I love Metal Slug games. Moreover, i really prefer it than Contra. Maybe some people prefer the famous Konami's Run 'n Gun game because on each installment there's significant change in enemies unlike MS that keep using the same Morden's army. But there's slight change on them or completely different enemy in Metal Slug 5 which is the not people recommend due to different team make it (and Metal Slug 4). Because at that time SNK is in the verge of bankruptcy but now they're merged with Playmore thus become SNK Playmore and they're doing fairly fine to this date. I respect the design behind using same non-boss enemies throughout the series because 1) Saving work for making new assets, and 2) Player can easily learn most enemy's pattern as long as they have experience in at least one of the game. Back when i still have Playstation 1, i play Metal Slug 1 and X very often. I'm also familiar with Morden's army combat vehicles through looking at the art gallery. I wish i can friend with them instead of destroying them into smoking pile of rubble. Apparently i can do so by playing the strategy game, the spin-off of the series: Metal Slug Defense (2015).
I remember playing it in mobile phone -like- 8 years ago when i was still under bachelor course. Then i decide to uninstall it due to lack of memory space on my old phone. But recently, i installed it again now that i have mobile phone with bigger space memory capacity. But for this occasion, i play the steam version because i'm curious how it's different from the mobile version. There's the window option with infantryman cheers inside the window. It's nice feature. The game demands me to "click" to proceed. It doesn't feel accurate for PC version of the game. It should be "press any key/button". Nice title screen overall with wonderful background and title logo.
Then we get into prologue narration. Contrary to Metal Slug game, there's story narration in this! Although it's pretty generic. General Morden still alive and his army team up with alien to take over the world. Then military intelligence assemble troops around the world to stop the rebellion. They're led by me obviously and this is not the first time i have to command troops to restore world peace. I did this before in War 2410. No worry.
First mission takes place in Southeast Asia how relatable to me who live in Indonesia. I like the indicator for mission difficulty there. It implies that the mission is so easy that you can do this while boil water on kettle. I really familiar with that infantryman because i shoot him so many times in Metal Slug 1 and X while he peacefully ready water for coffee or something. Bless him.
I can deploy units but it costs AP (which probably stands for Army Point). It increase over time pretty slowly though but you can increase AP income rate along with its maximum capacity by spending some of it. You do so by clicking left mouse button toward Rumi Aikawa, the courier girl. She's my waifu so i like this game already.
So far my unit list is: Regular army (the good/national army) soldier which is obviously blue color version of Morden's army infantryman and sandbag. Suddenly Metal Slug attack is ready! By clicking on icon in right-bottom corner, a titular Metal Slug tank will commits suicide attack and ends up explodes itself.
Cm_heavy_matchwon_05.mp3. I get A rank for my first mission. But i miss the P.O.W. :(
Medic_mvm_collect_credits04.wav. Then i got Log-in reward: 5000 MSP. It is the common currency in this game and may be stands for Metal Slug Points.
After that, i get Mini Jupiter King and Mini Hermit Crab for free! My army expands! Thank you, Cynthia "Cindy" Hartnett!
Taking on mission will cost sortie points, indicated by that ammunition box on left-bottom corner. It will replenish over time. Apparently, you can cheat your way to replenish it by changing time in your device/PC. But i can't confirm it because i'm too lazy to do that
I must applaud SNK Playmore for pretty accurate geography of Indonesia. Borneo/Kalimantan island need more crook or curve but i let that slips off. They work hard enough in my opinion especially compare to Mario is Missing! and Street Fighter.
It comes to no surprise that the basic soldier is awful in function. They just run forward and shank anyone if they can get close alive to enemies that is. Their special attack is throwing grenade more in vertical distance than horizontal ones. If timed it right, with grenade he can take out enemy's ranged unit from distance. But the main purpose of their grenade is to search for hidden loot on stages. Like this fuel jerry can. It will increases your AP by 100 points. It's excellent to muster your troop or to upgrade AP income fast. Upgrading AP production is vital especially with this kind of messed up deck which doesn't have much balance on AP cost. I mean look at The Mini Jupiter King and Mini Hermit Crab! They cost 200 APs! The POW with red hair named 10000000Taro (Let's short his name to 10MTaro for the sake of convenience on later) is decent melee fighter/tanker.
