Dash Kappei
Not actually that important
EDIT:
I'm revamping the thread since my US copy it's on the way.
But I'll still keep, at least for now, the impressions I posted for the JPN release.
- RELEASE DATES:
Metal Slug 7 is out now in the US and JPN;
UK GAF will have to wait until Feb. 27 2009
or import it through retailers like CDUniverse/VGPlus;
apparently some Euro Countries got the game on Nov. 21st 2008
-According to SNK Playmore at TGS08,
MS7 will make its way on XBox360 Live Arcade Marketplace:
"Metal Slug 7" is bound to appear in the near future exclusively on the XBox Live Arcade service. Gamers can join Marco, Tarma, Eri, Fiolina, Clark and Ralph as they prepare to take on Modern's Forces across seven new missions.
Metal Slug 7 will also feature new weapons, colossal new bosses, new gameplay modes and new Slugs to pilot.
- DEALS:
The game goes for just $19.99 on Amazon.com website!
--
- IMPRESSIONS:
As expected, the game feel a lot more like Metal Slug DS than the Metal Slug number 7 it's been titled by SNK PlaYmore.
Graphically there's a lot of good to the game and some fail.
The main gripe it's due to the machine's screen much more than a lacking effort by the developer: the resolution used to show as a big play area as the other game in the series (as opposed to MSAdvance) makes for too tiny characters and, especially the tiny ones like characters/soldiers etc show little detail... but it's still all there and Metal Slug's charm is definitely retained.
I've played all the levels bar one and I'd say slowdowns are almost non-existent, framerate could be just a bit smoother though but really I'm nitpicking here.
Visually I don't like the choice, a bit like Slug 6, to go with prerendered backgrounds since DS limited capabilitis make for an even poorer color palette and grainy graphics, but under a gameplay point of view it definitely helps DS's screen to make enemies and bullets easy to spot (so it makes a lot more sense here than for the arcade chapters).
Well, those bgs are more often ugly than not, sometimes the styile works better than others, and I would have been happy if the result was always up to par with what we get on Mission 4. Mission 1 is easily the worst offender, and that gives you a bad taste right after having fired up the game for the very first time, so that doesn't help... as I said Mission 4 is quite pretty and reminds me of a water colored canvas a la Braid, plus the waterfall's backdrop is quite nice.
True to the roots, Slug 7's explosions are so damn awesome and detailed... and the bosses, holy crap the bosses don't have anything to envy to past games in the franchise, with some fantastic two or even three-parts fights
The bigger the sprites the better they are: this holds true for the whole game.
The game best achievement is to have retained intact what has made Slug game something special all these years, alas the awesome animations... they've really put to good use DS's cartirdges size.
Did I mention the music is up there with the best in the series?
Mission 4 has probably my favourite MS track ever, I'm often playing the game just with BGM on and it's freakin fantastic: it's a whole other world playing with the headphones on, color me surprised but the sound quality is easily up to par with the home console's Slugs and you really can't compare it with DS's speaker: again, Slug 7's sound quality makes for a really nice show-off of what the DS can do.
Difficulty wise there's definitely a challenge here (3 difficulty levels, dunno about unlockables) and I applaud the choice to give the player only a limited amount of continues (9 for beginner, 4 for Normal and just 2 for Hard) and you have 6 characters to choose from (Marco, Eri, Tarma, Clark, Ralf and Fio) along the usual dual slot for selectable guns like the latter games in the franchise.
On the way to unlocking the 7 levels you'll be able to use any one of them as the starting point for your own adventure.
Let me rephrase it: the game is freakin' hard, I've played every Slug but we have a "winner" here, at Normal difficulty setting we have almost too much of a challenge.
The controls are completely customizable, thank god there's optional Auto Fire, also pressing L + Y (default) makes the character throwing punches/kicks (imo completely useless... unless you wanna beat the game without ever firing a bullet?), or a ACME like retractable boxing gloves when you're crouching, doing the same while jumping gives you a knife swing combo. Nice.
The game doesn't use any of DS unique capabilities but I'm not complaining, leave this action classic alone, even if I have to admit a more clever use of the 2nd screen (showing a useless minimap, the levels are such a straight and small affair that is not needed at all) would've been appreciated and, dare I say, expected.
It's easily the best handheld Metal Slug out there, but maybe playing Anthology on PSP from a memory stick (no loading) beats it, never tried it so I won't compare... but I was a lot more confortable with DS d-pad for the game then PSP's one, that's for sure but it all comes down to personal preferences.
Apart from that it's the usual godly Slug's fanfair with humour, great 2D art and animations, motherfuggin' big bosses, bodies' dismemberments a go-go (game's NOT censored!) and all that... I'm happy the franchise graced Nintendo's hendheld and it's worth your cash if you're looking for portable Slug action and you don't have a PSP/don't like Anthology PSP or you can't get enough of Metal Slug for the get-go, but as I said this should've been named Metal Slug DS, it does nothing to be the new game in the main series and not having multiplayer, not even with multicart, it's really a shame... so if you're going to bite you better be expecting a successfull portable spin-off or otherwise you could be disappointed.
- MEDIA:
-Video:
Metal Slug 7 USA Trailer -High Quality Youtube
-Boxart:
[image]
Screens:
(edited with Ethelred's links)
-MS7 North American Official Website
-Reviews:
Gameranking's average ratio
Metacritic's score and reviews overview
GAME's OVERVIEW:
-The game features SIX different characters
-Seven levels
-Four difficulty settings
-Combat School: More than 60 objective based missions
- Characters special abilites:
- Marco: His default weapon (Pistol on Hard, Heavy Machine Gun on Easy) has twice the ordinary strength.
- Tarma: While riding in or on a Slug, durability and the effects of power-ups are doubled; additionally, the vulcan cannon's power is increased by 50%.
He also is capable of using Vulcan Fix when on or in any vehicle.
- Fio: Begins each mission with the Heavy Machine Gun (on Easy mode, she begins with the Big Heavy Machine Gun from Metal Slug X and 3).
Weapon supply is also increased by 50%.
- Eri: Receives twice as many grenades upon starting or resupplying.
When throwing, she can aim in a specific direction.
- Ralf: Melee attack speed is doubled, at the expense of weapon and grenade supplies being halved.
He can also use the special 'Vulcan Punch' attack, melee strikes capable of damaging vehicles. Can take two hits from most attacks before losing a life.
- Clark: gets an extra chance at start of respawn. He can perform his 'Argentina Backbreaker' against most non-vehicle enemies, and he's immune to damage during the move, also earning generous amounts of points with such action.
Gameplay's choice: play area
MS Advance didn't play like a Metal slug game partially because of that: since the action was very limited in space, everything felt constricted in a tiny rectangle.
Metal Slug 7, on the opposite, plays like a Metal Slug game
Don't mind the crappy quality, it's just to show MSAdvance play area vs MS7 play area.
MS ADVANCE
-images
Vs.
MS7
-images
- EXTRA INFORMATIONS:
Yep, at least for my standards (sadly I don'y know the moon language at all) the game's definitely import safe in its JPN iteration, although since its cheaper you should probably go with the US version, it's not missing anything you know... unless you're a collector
Btw, no text other than for Combat Schools' challanges, but even then it'is always either a "go for high score/kill everyone" or a "time attack" kind of affair.
