izigame.me

There are a few games I played with the intent of reviewing but eventually decided against doing so. Metal Slug XX – a remake of Metal Slug 7 is one of those games – thanks to how little good I have to say. But it feels weird reviewing all of the mainline entries on Steam, then stopping at the last one. So here we are.
Unlike most of the other games, Metal Slug XX pays extra care to continuity – almost all levels transition directly from the last. In theory this is great – the problem is, this leads to what feels like the majority of the game taking place in one big cave.
And thanks to the game bringing over Metal Slug 6's miserable art style over, virtually every environment blends into one big, bland mush in my mind. This samey feel also extends to enemies and bosses – the franchise has gone back to Metal Slug 4 levels of uniformity with its designs. If you're fighting an enemy, It's a Nazi and nothing else. If you're fighting a boss, it's a mech and nothing else.
Well, that's doing a disservice to the latter there, as the mech designs are actually a bit more interesting than before. Unfortunately, my problem with the bosses is to do with the arenas – this game absolutely loves bottomless pits. I love a good bit of platforming in most games, but unfortunately the Steam version has an insane amount of input lag, making things obscenely hard.
Finally, the game sprinkles a few gimmicks in – but each one feels compromised in some way. There's a new mount in the game that controls horribly, a parachuting section that kills you if you drop down too fast, and a mech section that for some inexplicable reason swaps the seats players 1 and 2 are in when you take damage.
Finally, one new thing they added was a training mode, where you can re-enter stages with certain objectives or limited lives. It seemed cool but by the time I finished the campaign I wasn't looking to play more.
So, that's the end of my Metal Slug marathon. It's a shame to end on a rather weak note, but I'm glad I gave this series a chance. Most of them are pretty timeless, and make for a fun romp to play in between more time consuming games. If you want to try Metal Slug for yourself, do yourself a favour and check out the first three games.