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-SNK (1998)
Summary In a world controlled by an evil madman, four unlikely heroes come together to put a stop to the insane shenanigans. My Thoughts I've been on a Metal Slug frenzy as of late and I thought I'd continue to share the wonder of this series with you. This time around SNK took all the familiar elements of the first game and bumped it up a notch. Well, not just one notch, but about 20 or so. The most noticeable difference is that you have four characters to choose from instead of the original two. You also get to pick the character without having to be on a particular side of the arcade cabinet (or having to do some sort of trickery with Mame) and you can switch characters during the game itself. The four characters are again pretty much the same except for looks and a couple of animations, but its still nice to have the option of switching around. One of the neat things that’s been added is that there are a few times that your character can change into a mummy or even get extremely fat. When you're fat your big jowls jiggle as you fire upwards, and you stab the enemy with a fork. Details like this make me love this game. Like in the previous installment there are tons of enemy types from grunts, to sharp shooters, to vehicles of all kinds. It never gets to the point that a lot of arcade games reach where you grow bored of the limited variety of enemies. There's always something fun to shoot and kill. The amount of detail in enemy movements has been taken to another level as well. Enemy sharpshooters will take cover, eject a shell casing, and then take another shot at you. The coolest detail was when I defeated one of the bosses who returned from the first game. He falls off a cliff and a WHALE eats him. His bones fly out of the water after he disappears. Talk about shock and awe. The amount of weapon power-ups has increased with some great new additions. The most notable are the laser that I only got once, and the shotgun that is a pure joy to use. Vehicle combat has been varied and improved. Not only do you get to ride in the regular mini-tank, but you can hitch a ride on a heavily armed camel and even fly a small jet this time around. As for plot, there's one there, but you can only infer what it is while you play. Things sort of fit together, but there's no narration or dialogue to let you in on the story. Apparently this time around the evil bad guys are doing some alternative military research ala Raiders of the Lost Ark. One of the early levels takes you into a mummy’s tomb where there are undead mummies that try to kill you. Later on, there are some weird X-Files type of creatures in a sewer, and some squid-like aliens appear as you reach the end. Once you reach the outside, it looks as if your old enemy has made an ally and when he laughs at you, things change. The aliens kill his men and betray him. In the background you can see the alien spaceships fighting the enemy airplanes. From then on commences one of the longest boss battles I've ever had the pleasure of participating in. You shoot and shoot and shoot, until finally the evil empire baddies come and help you out. They even bring in a tank for you to drive around in at one point. I'm not going to ruin the ending, but it actually made me laugh. This game is amazing. It's so fun, and it’s better than the first Metal Slug. There is one negative though. Metal Slug 2 suffers from some slowdown problems. It never really gets too bad, but it is present almost the entire game. This is the only issue holding me back from giving it a higher score.
-Paul
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