Metal Slug (2006)

Metal Slug (2006)
One of the biggest reboot disasters, along with other terrible reboots of 2006 such as Crash Boom Bang!, Bomberman: Act Zero, Sonic '06, ect.
Genre(s): Run and Gun Platform Platform(s): PlayStation 2 Release: June 29, 2006 Developer(s): SNK Playmore Publisher(s): SNK Playmore Country: Japan Series: Metal Slug Predecessor: Metal Slug 6 Successor: Metal Slug 7

Metal Slug (メタルスラッグ, Metaru Suraggu), also called Metal Slug 3D (メタルスラッグ3D) to distinguish it from the original Metal Slug, is a third-person shooter run and gun video game for the PlayStation 2. It was developed and published by SNK Playmore.

Plot

The game takes place in the year 2032, four years after the first Metal Slug game and before Metal Slug 7. Series antagonist General Morden becomes allies with Oguma, president of Oguma Enterprises and world leader of technology. Because this alliance could only stand to further strengthen Morden's military power, Marco Rossi, Fio Germi, Tarma Roving, and Eri Kasamoto set out to dissolve both parties. Recurring boss character Allen O'Neil also returns to oppose the player.

Gameplay

Metal Slug maintains many features from the 2D entries; characters use an arsenal of various guns, grenades and explosives, and vehicles. The game also introduces full three-dimensional movement to the series to coincide with its 3D presentation, which uses super deformed characters.

Upgrades and customization are some of the largest new features. Players can upgrade each character's combat abilities, categorized into Pellet, Power, Hit Rate, and Machine. These abilities allow characters to increase the damage, "splash" radius, and accuracy of their weapons and vehicle handling, respectively. Each character begins with a full proficiency in different categories. For example, Marco starts off with a full Hit Rate skill while Fio starts with a completely upgraded Pellet skill.

Another new feature is a grade system, which ranks the player according to their performance on each of the game's 11 levels. Achieving the highest rank, the S rank, allows the player to collect medals, which are used for upgrading character attributes.

Playing through the game also awards Skill Points to the player, which can be used to upgrade 4 other abilities, which affect the amount of damage a character can withstand, their ability to evade enemy attacks, and more.

The game also includes the option to customize the titular Metal Slug to their own liking, with the ability to switch out its "core", treads, weapons, and armor. An in-game laboratory can be used to build custom parts for the vehicle.

