Metal Slug
There’s really not much of a story to MS, although there’s a three-paragraph intro in the game’s manual that explains about a generic government recruiting base in the South Pacific. You’re a new soldier recruit-you can pick either Walter Ryan or Tyra Nelson as your character. Each is rather scrawny by soldier standards: Ryan’s 5’9” and 172 pounds, while petite Elson is just 5’4” and weighs just 104 pounds. Guess they don’t make big, muscle-bound soldier recruits like they used to, huh?
Pretty much, MSA throws worries about a story out the window and instead concentrates on massive amounts of gunfire, explosions and general mayhem, just what you would expect from its old-school shooter roots. Rocket launchers, shotguns, flamethrowers, and Mech-type slugs give plenty a MSA a high-powered arsenal. Using the slugs gives you the chance to turn the metal table on your enemies by jacking the slugs (planes, tanks, and Mech-style robotic-looking giant man-o-wars) and using them to your advantage in battle. That’s MSA’s great charm: for those looking for a great handheld shooter that packs a major action punch, MSA is a perfect fit. Concentrating solely on shooting everything in sight, MSA provides plenty of shooting action that old-school download game for free gamers will appreciate, including the Big Boss battle at the end of every stage that will test your shooting game skills.
With only five levels to play, there’s not a lot to MSA. But this is not only old-school in its gameplay, it is old-school in its challenge difficulty too. Face it, games including Metal Slug were a lot tougher and more challenging to defeat back in the day, and MSA doesn’t wuss out by lowering the difficulty level for today’s gamer (although there are two difficulty settings to choose, even the “normal” setting is a hellacious challenge). It’s a good thing that MSA is so tough, because there are only a few hours of gameplay necessary to invest to actually get through the entire game, which is okay if you’re only looking for a day’s worth of gaming diversion, but doesn’t endear itself to those looking for a game that has a lot of replay value.