To avoid confusion, the armored vehicle with cannon, i call it "tank". And someone or something that has suitable role for tanking damage, i call it '(damage) tanker"
Do we get the usual "Mission Complete" announcement when completing a mission? Engineer_yes02.wav.
What considered to be nice feature is the remaining unit on battlefield have victory pose. The soldier laughs. 10MTaro gives salute. Even Rumi Aikawa also gives salute. Spy_positivevocalization03.wav
I get cornered in next mission and the game demands me to use free emergency supply which is free refill for Metal Slug Attack. I don't think that's helping so i refuse to use it and i lose the mission.
Even though i lose, i get Marco Rossi himself as unit and he's disappointing! On the other hand, enemy has the staple of Morden's army: Girida-O tank. One hit from its cannon, Marco is sent flying high and dies. I mean i still can't understand that the heroes can take more than one hit with anything that Morden's army throw. They might as well as throw sharp pebble at the protagonists and they will die by it anyway. No need to use any military weaponry.
But in this game, Marco can take some damage before dying but Girida-O's cannonball is too much for him. He costs 60 APs. His normal attack is handgun shot but only once and he has to pause fairly long before firing another petty bullet. Like some old man that get anaesthetized, and told to play Metal Slug for the first time. If you know how to play Metal Slug, you should know that you have to shoot that handgun like mad otherwise you won't get far in that game. I get more annoyed with Marco right there because i can waltz through this early section in fist mission in Metal Slug with Marco (because i can't choose to play as Tarma unless playing as 2nd player) with no sweat at all in anytime any day. His special attack is the famous "Heavy Machine Gun" that he fires for about half a dozen bullet. It feels lack of power very badly.
Eventually i succeed on that
mission. Now, i'm fighting against the first boss of Metal Slug 1: Tetsuyuki! You have to watch out for the big laser
because it can pierce through any of your (ground) unit and through your base.
It goes without saying if that capsule base of yours destroyed, it's instant
game over. Sandbag, the stationary tanker unit definitely useless here because
the big laser can go through it. So you have to be more aggressive. Searching
for hidden AP also important in this mission. I mean hidden AP stash is important in every stage.
A soldier give the boss final hit while he also dies because of enemy troop's knife attack. Marco survives and he laughs as if he takes all the credit for the kill. The miserable sod.
After defeating Tetsuyuki, the game concludes that i finish the tutorial and shop is unlocked. I can buy package of unit with real money including King of Fighters' character but i will skip this for now. In mobile version, i can buy separate unit by using medals (the rare currency). Maybe i need to finish some region first before i can do that? Thus i press on with whatever unit i have.
You can spend MSP to upgrade unit you have but only their Hitpoints, mind you. Look at that smug. He's so proud that he got upgraded. The hitpoint increase depends on unit's max hitpoint. For example: Marco got 17 hitpoint increase thus his initial max hitpoint is 320. Quick calculation: 17/320 then multiplied by 100%. The result is: 5.1325%. That's petty upgrade! He doesn't need to be smug like that.
You probably ask "Where's the information about attack power of a unit?". Well, there's none. The only way to know their attack power is: by trial and error. Deploy them in battlefield and observe. It's like in Command & Conquer: Generals. But in C&C Generals there's extra info on unit whether they are strong or weak against some type. Not in here though. I mean i can understand why because there's so many attack type here. Knife attack, grenade, cannonball, machine gun bullets, big laser beam, you name it. On bit related to that, The only information in number that you can have is hitpoints and that's the only stats that you can upgrade. Hitpoint upgrade seems not particularly useful. It will allow unit to last longer and therefore increases the number of their attack while deployed. But still, i prefer attack power upgrade.
