Since Metal Slug Anthology is actually running the official arcade ROMs (it even says "Two Player Press Start" in the corner while you run through the single player modes), you'll get all the traditional choke points for each respective title as you would have in the quarter-pumping days. In addition, a few of the games suffer from some serious slowdown. The long and short of it loading is annoying, and while it doesn't screw up the game entirely, it is definitely noticeable, and it affects the game's flow. In general each Metal Slug game has from three to five screen switches per mission, each hovering around the eight second mark. In addition, ROMs not only take a load break in between each mission, but also during screen switches, with eight second quick-loads. In general it takes about 30-50 seconds to go from the main anthology title screen to actually playing one of the ROMs, with odd loading points added not only to boot the arcade games themselves, but also to leave each of the game's title screens, and - an extremely odd one - slight loading pops when switching from character to character on the "select your player" screens. All of the necessary elements are there (blood, action, explosions, and a steady supply of heavy machine gun), but loading issues add a series of hiccups to play. And while the "true-to-arcade" ports of the Metal Slug series are pretty good, they aren't perfect. Other than a few added extras, it's all about the seven games. The game's presentation is basic, set up like the similar compilation games (such as Metal Slug 5 & 6 on Xbox) with a simplistic "chose your game" interface, some expected options such as limited/unlimited lives and an easy, medium, hard setting, as well as the option to display the games in their true aspect ratio, a "full screen" mode (which makes the playfield a 4:3 square), or a stretched widescreen mode that fills the screen. Metal Slug Anthology is a relatively bare bones collection, offering the seven historic Metal Slug games (Metal Slug, Metal Slug 2, X, 3, 4, 5, and 6) and little else. If the team could deliver a Metal Slug experience that was true to the arcade versions, controlling relatively well and displaying the games as best as possible, we'd consider it a solid buy, and for the most part the team has succeeded. For the PSP version, SNK had a more stable set of controls to work within, and while the PSP hardware doesn't have quite enough power to run the 90's classics without a hitch (not to mention a less-than-desirable d-pad), our expectations were still very high going into it. There was no support for the Wii classic controller, no d-pad support for use with GameCube, which also meant no possibility of using older GameCube arcade sticks. Each of the seven Metal Slug games were there, but the control was somewhat of a disappointment. When SNK's Metal Slug Anthology hit the Wii just a couple months ago, the collection had its fair share of ups and downs.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |