Shoot ‘em all, and let god sort them out.

That line perfectly describes these games. If you’re looking for a deep story, and strong character development, go play something else. This series is all about mowing down endless waves of enemy soldiers and having a blast while doing it. It’s a classic arcade shoot ‘em up designed to devour your quarters, Especially bosses which take thousands of hits to take down.

Thankfully this is the home game, and it’s set on free play. Since you have infinite continues, you’re pretty much guaranteed to beat the game. While that does remove some of the challenge, the game is still somewhat difficult, and death comes quickly, as it would in any game where one hit kills you.

There are seven Metal Slug games on this disk. For the most part, they all play pretty much the same. Run to the right and shoot everything that moves until it stops moving. There are some slight differences from game to game. New guns, different characters, new enemies, and so forth.

Metal Slug takes its name from the giant tanks that you find frequently throughout the levels.  This is where the fun really begins, as they are rolling machines of death. They also take three hits to stop instead of just one.

The game does have a certain sense of humor to it as well. From the enemy reactions to the POWs you rescue who skip along like nothing is going on until you save them   to the weapons they produce from their boxer shorts.

If I had to pick a favorite of the games. It would probably be Metal Slug 3.  It just seemed to do everything right. It was better than the games that came before it, and was still good compared to the games that came after it.

There is one thing that defines it, though.  In one of the stages you fight off a zombie horde and if you get hit by one, you turn into a zombie. You lose all your weapons, but instead of grenades you projectile vomit a stream of blood and pretty much clear the screen. It’s awesome.

The Wii version of this game actually has several different control schemes. You could be lame and just use a GameCube controller or you could play it a few different ways with the Wiimote,  Which are pretty standard: classic controller, wiimote sideways, wiimote + nunchuck.  Or you put the wiimote sensor side down in the palm of one hand, grip the mote with your other hand...and use it like an arcade stick. Which is kinda cool, but doesn’t work all that well in execution. I prefer wiimote sideways. D-pad moves, 1 jumps, 2 shoots, and shake to throw grenades.

The first Metal Slug came out in 1996, and Metal Slug 6 came out in 2006. In the ten years between the games. Not alot has changed graphically. It really didn’t need to. They have all aged pretty well.

The sound effects are also good. Everything from enemy soldiers screaming when they see you to the machine gun you fire into them. Of course I have to bring up the announcer. Whenever you pick up a new weapon you hear this cheesy announcer saying what you picked up. The best one of course is the rocket launcher, because it sounds like he’s saying rocket lawn chair.

These games are definite classics, if you enjoy side scroller shooters at all. There is no reason not to pick this anthology up. It might be sort of hard to find now, but most used copies are under $20. It’s alot of fun and even more fun if you bring along someone for the ride. These are great co-op games.

	System:	Nintendo Wii
	Genre:	Side-Scrolling Action
	Experience:	Finished all the games

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