Instead, you should spend MSP to upgrade your base's stats especially AP income rate. No matter how well your deck, it won't work unless with sufficient AP. Second priority is: AP earning when destroying enemy's unit or decrease cooldown of deploying unit. Next can be Metal Slug charge rate or its damage. This upgrades are permanent. While unit upgrade only takes effect if upgraded units are in your current deck, naturally.
I can choose next mission on next region but i decide to free all POW in Southeast Asia region first because if you do you will get permanent boost on AP rate! As i ever said before it's very important. I missed 1 POW in 4th stage but as long as i rescue his peer in every stage of the region, i still activate the boost. This POW boost is in percentage while in base upgrade? I have no clue it's whether also percentage or a constant number.
Next region is in China which is the 3rd stage on Metal Slug 2 or X. Here's Mini Jupiter King in action. It moves forward until enemy is in his detection then it begins to shoot eye laser backward from front to its leg. Obviously the normal version of Jupiter King has longer laser range and significant more hitpoints. The way its charging its eye first before actually shooting the laser, is pretty slow. So think it as tanker for more fragile unit like Marco here, instead. I bet he feels smug again that Mini Jupiter King cover his weak ass.
In this stage, there's Iron Iso tank already installed. I feel intimidated by it, first time. But apparently Marco can engage it safely because Iron Iso's aim too high. Again, i bet he feels smug about this.
Several stages later...
In this stage, Mummy generator is already installed and this time it's really big threat because it keep spawning mummies periodically. On top of that, the enemy's base also spawn mummies so we got throng of mummies here. I happen to unlock Tarma for free. His handgun's range is shorter than Marco but his special attack is powerful shotgun blast that's excellent against group of enemies like this. However he also dies in process due to combined attack of the enemies. Tarma has slightly more hitpoints than Marco but that doesn't tell much. It's like comparing constitution of dry tissue with wet tissue. Both of them can be easily punctured with nail.
On my way of replaying stages...
Now this is very peculiar view. 2 pair of Marco & Tarma simultaneously laugh smugly. You don't see that every day.
After dozen of next stages...
This region is Ridge 256! I like everything about. The music. Background setting. Everything! Including the boss Shoe & Karn. Ok, there's only one of them now here. I think this one is Shoe and Karn has reddish color tone, maybe. Mini Hermit Crab also tanker unit and his attack is just constantly clawing forward and it works wonderfully. It will be much better if he can operate that many cannon on his back but no. At least, his normal big version can do that, i think.
I know that someone out there is fans of Fio Germi and they want to see her in action. She's on my current deck but i don't get the chance to screenshot her action. There will be the time. I promise.
There you go. It doesn't take long, does it? Fio probably the most useful of the protagonists due to her special attack: rocket launcher. I mean, Rawket Lawnchair! It deals hefty damage and travels fairly far. Even though it takes quite long time to ready her special attack.
Few next missions later...
Eri Kasamoto is here too and she along with Fio fighting the Hermit Crab. The giant standard version. 10MTaro is running away not because he's afraid of the giant enemy crab. That's his defeated animation. While other unit dies flying or turn into chunk of meats when their hitpoints reaches 0, 10MTaro runs with his tail between his legs. The sandbag obviously no good here and that's why it's no longer in my deck. Deploy lots of unit with ranged attack and you will be victorious.
Another next few missions later...
Finally i lock the titular Metal Slug SV-001! As unit and not just suicide attacker, mind you. It's definitely better than Marco. It has better weaponry but for unit with 250 APs cost, it's bit too fragile. Here, my ragtag army fight against group of Bradley, Iron Nokana, and couple of Girida-O! I don't remember well how i can overcome this wave of menacing mobile steels. Probably thanks to SV-001's cannon and Metal Slug attack (which is nearly filled in this moment). 10MTaro isn't faltered with this situation though. He keeps walking jauntily to front line.
I forget to tell you about mechanism of special attack. Do you see blue aura around some of my unit? That means their special attack is ready to unleash and you do so by left mouse button click them. Simple enough. I think in this version the clicking is not as accurate as in mobile phone version.
Eri's special attack is the laser gun. It can pierce through enemies except stronger ones like this sandbag. I'm not impressed. I still think Fio is the best unit among the protagonist. You can start clapping your hands, Fio Fans!
Hello, Red Eye from Metal Slug game that i barely know. This POW boost is pretty important too. I mean anything that can increase your AP income is very important all around.
I can't continue this way. I really need units that fill the flaw of this bad deck. You can see that i don't have unit that cost between 100 and 200 AP and that bothers me a lot.
I recommend this pack because it's relatively cheap among other pack and there's mobile tanker that i very like.
This snowballing guy is what i was talking about. He's funny in concept but functionally good. How the snowball not melting throughout the stage is anyone's guess. Except the infantryman himself. Maybe he has high spirit of winter. He likes to roll snowball since he was kid and he will die as he lived: rolling snowball until he die along with it. He's like Hermit Crab but does no damage but much cheaper (70 AP cost) yet pretty durable. He's excellent for fighting against suicide unit like this mutated soldier while keeping unit behind him safe.
My current strategy with this deck is turtling with combination of snowball soldier and mortar. Until i get sufficient AP, i will rush with heavier units. I recognize that strong tank. It's Di-Cokka. Please don't make joke about male genitalia regarding its name.
Man-eating plant is about to eat Fio and there's nothing i can do about it (except taking this picture). You may send your hate mail, Fio Fans.
My strategy of rushing is to deploy MV-280B jeep as many as i can. I was hoping to use Girida-O, but these jeeps are appropriate. They're more expensive than the small tanks but they move faster. Also, their rocket is quite pack a punch.
I might as well as try other unit in pack. Infantry with skyrocket weapon is one of my nemesis in the series. If you shoot their skyrocket, its trajectory will raise and ends up blow in your face. In other Run N Gun game, you protect yourself by shooting at anything enemies throw at you but this bastard exploits that tradition. You have to do the opposite. The skyrocket initially falls not far from infantryman that launches it. But if you're panic and shoot it, its distance will be improved. Knowing that he's my nemesis, i try to deploy him here and he works quite fine. His skyrocket deal big damage within quite long distance. While his special attack is: he's quickly lying prone and start throwing his weapon. I don't think lying down can actually avoid enemy's attack but let him do what he can.
There's special mission that you can take on beside the sortie mission (the main campaign). Yikes! There's Heidern look menacing as always. I will take the first mission. Sir! Yes! SIr!
On special mission, you have to accomplish certain objective with given units. Thankfully, the AP production is maxed in this mission. My mission is simple. Destroy enemy's base within time limit against protagonists by using various infantrymen. It's not so difficult.
This special mission menu looks much better before with the presence of Sophia Greenville the drill instructor from first Metal Slug. I'm afraid i can't stay with you longer, Sophia. Because my sortie points is running out. So i have to do something else while sortie points grows over time.
Back to sortie mission...
I forget to tell you that 10MTaro has special attack where he unleash close range energy blast. The yeti doesn't like it especially when it goes through his nipples. Soldier_goodjob02.wav
Some region ends with colossal boss like Tetsuyuki, Hermit Crab, and this Jupiter King. It feels like you're on epic battle. I just realized that explosion from Metal Slug Attack in first Metal Slug isn't forming long "X" letter like this. It takes this form since Metal Slug 2 and forth.
We don't get to see unit's attack power info but at least we can see their demonstration in action. Like this snowman for example. Builder (which is miner from Metal Slug 2) run and the build the snowmen automatically or you can tell him manually by clicking on him. Actually, every building will be built by this procedure including the sandbag. Then you tap on the snowman to tell infantryman to jump on nearby enemy. Neat concept but too complex to deploy.
