ACA NEOGEO Metal Slug X

Genre: Action-Platformer

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local), Online Leaderboards

.

Review:

Metal Slug X (sometimes bearing the subtitle Super Vehicle-001) is an Action-Platformer released in 1999 in arcades and the NEOGEO AES home console. This is the third in a series that would come to be one of the pinnacles of the “run and gun”-style Action-Platformers, well-known for its unique art style with beautiful fluid animation and massive, complex war machines, with this release of the game on Nintendo Switch coming out in 2017.

The third Metal Slug game in the series, Metal Slug X is actually a remix or alternate version of Metal Slug 2, featuring many of the same levels but depicted at a different time of day with different enemies, power-ups, and so on. The list of changes are extensive enough that this is more than a simple re-release of the same game, but it’s also definitely not an entirely new game either. However, the re-release is almost certainly justified because it addresses the biggest issue that Metal Slug 2 had – the absolutely massive slowdown that crippled that game. To be sure, Metal Slug X still has brief slowdown in parts, but it’s fairly miniscule, and it’s a massive improvement over Metal Slug 2.

This release of the game includes a new “Hi-Score Mode” that challenges players to score as much as they can in one run before seeing a game over screen. There is also a new “Caravan Mode” that does much the same, but with the limit being five minutes. In addition, this release of the game includes both English and Japanese versions, and gives players a decent array of options, including various display options, sound options, challenge modifiers, button mapping, and online leaderboards.

Overall, Metal Slug X is a game that most players will want to play instead of Metal Slug 2, as it has pretty much all of the excellent improvements that game added to the series (and then some), but without the horrible slowdown issues. Collectors and series fans may still want to get Metal Slug 2 as well, as the two games are different enough to set them apart, but for most players they should just skip 2 and go straight to Metal Slug X.

tl;dr – Metal Slug X is an Action-Platformer that acts as an “alternate version” or “remix” of Metal Slug 2, changing around a lot of the enemies, stages, and power-ups from that game while still mostly offering the same experience. However, this game fixes Metal Slug 2’s terrible slowdown issues, and unless you’re a series fan or collector, you’ll want to skip Metal Slug 2 and go straight to this game, which is a superb Action-Platformer and an improvement over everything that came before in the series.

Grade: B+

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Jamie and His Cats, Ben, Ilya Zverev, Andy Miller, Johannes, Francis Obst, Gabriel Coronado-Medina, Jared Wark, Kristoffer Wulff, and Seth Christenfeld. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}