Arcade Archives (ACA) Neo Geo Metal Slug Review: Hamster treats a classic right
Yesterday I wrote a bunch of effusive praise about Metal Slug.
Then I went home and bought Hamster’s re-release of the game on Xbox One. It’s part of their “Arcade Archives” series, and it’s also available on PS4 and Switch. It’ll set you back a totally reasonable 8 bucks.
Time for more praise!
I had never played any of Hamster’s re-releases, though I had seen some video coverage of their earlier titles on giantbomb.com.
This is an example of the exact right way to re-release an old game, and I’m probably going to buy many more of Hamster’s releases.
For 8 bucks, you’re getting a complete Metal Slug 1 package. You get arcade perfect recreations of both the Japanese and the English versions of the game. You get a variety of options to tweak, including all the dip switch settings from the original arcade machines.
Hamster even added some new modes, centered around competing for high scores with the rest of the internet. High Score mode gives you one credit and tasks you with scoring as many points as possible. Caravan mode does the same thing…but also imposes a five minute time limit.
Both of these modes have unique graphical overlays which show you your current position on the high score leaderboards. So that’s a neat touch.
The game has a full complement of achievements/trophies, and they aren’t the hardest ones in the world if you have some classic arcade chops. So it’s a fairly easy set to get, if that’s your thing.
Graphically, the game has many wonderful presentation options…unlike the old XBLA version of Metal Slug 3, which imposed a horrible blur filter that you couldn’t turn off. More on that in the future!
You can look it at in perfectly-upscaled pixel-mapped glory. You can impose a number of tasteful filters, which are designed to recreate the feel of an old CRT monitor. You can even check an option to expand the field of view slightly and reveal areas that would normally be outside the overscan edges of the monitor. That’s not something that most people would care about, but it’s a nice inclusion for weird people like me.
The game runs exactly as it did on the arcade hardware, so moments where it would slow down are accurately preserved here. Every last bit of the completely majesty of Metal Slug’s hand-animated graphics comes through.
The gameplay is still the same fun run-and-gun, manic arcade action that Metal Slug has always had. It’s perhaps the finest example of the “run to the right and shoot stuff” genre. I think it’s better than Contra.
That’s right, I said it.
Sound is surprisingly nice and full, a testament to how ahead of its time the original Neo Geo sound hardware was. It even sounds nice scaled up through Dolby Atmos Headphone on my Xbox One. They resisted the urge to remix the original music or mess with the original sound effects, instead presenting them in their original crunchy form. It’s a good choice, because those sounds are synonymous with “Arcade Game” in my brain.
I can’t complain about anything here. This is a lovingly-rendered, complete presentation of a classic arcade game and it’s only 8 bucks. It’s out on the three big consoles. There’s also a Steam version of this game…but it’s by a different developer and has a different set of features. If you want to play one of the best arcade games ever made, this is probably the best way to do it, short of finding an old working Neo Geo cabinet.