I get a "S" rank for this mission and i get the maximum amount of MSP within this mission. If you somehow manage to complete all mission of same region in "S" rank, you will get 3 medals. To get "S" rank in a mission, you have to complete it in shortest time. But the thing is every mission doesn't have the same ranking standard of time length. Like in previous missions, i don't get any "S" rank. This is the first mission that i get "S" rank but i do it fast like in previous mission. I did nothing special. The other benefit of "S" rank a mission, you can activate auto-win for that mission but you don't get the hidden loot, for sure.
I see ranking in this game. I can't be in one of those ranking because i was playing this game in offline mode. Marco's face look very dumb there and i like it.
After some speedrun later...
Usually, i pick the final mission for each region so if i can finish it i reckon i can finish other missions (which have less difficulty) with no problem. On this final mission in final region, i'm easily cornered and defeated thanks to that unused Morden tank. Call it unused is inaccurate because it appears on final mission of Metal Slug 2 or X but instantly destroyed by UFO, the real final boss. By the way, this place is the final segment of Metal Slug 2 or X. Morden tank doesn't have cannon but Morden himself fires bazooka. Occasionally he summons Hi-Do helicopter that carpet-bombing on entire stage including our base! So the snowball guy is pretty much useless here. Sorry, man.
I retry the final mission few times but to no avail. As i reach my last sortie points, i realize that i have some support item. From left to right: 1) Radar, that automatically rescue 1 POW after winning a mission 2) AP Lvl max, that makes my AP production to maximum level at the start of the battle 3) Chest, that increase reward as i win the mission 4) Mobile Satellite, that fire ion bolts at enemies. It's rare weapon in Metal Slug 3. As i don't have much time to speedrun this game, i choose to activate the AP Lvl max.
With that, i can just spam any heavy unit and win the mission easily. Cm_spy_matchwon_09.mp3
After that, we treated to this epilogue screen. Of course, General Morden is nowhere to be found and his army will be bound to do another coup d'état. The heroes' fight for peace is endless. Yadda Yadda. That kind of stuff.
Then our heroes throw their handgun to the sea. They reuse ending of Metal Slug 3 for this epilogue. But i give them a credit because in original, you can only have 3 of the heroes appear at most (2 are the players plus 1 is the one who get kidnapped by the alien and making clone of him/her). But here you get 4 of them at once. That's a plus to me.
But that's not the end! By completing that final mission i unlock next world which is more difficult than the previous one and you can also unlock additional POW boost but it's harder because the hidden spot takes 2 hit instead of 1 to reveal the hidden loot. Also there's more POW in each POW boost meaning rescuing 1 POW gives you less boost now. From playing the mobile version, i discover that there's 3 world and each of them has the hard mode version. Each world has 12 regions. That means there's total of 3 X 2 X 12 = 72 regions to finish! Not to mention there's secret regions that allow you to unlock units if you free all POW in there. Now that i finish the game once, i call it a day and uninstall it. :P
SNK's Metal Slug Defense (2015) is strategy game that use assets from the main games which are Run n Gun games. It works simple and fine. It's kind of like Armor Alley but without the helicopter player. Even i said so, the game got mixed review on steam and i know why. It's outdated. The mobile version is 1.46.0 while this version is 1.0.4. That's significant different! SNK seems can't be bothered to either update it or remove it probably because the marketing potential of mobile game deemed more lucrative than PC game and they even put the sequel Metal Slug Attack only on mobile phone. So what's the main problem of this game compared to mobile version? It's the inability to buy unit separately by spending medals. It's huge flaw. Because as you see, the starter deck is awful and weak. Increasing your base stats can't cover that flaw. You need more better unit. The game itself is free but the way that the game gives you terrible deck, forcing you to buy unit pack! Let's have some comparison.
