Gaming Target - Xbox: Metal Slug 3

Written by Ryan Genno on July 01, 2004

Full Review: You should earn a metal just for finishing a game this hard!

I've been a huge Metal Slug fan since it first made its arcade appearance in 1996. The games were a fun, comical new way to play a 2D side-scrolling shooter again, but finding these action games has not been too easy. The original Neo Geo games are not exactly cheap and the other home versions are fairly tough too, so I'll welcome any title in the series. Metal Slug 3 for the Xbox marks the first time a Metal Slug game has appeared on the big three current consoles, so if you haven't play one of these games yet then this isn't a bad place to start. I should warn you that it is insanely difficult.

Here is what's going on in this long running story this time out. After what happened in Metal Slug X, it certainly looked like your old time rival General Morden of the New World Order army (no relation with the old wrestling group by the way) was finally done for. Although the war was over, all was still not well. The New World Order army still has huge pockets of resistance, and to make matters worse for your heroes, there are now reports of deadly mutants appearing around the world. Could aliens be at work here, or is General Morden really dead?

Metal Slug 3 lets you choice from four soldiers (it doesn't matter who you pick since they all control the same) and they all have to start the game with a weak gun and a few hand grenades. Although it may seem foolish going into a war zone with a wimpy handgun, each player can save hostages that may give you cool weapons in return like Rocket Launchers, Shotguns, and lots more. MS3 also has an impressive list of 10 different vehicles and large animals to use for additional firepower and defence. You can even get a chance to ride on the back of cool creatures like a two ton elephant, or a camel, and they even come equipped with powerful machine guns. This game has no shortage of special guns or Slugs to find and believe me you're going to need them.

The game isn't too different from the last couple of games in the series, but SNK has listened to some of the concerns regarding the replay value and they managed to fix a few things for part 3. Instead of just running to point A and B all the time, you can now find secrets that lead to alternate paths so the game play is far less linear this time. It's almost impossible to play the same game twice. What has changed from the arcade game is that players are no longer allowed to continue where they left off after all the lives are gone. There is no wussy half way checkpoints or unlimited continues here, if you want to use one of 5 credits then you have to go all the way back to the beginning of the level.

This home version does have a few bonus games to sweeten the deal, but the list of extras is rather minimal here. The first mini game is СStorming the UFO' where you get to play as the enemy soldiers as they battle aliens. The second game is called СFat Island' (no really, that's its name) and here one or two players can compete to see who can become the fattest the quickest while surviving an enemy attack. The big problem with these odd mini games is that the Arcade mission must be finished first, and I don't think it's fair to tease the player like that, especially since the arcade game is nearly impossible.

Metal Slug 3 also has Xbox Live support, but you can only post your scores on the Leaderboard, and that's it. The game also has records that keep track of all your other stats, like the names of all the 1000 plus hostages you can free in the game. This feature is rather pointless since you only unlock the prisoner's names, and the worst part about this is that you lose all your prisoner data when you die only once.

One thing I really liked about these Metal Slug games were some of the silly comical features to break away from the seriousness of this war-like atmosphere. Part 3 is no different. In level 2 if you turned into a zombie it will slow you down, but it's funny to see your character drag their feet and belch out blood as a special attack. The game is not only a great shooter with some excellent animation, but the game is also good for a few laughs. Although some of the graphics are very cartoon-like, the game is still quite violent believe it or not. You can see the blood fly after stabbing your opponents up close, and why not see some of them scream in agony after burning them to a crisp thanks to your trusty flamethrower? A lot of music is recycled from past Slug games, but the intense rock/drum tracks are still very effective for action like this and sound effects are loud and clear too.