanced Tank s, designated "Super Vehicle-001" were designed to aid the Regular Army commandos. These tanks were mass-produced but kept in caches until the Regular Army had amassed enough to begin a counter-attack. However, the tanks were seized by the Rebels in 2028 because of another intelligence failure by the Regular Army.

Seeing the Regular Army panic and crumble, 1st Lieutenant Marco Rossi of the Regular Army Peregrine Falcons special forces unit quickly unites remaining Regular Army units and begins a commando operation to reclaim the tanks. Fighting alongside him is Second Lieutenant Tarma Roving from the same unit.

After various campaigns, the Regular Army defeats the Rebellion forces and reestablishes stability. General Morden is apprehended near the end of the conflict and is jailed in a Maximum Security military prison complex while awaiting trial for his War Crime s.

The soldiers of the Peregrine Falcons squad were declared heroes by the Regular Army officials, with the lieutenants Marco and Tarma being credited with many awards. However, not everyone treated the P.F. squad as such because Regular Army officials had been discredited by their failure to prevent the Rebellion attack.


GAMEPLAY


The player has to constantly shoot at a continual stream of enemies in order to reach the end of a level. At the end of each level, the player must confront a Boss who is often considerably larger than regular enemies and takes multiple shots to defeat. On the way through the level, the player finds weapons upgrades and "slug" Vehicle s that can be used not only as weapons but also as added defense.

The protagonists can perform melee attacks by using a knife and/or kicking. The player does not die for simply coming into contact with most enemies. Correspondingly, many of the enemy troops have melee attacks. Much of the game's scenery is destructible. Sometimes this reveals extra items or powerups, other times it simply results in Collateral Damage .

During the course of a level, the player encounters POW s. If these are freed, the player can receive bonuses in the form of random items or weapons. Bonuses for freeing prisoners are received at the end of the level; at this point the game shows the name and rank of each POW freed. If the player dies before the end of the level, the tally of freed prisoners is deleted.

There are a total of six levels, with themes ranging from forests, garrisoned cities, snowy mountain valleys, canyons, and military bases.


Enemies

The vast majority of enemies encountered in ''Metal Slug'' are enemy soldiers, who are given weaponry that fits their specific role. There also a host of mechanized enemies: , roasting food over a fire, or just conversing amongst themselves.


Vehicles


'''. The main cannon uses ammo separate from grenades and other weapons, and is much more powerful. Hand Grenades can still be hurled out of the vehicle.
The vehicle can sustain three direct hits before destruction; health is restored by finding gas canisters. When vehicle health is completely depleted, the player has only seconds to vacate the vehicle before it explodes. The vehicle can also be used as a Kamikaze weapon, which sends it on a suicide ramming attack as the player jumps out.


Weapons

Weapons are picked up in the forms of lettered icons. Found weapons and all ammunition are dropped when the player dies, although grenades return to their starting point at 10.

  • Pistol: The basic ranged weapon the player is equipped with at the beginning. Not the most powerful weapon, but the Murder .50 AE Pistol has unlimited ammunition with decent projectile velocity as well as range. Each shot from this weapon deals 1 damage point.


  • Heavy Machine Gun {Link without Title} : The HV-01 Machine Gun has a higher firing speed than the pistol, but deals equal damage per bullet. It is the most common power-up in the game. The Heavy Machine Gun begins with 200 rounds of ammunition, and additional crates add 150 rounds to the player's stock. A Heavy Machine Gun crate also appears when the player continues after dying.


  • Rocket Launcher {Link without Title} : The RK-02 Rocket Launcher does not deal a great amount of damage against enemies. Each shot from this weapon deals 8 damage points, but a large explosion radius lends the weapon well to anti-personnel purposes. Players already carrying the Rocket Launcher receive only 15 rounds from additional Rocket crates.


  • Flameshot {Link without Title} : The FS-03 Flamethrower weapon has a more limited reach than the ballistic weapons, but also can immolate multiple targets simultaneously. Although it does far less damage than the shotgun against small and armored enemies, such as tanks, the fireball has a range longer than a Shotgun blast. Each icon gives the player 30 rounds.


  • Shotgun {Link without Title} : The SG-04 Shotgun is one of the slowest firing weapons of the game, and has the shortest range. However, the amount of damage that this weapon deals is unrivaled. The package comes with 30 rounds, and additional crates add 15 rounds. Each shot from this weapon does 20 damage points.


  • Bomb: Thrown with a separate button, the bomb detonates on contact with an enemy, but can be bounced of walls and solid ground once before exploding. Each grenade deals 10 damage points to its target, and additional damage is inflicted on enemies near the explosion.


  • Vulcan: This is the anti-aircraft/anti-personnel gun on the Slug Tank, which can be fired at any angle. Each shot deals 1 damage point, although its extremely high firing speed quickly compounds this damage.


  • Tank cannon: The main cannon for the Slug Tank has a short range, but deals 20 points of damage and has an explosive radius similar to the bomb.



PLATFORMS

Originally, ''Metal Slug'' was available on Neo-Geo MVS arcade system and AES home entertainment system.

Later on, a Neo-Geo CD version of the game was introduced to help along with Neo-Geo's lagging sales, but it never caught on due to the lack of attention that the NGCD received.

Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation versions were also ported and distributed. The Saturn version was available in two different versions, 1.002 and 1.005, the latter with minor bug fixes, and are no longer in production. The PlayStation version is currently being distributed by SNK Playmore as a re-release version.

In 2006 , according to a pamphlet being handed out at the Tokyo Game Show by SNK Playmore, a version of Metal Slug is being brought to Xbox Live Arcade . The text on the pamphlet translates to "the original". SNK Playmore does not list a release date in the pamphlet for the Metal Slug title.

In 2007 , Metal Slug Anthology was released for the Nintendo Wii , Playstation 2 and PSP . This version included all the original Metal Slug games, 1 through 6. It is also known as "Metal Slug Collection" (original title), "Metal Slug Complete".

There were plans to port Metal Slug to the GBA (it was mentioned in the development section), however the official SNK website stated, "Due to the limited memory size of the GBA cartridge the plans for MS on GBA has been cancelled."

Metal Slug is also on GameTap .
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EXTERNAL LINKS


  • Metal Slug at ''Neo-Geo.com'' (reviews) 1 2