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Metal Slug: Second Mission

Format: Neo Geo Pocket Color (import)
Published by: SNK
Based on: Contra, and then some

Genre: 2D Platformer
Media: 16 Mbit cartridge
Date: May 16, 2000

Finally, a reason to put a slug in your pocket

God bless SNK. For all they flack they take for making sequels, sequels and more sequels, they know how to keep their fans happy. Admittedly, I wasn't a big SNK fan until just a few months ago; but after being courted, dined and romanced by the company's very sexy handheld machine, I too see little hearts in my eyes whenever the name SNK comes up in conversation. And the reason for my girlish infatuation that causes me to write little love notes to SNK during 6th-hour Social Studies class is perfectly embodied in Metal Slug: 2nd Mission.

At first glance, MS:2M has a lot working against it. It's an action shooter on a handheld system, for cryin' out loud. And it's a sequel! And a port of an arcade game that originated on the meatiest 16-bit hardware out there! Just like a game bearing a wrestling license, it carried a high degree of possible suckiness from the outset. That makes the end result all the more wonderful, because MS:2M managed to shrug off all its potential baggage and become one of the best action games ever - handheld or otherwise.

I don't want to sound like I'm getting soft in my old age, so let's start by talking about what's not-so-good in this game. First of all, there's the slowdown. The NGPC is a muscular little fellow when it comes to pushing sprites, but while you have four or five enemies onscreen blasting away with weapons and dropping items, the system gets a bit taxed. This is most common in the city stages, where the areas are fairly complex and there's a veritible Guernica of mayhem going down. Additionally, the game features sampled speech (of much higher quality than that heard in Bionic Commando: Elite Forces) whenever you acquire new special weapons ("Pineapple!" "Rocket Launcher!"); but whenever the announcer's voice speaks, the game grinds into slo-mo. A small detail, but in a frenzied game like this, it can really throw off your timing.

Secondly, the NGPC really wasn't made for action games that require three buttons. Using hand grenades and tank shells and depth charges during combat requires the use of the tiny little Option button - you know, the one most games use as a Pause button. So how do you pause, then? You hold down Option for 2 seconds. In the middle of fast combat, this is totally impractical. And to make it even more aggravating, you have to waste a grenade (or other special weapon) to pause - definitely a no-no in later levels, where every shot counts.

Another nuisance in MS:2M comes in the form of the darned minecart levels. Yes, there are minecart levels here, possibly the ugliest form of gaming cliche this side of the ever-popular Ice Level (which also shows up, alas). Most of the game is a combination of reaction and exploration and skill, but the minecarts are linear exercises in pattern memorization, and until you learn when to jump and when to speed up, you'll eat up a lot of your precious continues. It's very frustrating, and incongruous with the rest of the game - luckily, there are only 2 minecart subsections, comprising less than half a full level of the 38 total missions.

That's right, I said 38 missions, maggot! That's a whole lot of combat, which means that the complaints I listed are but small gripes (especially the slowdown, which is rare and fairly easily to work around) in the grand scheme. And considering what a dandy work the grand scheme is, the problems seem trivial indeed.

Perhaps the best aspect of MS:2M is the excellent replay value SNK built into the game. The format is far more adventurous than the arcade Metal Slugs, with less linear levels as well as branching paths. Though the overall battlefield has 38 different missions, you won't see all of them in one sitting. Or in two sittings. Or most likely in 4 or 5 sittings, either. Playing straight through the game will take you through about 15 stages, most of which are subdivided into smaller sub-areas; to see everything else, you'll have to approach the game differently during subsequent playthroughs.

Not surprisingly by modern game design conventions, there are two commandos from whom you can select - the usual male and female. However, unlike many games, the differences are more than simply superficial; each fighter has a unique set of powerup weapons (the male getting shotguns and missile launchers in lieu of the female's missile pods and bazookas), and travels through different levels. Furthermore, each character takes a different route through certain stages - which is particularly important when it comes to rescuing hostages. One hundred soldiers have been captured by those dastardly rebels and hidden behind enemy lines. Gotta spring 'em all! (Hmmm, why does that ring a bell?) Rescuing hostages will cause your rank to rise, which will encourage the troopers you've rescued to divulge intelligence; they won't share info with people of lower rank than themselves. In addition, a higher rank results in receiving more ammunition and power-ups during battle, which is as good an incentive as any to find as many captives as possible.

