Metal Slug: First Mission Game by UBI Soft Reviewed by The Avardancer (Philip Wesley) Size: 16 megabits Save: batteries Released: 1999 Works with: All Neo Geo Pocket systems. **************************************************************************** Opening Snide Remarks: I love the arcade game. This was one of the main reasons I bought a Neo Geo Pocket Color. I was counting on this game. I gave the main unit a high score; based on this game. I was hoping for a game that played like the arcade game. Did I get my wish? **************************************************************************** Gameplay Descripion: Allow me to paraphrase Lloyd Bentson. I played through the Arcade Game. I knew the Arcade Game. The Arcade Game was a friend of mine. And First Mission, you're no Arcade Game. Now that is out of the way, if you feel the rest of this review will be bad.. you don't need to read any more into it. Because it is and it isn't. For one, I was expecting this game to be as exciting as the arcade game; but this isn't even close to the fun and mindless shooting of the arcade game. It's actually Metal SLUGGISH, I'm sorry. It's slower paced than Operation C on the Game Boy. Which is actually quite fast paced. There's little to no enemies in many parts of this game. The thing I liked about the arcade game was the sense of humour and LOTS of enemies. I get a watered down version of that; but someone tried to inject a platform game brain into it. Why? That's NOT the point, damn it! The POINT is to go from left to right or up and down shooting limitless enemies and collecting funny items. The idea is to "Blast Away and GO, GO, GO!" NOT, jump from platform to platform, occassionally shooting something. I'm sorry, this isn't Metal Slug. Now that I've gotten that out of the way; I'll review what I got. What I expected was an action-packed shoot-em-up. What I got was a game with play similar to Mega Man. Which isn't bad. You do have two vehicles and a lot of branching paths from level to level. There are two vehicles in the game, The Metal Slug (A tank), and the Slug Flyer (A plane), the two vehicles are nice. If you get captured in the tank, you have to fight your way out of a prison with only a knife. There are a few weapons. They are pretty good and the game is fairly entertaining. Although, if you own Sonic Pocket Adventure; than you don't need this game. Compared to Sonic, this game is dull and slow paced. As a platform game, it fails compared to the other NGPC game. I guess that when it first came out, it was good enough; but even then, it fails to compare to some of my favorite black and white Game Boy shooters. Some nice and innovative parts, like the train chase where you need to work one of those little trolleys to catch the train, or if you get shot down in the plane and have to parachute to safety. It's got some nice bosses, and it has a "rank" rating to it; that is nice. It's fun; but I didn't like it that much at all. I was disappointed. Liked: It's decent. Hated: It's NOT the arcade game. It's not even close. They grabbed Marco and stuck him in a game that ISN'T a Metal Slug game and called it one. Sigh. **************************************************************************** Graphics Description: Some parrallax scrolling. Yippee. Anyways, The game looks nice; but the sprites are rather drab. Some great animation; but it lacks the punch and polish of it's arcade counterpart; or even the depth and grand effects of SNK's fighting games. It's passable; but not exciting. Liked: The graphics are nice and the animation is funny. Hated: I was expecting more flair. **************************************************************************** Sound/Music Description: The sound and music are passable and decent; but not memorable. I'm sorry. You won't be tempted to turn it off or down; but it won't stick in your head or any of that. Liked: It's good; not annoying. Hated: It's not memorable? **************************************************************************** Play Control/Game Design: The play control is nice and responsive. Sometimes, that stick works against you; but you still have fairly good control over everything. Game Design.... well, I'm mad. If I designed this game, I would push toward making the sprites a little smaller so I could fit TONS of enemies into the game. Yes, that's what I would do. I dislike how the game was designed. It's not at all how I would have wanted it. I would have kept the vehicles in and the parachute thing; but I would have removed the whole "going through doors" bit and the platform game elements. The levels would be straight forward and filled with LOTS of stuff to shoot. Kind of like Contra. Yeah, that's the stuff. I would keep the Rank thing in. The rank would be based on how quickly you got through the level, how many enemies you shot, how many hostages you rescued without dying and your overall score for that level. I would keep the map screen and once you beat a level; you could return to it and get a higher score or a better rank. I would keep the ranks classed for each level and open up options and special secrets when you achieved higher scores. And lastly, I would try to squeeze a co-op mode in it. Overall, I think SNK could have made it better; but doesn't seem to have put enough effort in it. It's like they purposely made it a pale imitation of what it could have been. Like it's being held back. I'm sorry. But that is my opinion. Liked: Pretty good play control. Hated: They took an awesome arcade shooter and turned it into an average platform game. **************************************************************************** Improve: Make it fast and furious like the arcade game and quit trying to make it something it is NOT. RIYL: Platform games. **************************************************************************** Final Words: While it's okay.. I hope the sequel is better. This maybe the first Neo Geo Pocket Color game that I sell back to Babbages. **************************************************************************** Score Gameplay: ** Graphics: **** Sound/Music: **** Play Control/Game Design: ** Personal Opinion: * Total: 13 out of 25 Final Score: 42% **************************************************************************** Currently Known Codes: Sigh. Well, back to better NGPC games.