Description

Now, because the golden times of the arcade are pretty much gone now and because I’m playing this in an emulator for free, I’m going to spare you this “OMG those greedy devs” crap storm that’s been going on and on in my head for the past forty minutes or so. I’m going to spare you all that and start from the other side of the coin: Metal Slug 2, a sequel to the arcade classic Metal Slug, is a pretty solid run’n’gun side scrolling shooter, with neat graphics, addictive gameplay and excellent sounds. There are four playable characters, all members of the Peregrine Falcon Squad. The choice between those, however, is merely a matter of ‘visual preference’ and has no impact on the gameplay whatsoever. You control the character by an 8-way joystick and three buttons: 1)for shooting, 2)for jump and 3)for throwing a grenade or launching a rocket. Yet the original NEO-GEO cabinet hardware still offered an additional fourth button, even though it wasn’t utilized with Metal Slug 2 in any way. The primary objective of the game is to battle through six levels, in order to stop the evil General Morden, who allied himself with aliens and organized a coup d’etat against the regular government. The secondary objective is then to release POW taken hostage by Morden’s forces. When you walk up to them, once you set them free, they will thank you and either resupply your ammunition and bombs/rockets, or give you one of the available weapon upgrades—which, unlike your pistol, have a limited ammo supply, though. All and all, the whole game feels kind of like Wolfenstein ft. Call of Duty IW ft. Shank ft. Indiana Jones. Now, you have advanced weaponry at your hand, including a laser rifle, but the enemies are all too much nazi-looking for it to be set in the future and not in an alternative reality. But it is all highly enjoyable. The sprites look all superb and the animations are excellent. There is this subtle humor all around that just makes you smile a want more. And so you play and die, and you die a lot—or at least I did, but you don’t give a damn nevertheless, because it’s still so fun. Really, the game was designed so that you die every thirty seconds and pop in more coins. The bosses take way too much damage and some of the bullet patterns they create are virtually impossible to dodge. Yet, yet… Where else can you see a laser-gun wielding camel you can ride on? Which game ever turned you into a half-mummy after you got to smell an ancient egyptian mummy's bad breath? You see, it’s this kind of things that would made you play Metal Slug 2 even if it meant you’d have to pop all the money you got into that machine. Luckily, though, it’s 2017 and you don’t have to do that anymore. Just smash that ‘5’ key on your keyboard and rock on!