Why It Failed It's Mission

1. For starters, this game is completely unfaithful to the franchise, is insulting to the Metal Slug franchise, and gets rid of lots of the good ways of the charm and charisma of the Mega Slug franchise.
2. Slow and dragged-out 3D gameplay that is extremely boring and tedious.
3. The graphics are extremely terrible for a PS2 game, and it looks more like a 1998 PS1 game than a 2006 PS2 game. Games such as Bomberman Generation, Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance, Doraemon 3: Nobita no Machi SOS!, Sonic Adventure, Mega Man X7, Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, Pac-Man World 2 and 3, or even Mortal Kombat: Special Forces]] all came before this game and look much better than this game, which also makes the game feel very outdated.
   • The character models are very awful and look like a low-budget 3D animated movie; in fact, they don't really fit the characters themselves since most of them are adults, and yet, they look like 10-year-old kids, which shows how bad the graphics are.
   • The graphics are also not very detailed and colorful, despite the previous games in the franchise having vibrant colors and graphics, even though they were 2D games.
   • The texture is also bland to the point of being on par with Bomberman Kart on PS2, which also had poor graphics, but not as far as this Metal Slug game.
4. The controls are extremely terrible, unresponsive, and very clunky, especially for a Metal Slug game, as most of them have good controls, but this game is somewhat absent from that category.
   • The slug controls are even worse than being in foot since they're very stiff and almost unplayable to play with, and due to that, you can easily lose your slug when there's some enemies, which is already a bad thing to see how bad the game is.
5. The camera is very horrible, and it's also one of the main reasons why this game is so bad and unplayable. It's sometimes randomly changed in a direction where you don't even see your character, or even worse, you don't see the enemies, which makes the game harder than it's supposed to be. In fact, it's so bad that games like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus or even Doraemon: Nobita to Mittsu no Seireiseki have a better camera despite being released before this game.
6. This can also be a real problem when you encounter boss fights, where most of them are extremely horrible and very hard most of the time due to this.
7. Annoying enemy AI for most of the games
8. The game doesn't have any humor like the previous Metal Slug game, in which this game barely has any funny moments.
9. Instead of using a single button to switch weapons, the designers had the awful idea of using two buttons. To change weapons, you must therefore hold L2 and press the square key. To switch grenade types, hold R2 and press the round button. In absolute terms, it is hardly complicated, but that does not prevent the logic from being respected either. Likewise, the knife, the ultimate weapon for slicing enemies in close combat, no longer draws automatically. You must now use the triangle key. Suffice to say that in the heat of the action, we quickly mix brushes, and to make everything worse, there's some buttons that weren't used at all.
10. The presentation is pretty bad for the most part, compared to most Metal Slug games released out there.
11. The hit detection is horrible, as you can see that sometimes even if you touch an enemy, you won't hit them, and they have no problems hitting you very easily. This is also one of the main reasons why this game is extremely terrible and unbalanced; even Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus wasn't as unbalanced as this game and didn't have a hit detection that terrible.
    • This is also one of the reasons why this game is so terrible, with the rail shooter level being the worst offender, as you can easily be hit by the enemies, and they have no problem hitting you while you hit them, but with huge trouble.
12. Saving some of the prisoners can be a real pain due to the awful difficulty with the enemies, but they can also be in terrible placement; sometimes they are too easy or too hard to get.
    • One of them in the very first level of the game is extremely easy to get as he's just in a house where you can easily not see him. There's also barely any logic as you have to save him, but you can't even enter the house, which is just nonsensical even for a PlayStation 2 game. Even in Doraemon 2: Nobita to Hikari no Shinden, a game released in 1998 for the Nintendo 64, it allows you to enter a house.
    • The prisoners in Mission 10 are very painful to rescue, maybe due to being the hardest level in this awful game.
13. The boss fights are very awful; most of them are either too hard or too easy. This includes, but is not limited to:
    • The assault vehicle is too easy since you can just shoot at it and it's barely trying to attack you.
    • The three assault vehicles of the second level are also very bad and can be frustrating because some of them can shoot very fast and you can be hit quite easily by one of them; however, the one on the ground is pretty easy and is just like the first boss of the game.
    • The spider robot is one of, if not the worst, bosses of the entire game since it shoots and throws grenades and explosives almost everywhere, and you can be hit very easily. It also doesn't help that the camera is terrible and can make this battle quite unfair.
    • The missile is very hard and terrible too since you can be hit by its grenades that are thrown everywhere, and it's doing massive damage to you, which can make you lose very easily.
14. The game is very short for a PS2 game since there's only 11 missions and you can complete them in less than 2 hours and a row, which is a bit unacceptable for a 2006 game and for PS2 game standards because some games that were released before this game were longer than this.
15. The mission 10 is easily the hardest and worst level of the entire game since it's very long and laughably badly designed with a lot of cheap enemy placement that feel like they wanted to do Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, but in 3D and with the Metal Slug universe, it's had a lot of enemies that shoot at you and you can easily die a lot of times, and there's not that many checkpoints either, which makes everything worse; in fact, it's so bad that it's possibly one of, if not the worst level of the entire Metal Slug franchise.
16. There's a lack of checkpoints for most levels, which adds to the problem of the terrible difficulty in each level.
17. Awful level design for most of the level with a lot of terrible enemy placement and some terrible platforming, which makes the level design some of the worst in any 3D platformer or even the Metal Slug franchise itself.
    • Mission 1 is pretty easy, but the problem is that it's so badly designed that even the easiest level of the game is bad; in fact, it's just the beginning of the nightmare this game is.
    • Mission 2 is where the nightmare starts, as there's a lot of enemies and you have to get the slug first, but as said before, the slug control is very horrible, and due to the enemies being all over the place, you will lose it easily or even die easily, especially in the beginning of the level.
    • The mission 3, while not as bad as the mission 2, is quite badly designed since there's a lot of vehicule attacking you and you can easily lose you in this level due to being almost like a maze.
    • Mission 4 is also a nightmare since there's a lot of sections where you are preventing pasting enemies, and to make everything worse, the level is even more like a maze than Mission 3.
    • Mission 5 is very tedious despite being one of the best levels of the game, as the zombies are very long to kill, and it can be incredibly boring.
    • Mission 6 is very bad and tedious too; it's trying to be like a rail shooter, but it's not good since there's a lot of enemies trying to kill you, and the boss is even worse.
    • The mission 7 has a huge number of vehicles that attack you, and you can be hit very easily. The boss is again extremely awful and very frustrating; it's also very boring to play again, and it mostly consists of enemies that you have to kill to not die easily.
    • Mission 8 is very slow and barely fun; it's even worse than Mission 6, where it's also a rail shooter stage, as it's in the water and it's as slow as a turtle, if not slower than a turtle. It's so bad that it might be the second worst level of the game right there with Mission 10.
    • Mission 9 is so badly designed that it feels like a rejected level from Mega Man X7. It's also one of, if not the longest, levels of the entire game. It's got a lot of enemies that can easily kill you, and you can take a while to kill them and beat the level. You also must take a slug just to take less damage and to kill enemies more easily. This is probably one of the longest levels of the entire game and possibly the third worst level due to how badly designed it is, though not the worst level of the entire game since mission 10 takes place due to how badly designed it is.
    • Mission 10 is one of, if not the worst, levels of the entire game and even the worst level of the entire franchise; see WIF#13 for more details on how bad this level is.
    • Mission 11 is the last level, and it's as bad as the other level, as there's two boss fights. Although the first phase is not so bad and actually good (that being said, it's the best boss of the entire game despite being hard), the second phase is horrible since you can be hit very easily with all of its projectiles that it's thrown, and you can die a lot due to how bad it is.
18. Sometime you can't go without killing enemies, as there's a wall to prevent you from pasting them, and sometimes there's so many enemies that it's making the game more tedious than fun. This shows how bad the game is and how badly the game was designed.
19. When you replay levels in a save file, you can't watch the cutscenes anymore; fortunately, there's an option to watch them.
20. The lock-on system is incredibly broken; sometimes you will hit enemies or bosses with it and sometimes not, thanks to how bad the hit detection is.
21. You can sometimes be hit by nothing, which proves that the game is possibly badly programmed.
22. You can sometimes be hit by enemies that you don't see coming.
23. The story is quite bad compared to other Metal Slug games, and it's also pretty generic since it's just a war beginning and you have to save the world, which has been done many times in the past. This is a PS2 game, not an NES game.
24. The title is pretty confusing, like Sonic '06, like whatever it's a remake or a reboot; in fact, it's going to be called Metal Slug: Evolution, but it's been changed to simply Metal Slug; sometimes the game is called Metal Slug 3D, but it's called simply Metal Slug in the title screen or even the box art itself.
25. Abomination, the real final boss of the game, barely fits the Metal Slug universe and would more fit in a horror game like Resident Evil; it's also disturbing and can scare kids or even adults in some cases.
26. The upgrades are very expensive to buy; some are even at 4000 points, which made it a grindfest to get the upgrades, and it's another tedious problem of the game.
27. Despite being only released in Japan, the game doesn't have any Japanese voice acting, which can be confusing for Japanese people who don't understand any English words. However, this is one of the few games of SNK that have English voice acting, and it can still be considered a positive pointer.

