sethnintendo

User Score
9.0

Presentation - 9.0
Gameplay - 9.5
Value - 8.0

I might be a little biased towards the Metal Slug series but I will try to keep this review reasonably fair.  This game features everything you expect from a Metal Slug game plus more. 

I love the addition of the health bar for this game. It was the first and so far only Metal Slug to utilize a health bar (no longer have extra lives but can continue) so food that enemies drop actually heals you instead of making your character fat.  Although, I do love it when my character becomes fat in previous Metal Slugs the ability to heal yourself is far greater.  While this might make it a little easier to complete the level with the hostages (not losing a life after rescuing them) it is still a neat concept.  You will want to rescue those hostages because in this version they actually help you out more than just giving you bombs and weapons.  The Hostage file shows all the hostages you have rescued and some hostages allow you to have special abilities such as higher damage pistol, fire bombs, more bombs, increased Metal Slug armor, etc..).  These are pretty cool perks that increases your ability to mow down enemies.

The game has decent replay value due to the Hostage file and normal/hard difficulty.  You can play as two characters (Walter Ryan and Tyra Elson).  You can only start a game file with one of the characters and you are not able to switch characters on that saved file.  Although the gamepak has three saved file slots.  I probably spent around 10-15 hours at least on my normal difficulty saved file trying to get all the hostages.  I only have one missing and the strategy guide on gamefaqs has that prisoner listed wrong.  Someday I will rescue them all.  The hidden stage has multiple paths and is a very long mission.  The vehicles in this game are the Metal Slug (has two other variations, Slug Type-R and Black Hound Slug), Slug Flyer, and Slug Gunner. 

I can't really see any faults in this game except perhaps that I wish there was more levels.  However, most Metal Slug games only have about 5 or 6 missions.  This game doesn't venture far from the Metal Slug formula which is always a good thing.

This game is a must have for any who loves the Metal Slug series, and anyone that love side scrolling shooters!