Because i bought the unit pack, my deck is not so shabby but still have fairly significant flaw. As i said before that Fio's special attack is great but she's fragile and her handgun firing is pitiful. The rebel soldier with bazooka has better normal attack and his AP cost is the same as the starter soldier: 30 APs. Sure. When you fight enemy's bazooka infantryman with yours, they will ends up kill each other. At least you trade AP with neutral balance. If you send Marco instead, he will most likely die first due to his poor rate of fire if he doesn't have chance to unleash his machine gun. Marco cost 60 APs. That means you trade AP with negative balance of 30 APs. In this deck i don't have someone/something to fill the unit with 150 AP cost. Which means my deck is pretty weak when i have around 150 AP at the moment. Now let's compare this deck to the one in mobile phone version.
I have some unit with AP cost around 150. APC that spawn elite ptolemaic operatives that rolls bomb. Samurai plane (140 APs cost), that shower my enemies with bullet. Although not powerful attack, but it's perfect to search stage for hidden loot. Then lastly there's Allen 'O Neil Jr. who's excel as tanker (because of his big hitpoints) and damage dealer (because of his light machine gun). Everytime he shoot a burst of bullets, he laughs. That's not efficient, i know. But he's still much better than any of the main heroes! That's not all, if he get knocked out, he revives, ditch his light machine gun and start knifing enemies furiously. During that phase, his special attack is throwing 3 grenades consecutively instead of just one when he's still maniac with light machine gun. And tell you what? He's free! The game gives you him to celebrate its anniversary. He's free unit yet also powerful. Obviously, i was upset when i don't get him in PC version because he's very useful especially when my other units are pretty much weak compare to him!
If i can't helped it, i don't want to use Morden's army unit because i don't like copying enemy's warfare. But most boss units are come from Morden's army. Do you see that Jupiter King? It has purple rim instead of red and it acts differently. Red Jupiter King use eye laser sweep whereas Purple Jupiter King slams a rocket to the ground and launches mini missiles. I don't exactly copy enemy's warfare, do i?
Sure you can get free unit from
rescuing POW on certain region including timed event ones, but you also need to
win the mission to keep the rescued POW and you need strong deck with proper
units. Your starting units in PC version aren't cutting for it. You can buy
unit by spending medal but that's only for Mobile version. Medals in PC Version
are for buying extra MSP and those support items. That's not all of them.
Finishing region in PC version feels empty and stagnant. You get some medals
and support items upon doing so. While in Mobile version, you will unlock new
unit on the shop as you make progress. It's much interesting doing so. If your
units walk together, activating the special attack for some specific unit feels
less accurate in PC version than in Mobile version. As you expect from Metal
Slug games, the graphic is gorgeous and the music is pretty good. Worth mentioning is the announcer's voice. It's top grade! The balance between units is all over the place. Some are worth the AP cost. Some are underwhelming.
If you're interested in this game, pick the mobile version which is the superior version. You can buy particular unit you want with medals. You get Allen O' Neil Jr. for free. There's auto-battle button while in PC Version there's only fast forward. You can buy medal with money. There's Vs. mode and Co-op mode. It's more easy and fast to access than PC version especially with regenerated "energy" point that requires to play a mission. And lastly there's more unit in Mobile version. The newest unit is Whip and Heidern.
The giant flaw in this game regardless of the version is how weak are the main protagonist. Some developer staff may reply that with "That's because they're free units, duh!" but it's pretty fundamental that the main protagonist should be strong unit. Don't necessarily have to be overpowered unit but at least as strong yet balanced unit and functional to use. I notice that some special weapon are nowhere to be seen. They're Drop Shot, Super Grenade, and Thunder Cloud. Some of them should be equipped by Marco and Co. I mean, sure. Handgun is basic and staple. But at least make them fires more bullets out of it. Like Marco shoots 7-8 bullets of handgun before pause, Tarma shoot 3 bullets and so on. However, both version offers you a splendid sight of POW in measly fashion round kicks tanks.
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