Redeeming Qualities

1. The soundtrack is again awesome, and it's also the only good thing about the game, even if the soundtrack is not as great as the previous Metal Slug game.
2. The first phase of the final boss is awesome and is the only great boss in the game. Despite being hard, it's also very memorable due to the boss's great design and being huge.
3. This is one of the few games by SNK to have English voice acting, which is not a bad thing, and the voice acting is not bad and can be enjoyable to listen to.
4. The game has the potential to be awesome, but unfortunately, this game was so badly designed that it's turned out to be one of, if not the worst, games of the entire franchise.
5. The game environments are great, despite the graphics and texture being bad and looking more like a PS1 game.
6. While the controls are horrible, especially with the slugs, they are responsive when you are in foot, despite being also bad.
7. The cutscenes are very well animated and are great to watch. Despite the story being bad, it's also very gorgeous for a game with terrible graphics.
8. Despite being bad, some of the character models can be cute, but unfortunately, they don't fit the Metal Slug universe.

Reception

Metal Slug (or Metal Slug 3D) receives extremely negative reviews by both critics and fans alike, who have criticized its graphics as being like a PS1 game rather than a PS2 game, its terrible gameplay (especially with the slugs), its horrible camera that makes the game harder to play than it's supposed to be, and the awful character model. NTSC-UK gave the game a 2 out of a possible 10, citing its poor graphics, barren environments, and overall boring gameplay. Edge scored a 5/10. "It's a glimpse of something special waiting to happen, of a no-nonsense attitude towards combat that could be developed into a series worthy of the torch that it has chosen to bear. The fans opinions are divided; some say it's a decent game, and others say that this game is very awful and one of the worst Metal Slug games.

The game is also considered to be one of, if not the worst, games in the entire franchise, along with Metal Slug 6 (which is considered average at best). In fact, the reception of the game was so negative that SNK Playmore cancelled the game release in the States and instead released Metal Slug Anthology for PS2, PSP, and Wii in Japan, America, and Europe.

Trivia

• The game had no definite title when it was first unveiled at the Tokyo Game Show back in 2004. At the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo, SNK Playmore revealed the game to be called "Metal Slug: Evolution". However, this was later changed to just being "Metal Slug". It is called "メタルスラッグ3D" or simply "メタルスラッグ" in Japanese. In Metal Slug Attack, it is referred to as Metal Slug (3D).
• Although only released in Japan, it contains a menu that is written mostly in English as well as American voice acting. Japanese subtitles and dialogues are present for non-English speakers. There are unused, near-complete English, Spanish, French, German, and Italian translations in the game, and these can be accessed by patching the game with the associated cheat.

Reference

https://metalslug.fandom.com/wiki/Metal_Slug_3D

https://snk.fandom.com/wiki/Metal_Slug_(3D)

https://game.snk-corp.co.jp/official/metalslug/

https://cdromance.com/ps2-iso/metal-slug-2006-japan/

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