Metal Slug Anthology

[Veskgar]

Anyone in the scene knows ALL these games can be emulated already via NJ's MVSPSP emulator...WI-FI ADHOC even!

Really? I knew at least a few were playable but I had no idea that every single one of the 7 games in this anthology could be played with NJ's EMU's.

[Chuthbert]

SNK re-hash?!...AGAIN?!

... what? You must be thinking of Capcom. (Not that I'm saying they're a bad company, in fact I love them, but they're netorious for crappy re-hashes. Capcom Fighting Evolution anyone?)

And Metal Slug 6 isn't NeoGeo, it's Atomiswave. But I have it for the PS2 anyway and it isn't really that good anyway so I think I'll just stick to my emulators... for now at least.

[shinysuitman]

they really need to do this with samurai shodown...

[chrono75]

Man, I got this game the day it came out and it's simply the brilliant. I am a little saddened to see that DCEMU is just now putting up news for it over a week later. Anyways, if any of your guys out there are Metal Slug fans, this game is BLISS. I mean it, this series has 7 full lengthed games that are just gorgeous on the PSP, plus, SNK added an auto fire feature so you can bring the pain to enemies without bringing the pain to your square button, . Anyways, I do have a copy of it... *HINT* *HINT* (Send me an e-mail,) If anyone is willing to check it out. A must have for ANY Metal Slug fan, brilliant, the 2nd best PSP game I've ever played and I've play a loads of 'em.

--EDIT (REVIEW BELOW)--

This game requires firmware 2.81, the UMD works great with Custom Firmware 3.10 OE-A'

If anyone is curious how the game runs, let me give you people the lowdown...

-CONTROLS-
The controls are quite nice, expect a simple/solid control scheme, but this is still by no means an arcade experience, but I gotta tell 'ya, it's pulled off nicely.

-SPEED/PORTING ISSUES-
One thing that really gets to me, (And probably the only thing,) is that the game does have some serius loading times, possibly the worst PSP game in this department to date. Maybe the loading times would decrease if I backed up the game and played it from my memory stick? I dunno. But in reality, it's not a single loading time that gets you, it's when you see "Now Loading," every 1-5 minutes... Also, I have NO idea what those guys are talking about when they say this game has crappy menu features, I am a game programmer and designer and these menus aren't sloppy, they're just simple like the gameplay. I do feel that the Saving/Loading is almost unnessary, but, it does the trick (you can save your game in an exact position and come back to continue later,). People should know when they are viewing/seeing/using something that does the trick and/or does what it needs to, not something that they wish it had or what it was missing. Don't bother with those comments chaps, it's called greed and also, the menu schemes throughout the game are fine, nothing to whine about and I enjoy them.

-GAMEPLAY-
This game is intense, fun and very enjoyable if you're into a real game . Expect alot of credits being used and just plain alot of stuff happening on the screen mixed in with alot of skill needed. A cool thing about this package is the fact that once you beat a game, under any difficulty, (Easy is the only reasonable difficulty IMO, but I have cleared Metal Slug 001 under Normal, you see in Easy mode, you get 30 credits to clear a game and in Normal you get 20 credits, ect. ect.) you get 3 tokens you can spend in the Metal Slug Gallery and buy stuff like Wallpapers, Music, (Both of which can be saved to your PSP Memstick so you can view the images on your XMB menu, plus, you can listen to the songs you save from the XMB menu, that is FANTASTIC IMO.) and some Creator's Text which is a little disspointing. If I didn't write anything down here, it's covered either above or below. Now, let's cover the speed of the game. The game runs amazing, but there are TWO major drawbacks. 1.) There are dissapointing loading times between stage sections which pop up like every 1-5 min. or so, but hell, I got over that. 2.) The game DOES in fact run very smooth and very solid on the PSP that is, unless you are in a really demanding/action packed session, and then indeed, the PSP does slowdown, but no framerates are skipped, the game simply goes in slo-motion which is actually sort of a good thing. L0L
All in all, you have to remember just how much a Neo-Geo was worth, (somewhere from $500-800,) and the first Metal Slug game was around $100 so just think of how much the entire series would have costed!! This game is a friggin' steal.

-AUDIO-, Over 15 different, beautifully composed war tracks ranging from the good 'ol Metal Slug theme to intense alien encounter ambience. The sound effects though are what you should expect from a classic 2D game. The only game in this series where they really got serious on the sound effects was probably in Metal Slug 6.

-OVERVIEW-
I give this game an 8.5 or a 9/10 just because I am such a HUGE fan HOWEVER not only that, but they really did do justice to this incredible series and everything you love about a game is here times ten. SNK really put this together well and man, I love every pixel of it. If you enjoyed the first Metal Slug or ANY Metal Slug, you have to check this out, rent it or BUY it! Also, I have played Metal Slugs 1-4 either in the arcade or at home on my computer and let me tell you, everything is here PLUS, there is actually extra content and fixes like in Metal Slug 3.
I hope I covered everything!! Check this out!! I say, A must own!! One last thing, if you do decide to get a legit copy somewhere, just remember in about 10-20 years, if your actual copy is still in good condition, try selling it and see how you feel then! (Just got over $70 for Chrono Trigger on Ebay, haha.) And another thing, let me clear this up too, it's true you can play Metal Slug 1-4 and X are emulated, but it's just not as good. PLUS, you'd be missing out on Metal Slug 5 and 6, which as both good games in the series.