Since the hostages are spread throughout the levels, you'll need to find all the various routes to different levels if you want to save them. These can be found in a variety of ways - besides the aforementioned automatic differences between the male and female's paths, alternate levels can be located by performing certain tasks, or even by screwing up. For instance, if you're shot down during an aerial Slug Fighter level, you bail out and fight a different follow-up level than you would have had your jet mission succeeded. Same with the Slug Sub missions. You can also find alternate level exits with careful exploration, although the alternate exits are not quite as consistent and regimented as in, say, Super Mario World. I've also heard that playing the game on maximum difficulty unlocks new areas, but since I'm a total wimp who gets blown away even on "Crippled Blind Infant" difficulty, I haven't really given that a serious shot.

Not that the game is impossibly hard; you can use up to 10 continues (plus you earn extra continues if you manage to beat tank missions without losing the eponymous Metal Slug), and on the easier settings you're given 5 bars of life, which makes the game substantially easier than the arcade title. I managed to complete the game my first time through by the skin of my teeth, and my second time with 8 continues to spare. Normally I'd pat myself on the back here, but I've only saved 47 of the 100 hostages, so there's a lot yet for me to discover... not that I'll ever find all 100 hostages and fully beat the game, but those of you who don't suck might have better luck.

As for the gameplay itself, it's as lovely as you might expect if you've ever taken the controls of a game bearing the "Metal Slug" moniker. Lots of shooting, excellent animation (with a fluidity rivalling the best 16-bit console games) especially on the alien enemies, which melt into a beautifully macabre geyser of green vomit. Yeah, "aliens." The story for this particular game is pretty nonsensical, involving extraterrestrial invaders who team up with rebel guerillas and the efforts of your lone soldier to prevent a summit meeting between their leaders (happily, the story is completely optional - but I recommend watching it for at least the female's scenario, just because she's so cocky and sarcastic). The series continues to borrow from Contra, but also continues to make Contra look like a flabby, retired ex-pro-athlete who sits around drinking beer all day and pining for the good ol' glory days. But luckily, Metal Slug isn't being TOO blatant about borrowing from the source - at no point do you run around inside an alien's guts. Instead, there is a massive variety of challenges and objectives in the game. Besides the vehicle stages (Metal Slug, Slug Fighter, Slug Sub and -ick- minecart), you'll find yourself facing frickin' huge bosses such as the Terrain Carrier (a full-track landbound aircraft carrier), a submarine which must be destroyed with well-timed depth charges (cranked by hand while dodging enemy fire), all kinds of tanks and planes, and of course enough enemy grunts to fill Flanders Field.

In conclusion... no, wait, that sounds like I'm writing a thesis paper. Ahem.

In short, Metal Slug: 2nd Mission kicks butt. It's really as simple as that. It manages to improve on the original in pretty much every way conceivable (thus making it a "good sequel") and comes together in such as way as to be one of the best and most addictive handheld action shooters ever. Sadly, most of you probably don't even own a Neo Geo Pocket Color, so you're likely to miss out on this. That's what blood banks are for - go sell plasma for a month and save up for this little nugget of gaming satisfaction. Which is more important to you - a little hemoglobin, or one of the best portable video games ever? Let's get our priorities straight here.

Rating:

The Metal Slug Family

So you say you've never played a Metal Slug game, 'cause your local arcade didn't have an MVS and you can't afford a NeoGeo home system after selling your extra kidney to buy a DVD player? Well, you're not alone - I'm pretty new to the series too. But 2nd Mission is actually the fifth game in the overall series, so there's plenty to catch up on.

The original Metal Slug introduced the entire series to the world (err, vice-versa). It appeared in a seriously bogged down form on Playstation (rumor has it Working Designs looked at porting it) and a better, faster Saturn version, which smart shoppers (like me!) were able to pick up as a cheap mark-down import in the twilight days of the system. The second game in the series, Metal Slug 2, was rather buggy and suffered huge slowdown problems even on its native NeoGeo platform, which is why SNK came out with Metal Slug X shortly thereafter (much to the consternation of gamers who dropped $300 for the 2nd game). X has only recently been released for US Playstation, after interminable delays.

After Metal Slug X came Metal Slug: 1st Mission for NGPC. The NGPC games are considered far easier than their arcade counterparts, and are not direct ports - in fact, they add certain elements not seen in the arcade.

Metal Slug 3 may currently be in an arcade near you... but not to home consoles near you, as SNK USA has killed off NG home distribution in the states - if SNK REALLY loved us, they'd give us a Dreamcast version. Or PS2. Or even XBox. I'm not picky.

It should be noted that I based this review on the import version of the game. However, the import is almost exactly like the US version thanks to the fact that the English dialogue was already in place in the game - only the box and label changed. Normally I don't buy imports of NGPC software, since almost all of it comes to America... but usually importers aren't stupid and don't typically send me imports when I preorder domestic releases.