Treasure advanced the Contra model with Gunstar Heroes by incorporating hand to hand combat, adding weapon combinations, and adding dozens of sub-bosses and boss-like enemy encounters. Konami’s Contra established the classic run-n-gun formula: two dudes, some running and jumping, a number of awesome weapons, more baddies to shoot than you can shake a stick at (hence the guns), and fantastic bosses and sub-bosses. The Metal Slug series lives on today, in Metal Slug 7 and Metal Slug XX. Nazca only developed the first 3 Metal Slug games, considered by many to be the best of the series, but the later games still retained much of the magic. Metal Slug owes its visual style to the later generation of Irem titles, confirming its fine heritage, but where Irem was losing its way and tarnishing the legend, Nazca was forging ahead. One of Nazca’s first titles was the run-n-gun Metal Slug for the Neo Geo. Irem, creator of Moon Patrol, Ninja Spirit, and the legendary R-Type, hit a rough patch in the 90’s, and when some of the staffers jumped ship they founded Nazca Corporation. Nazca, Metal Slug’s original developer, was formed by a number of ex-Irem staffers. Metal Slug has quite a reputation with retro-gamers, and the reasons are many.

Before we go into why, let’s look at a little Metal Slug lore. It’s a great gift for the retro-gamer in your household, especially if they’re fans of Contra and run-n-guns in general. Metal Slug Anthology has been out for a while for the Playstation 2, Playstation Portable, and Wii, and is quite affordable, under $13 via or eBay. They released several excellent collections across multiple platforms, including the Samurai Shodown Anthology, the Kind of Fighters Orochi Saga, and the much lauded Metal Slug Anthology.

SNK Playmore is one of the companies which, for a brief time at least, was leading the retro charge. Between the Super Nintendo rehashes on the Gameboy Advance and Nintendo DS and the Xbox Live Arcade and Wii Virtual Console gamers have every opportunity to re-live, or in the case of the younger gamers re-invent, gaming history. The most recent console generation has been a boon for retro-gamers.

How nice of him! Anyway, hope you find it useful 🙂 Note from racketboy: we don’t publish reviews too often here anymore (or should we?), but when asked for a recommendation for our soon-to-be-published Retro Gaming Gift Guide, he sent me this full-length review. Review: Metal Slug Anthology for Nintendo Wii

Metal slug 1 hacked game