Metal Slug Anthology

The Metal Slug games were and always will be good, graphically impressive, mindless shooters that will keep you amused for hours. Metal Slug 6 - which I believe is new to this collection - has something about it which sets it apart from the others (possibly a different graphics engine? I'm not techie enough to know for sure!).
Fun as the games are, I've taken a couple of stars off for a couple of reasons.
1 - The price. Surely a collection of old games should come in at around the £20 mark.
2 - All the games are pretty much the same (though very good, as said before)
3 - The presentation. More could have been made of the rather poor looking front-end.

Metal Slug is a series of games that arcade lovers will remember well. Yes, it's not as well known as Virtua Fighter or Tekken say, but the franchise has a massive cult following across the globe. The side-scrolling, button bashing, jump and duck action is reminicent of mid 90's video gaming at it's finest. Essentially, the series focuses on a group of government millitants who have been given the task of stopping a crazed terrorist group from blowing lots of stuff up. The first game, simply entitled Metal Slug: Super Vehicle 001, features two characters. Later games featured up to six deifferent protagonists to play as.

The seven titles are as follows:

Metal Slug: Super Vehicle 001
Metal Slug 2
Metal Slug X (A reissued, more technically advanced version of Metal Slug 2 with slight gameplay alterations.)
Metal Slug 3
Metal Slug 4
Metal Slug 5
Metal Slug 6

Metal Slug Anthology is a collection of all seven Metal Slug arcade games on one Wii disc. All seven of the titles are emulated perfectly, and feature all the original uncut animation, music and sound effects. Thankfully, all seven games have their two player modes intact, os you and a friend can shoot up the terrain together! The real beauty of this collection is that the extra features are well worth playing for. These include a 'Making Of', original and draft artwork, and a complete sound test for the games themselves. This is in vein of other 'compilation discs' released recently, such as Sonic Mega Collection or the Capcom series of games published on the PSP.

SNK Playmore (the developers of this title, and the whole series since 1996 in fact) have done a great job of converting this collection for the Wii. The graphics are smooth, the sound is crisp... The one thing that really impressed me is the control method. The Wii, is an awesome games console, but the controls can sometimes be a little restrictive, especially on ports form other consoles or (as in this case) ports from arcade units... If you need proof, download Super Mario 64 on the Wii Virtual Console. You'll soon see that the contols could have been made better even when using the Wii Classic Controller or the GameCube joypad, and this is just one example! For Metal Slug Anthology, the Wii Remote can be used in many different ways to control the action, and there are numerous setup options to allow you to also use the Wii Nunchuck in tandem with the Wii Remote. A genius move was to allow users to use their GameCube joypads also. One thing that would have been nice is the ability to use the Wii Classic Controller, but for some reason this was ommitted, although it is no great loss by any means.

So, all in all, for under £15 (at the time of writing) this collection is well worth the money. All seven of the games are fun, addictive and replayable, especially with a friend in two player mode. This game also marks the comeback of SNK as a Nintendo developer. Well, they're off to a good start! Now let's see a King of Fighters complilation next year!

* Seven arcade games!
* Beautiful hand drawn graphics and artwork!
* Astonishing 2D set pieces and animations!
* 2 Player CoOp!!!
* Possibly the best 2D platform shooter ever!

This cult game gives you so much enjoyment in short blasts and doesn't get tedious when played for long sessions. The game gives you loads of control methods, i prefer to use the wiimote on it's side like the old Nes & Snes pads, i find this control better than the xbox or psp control method. You can shake the wiimote for grenades and gives you a real joy when proper going for it chucking your grenades at tanks and incoming helicopters.
Im up to Metal Slug 3 at the moment and have to say it's becoming my second favourite game on Wii next to Zelda.
A must for people who grew up playing it in the arcade and a great collection for newcomers!

I wanted this game when the wii came out, but no way was I being ripped off at 40 quid for a bunch of old games. The Play price however makes this worthy of anyones collection. A lot of reviewers have complained about the controls, the lack of unlockable items and the loading when in levels. Each of these points is minor in my opinion, the remote turned on its side is a great way of controlling it, so who cares about the other silly control configurations, there is a lack of unlockable items, but its an old arcade game nothing more nothing less, and the loading in levels is about four seconds tops so that doesn't bother me. For the money you get seven of the greatest side scrolling shoot em ups ever made, there just about pure killin, just simply caning everthing in sight. That's what a real game is all about! That's what game production companies have forgotten about these days! The only reason this doesn't get five stars is that you can complete the whole lot in an afternoon, but it should be noted that there is a harder difficulty setting with less credits. An outstanding collection of games. Better than that 'trauma center' rubbish.

If you like Metal Slug, there is obviously no way around this one. The collection has serveral hours of gameplay for everyone who just loves this great arcade-action, but the controls are far from perfect. I dont think that any of the Wiimote or/and Nunchuck controlls works very good. If you really wonna enjoy this game, you will need a GameCube controller, but then it's absolutely every penny worth.
Now lets go slugging!! or something like that