Last week, I got to play the newest installment in the Metal Slug Series, Metal Slug 7 for the Nintendo DS, from SNK Playmore and Ignition Entertainment. Ignition is also responsible for Tornado (Thank you Jax) and Zoo Keeper (my wife’s favorite DS Game).

There is a special place in my life for the DS. That special place is the bathroom. Hey, I’m just being honest. My Nintendo DS hasn’t seen much love since Professor Layton. So, I blew dust off it and fired up Metal Slug 7. For my take on the game, hit the jump.

As a child of the 80’s, I grew up during the glory years the Arcade. A lot of those quarters where spent on the Metal Slug series. For those of you reading this that aren’t familiar with the series, Metal Slug is a fairly straight forward side-scrolling shooter. It has no real story to speak of. You’re basically tasked with saving the day from evil.

This time time around, the game, like all Metal Slugs before it, feels about the same. While it’s still fun to just mess around for a little while, it not very captivating. The visuals are mediocre at best, as you can see below.

This game has several flaws that prevent it from being a game I would recommend. First off, if you played the original Metal Slug back in 1996 and never played any of the others you wouldn’t be missing anything. The games looks, feels and plays almost identical to the version that came out over 10 years ago in the arcades.

My second issue is that this game is short. When I say short , I mean SHORT. Like shorter than me, short. This game is so short it makes Heavenly Sword look like a Lord of the Rings Marathon. With only 7 missions, this game feels empty. This game gives you a choice from a cast of 6 characters to choose from. While each characters bio says they have specific specialties, I didn’t notice a big difference between them, Appearances aside. I usually play games on Normal first to see what the standard feels like. I was stunned when I had finished within 45 minutes. Talk about disappointing. I tried it on Hard and it was the same, I just died a lot more.

Without any multiplayer, which has been a staple in the series, this game feels incomplete. In fact, now that I think about it, there are over 80 training missions. What’s the deal with that? There should never be more training than actual game content.

Overall, I would say that this game is not worth the money. While slightly fun, it is over before you really get into it. Even for the die-hard Metal Slug Fan, disappointment is all I can come up with.

It goes to show you that just because you can take an IP all the way to 7 games, maybe you shouldn’t.

Tweet This Post