Metal Slug Anthology Review

After years of scattered, piecemeal releases on various home consoles, SNK marks the 10th anniversary of the original Metal Slug by rolling up all seven Metal Slug arcade games into a single package with Metal Slug Anthology. It's a must-have for Metal Slug completists, if for nothing else, because it marks the first time that the relatively new Metal Slug 6 has appeared anywhere other than Sammy's Atomiswave arcade hardware. However, those same completists will likely be bothered by the unfortunate peppering of short-but-noticeable in-game load times found in all of the games. The Wii controller isn't ideal for Metal Slug, and though there are five different control schemes that make varying use of the system's motion controls, they all feel gimmicky. None are as responsive as a standard control setup, making the use of a GameCube controller all but necessary. Yet even with these burdens, the series' comically violent style and relentless action still make for a singularly awesome experience: one as effective for fresh-faced draftees as it is for vets of multiple Metal Slug missions.

From a distance, the Metal Slug series doesn't look too different from the countless side-scrolling shooters that were pervasive during the 16-bit era. You run to the right, shooting and tossing grenades at swarms of enemies while dodging their bullets, picking up weapon upgrades, and rescuing POWs, with the action regularly punctuated by screen-filling boss fights. As generic as that might sound, Metal Slug has always separated itself from the pack with a goofy sense of humor, nicely detailed 2D graphics, and the kind of manic, sometimes punishing gameplay that leaves your hands aching. You'll also regularly happen upon the titular metal slugs--high-powered armored vehicles that come in a variety of forms. At their most basic, slugs look like superdeformed tanks, but they can appear as helicopters, jets, submarines, mobile suits, camels, donkeys, and more.

The games in this collection are mostly arcade perfect, right down to the bouts of slowdown you would have experienced in the arcade. The only thing that disrupts the mood are the extra loading screens that make the pauses between sequences linger for a little longer than they did originally. It is a pretty minor point, one that only series veterans will notice. But because that's basically the audience that would buy Metal Slug Anthology, it's still unfortunate. An inherent issue with bringing arcade games home is reconciling the fact that you don't need to drop quarters into the game to keep playing when you run out of lives. Limited continues can be too punishing for some, while unlimited continues can eliminate much of the challenge. Metal Slug Anthology doesn't address the issue. Instead the game sidesteps it by letting you choose whether you want limited or unlimited continues. You can save your progress at any point in any of the games, a luxury that any arcade player would have killed for after having run out of quarters midway through a game. Metal Slug Anthology also features an optional autofire setting that lets you simply hold the fire button rather than constantly tap on it, which is a welcome addition for the aging (or simply lazy) Metal Slug fan.

There's a good half-dozen different controller configurations to choose from, and considering the simple joystick-and-three-button setup that Metal Slug requires, it's surprising that none of the Wii-controller-based options work quite right. The so-called "arcade configuration" has you holding the Wii remote vertically and tilting it as though it were a giant joystick, using the C and Z buttons to jump and fire, and a flick of the nunchuk to toss a grenade. You can hold the Wii remote sideways, hitting the 1 and 2 buttons to jump and shoot, but again, you have to shake the remote to throw grenades. There's even an option that relegates all controls to the Nunchuk, effectively allowing for one-handed play. Metal Slug is challenging enough without gimmicky controls, and what's worse, you'll likely have to refer to the manual to figure out how any of them work. Thankfully, Metal Slug Anthology can also be played with the GameCube controller, which proves to be closest to arcade controls, though surprisingly, there's no support for the classic controller.

Though the settings and the enemies you fight have gotten more bizarre as the series has progressed, the basic gameplay formula has remained consistent. However, the quality of the action hasn't always been as consistent. Metal Slug 3 is arguably the most ambitious, with a final battle that begins with a déjà vu fight against General Morden in his helicopter and ends with you fighting a gigantic alien mother brain in space. Metal Slug 4, on the other hand, wasn't actually developed by SNK and almost feels like a Metal Slug bootleg. Metal Slug 5 was better and made the nearly inconsequential change of allowing your character to do a running slide, which was only useful for getting through low passages in a few specific areas. It was a change that disappeared in Metal Slug 6, though Metal Slug 6 has brought more changes to the series than the previous five sequels combined.

Metal Slug 6 changes things up from the start when you're given the choice between an easy and a hard mode. The hard mode offers a standard Metal Slug experience, while in the easy mode your standard infinite-ammo pistol is replaced with an infinite-ammo version of the heavy machine gun. The easy mode also cuts the game short, ending before you get to the game's final level. While there have always been multiple characters to choose from in Metal Slug, they've always been functionally identical. Not only does Metal Slug 6 make Ralf and Clark from King of Fighters into playable characters, it gives each of the six total playable characters in the game some unique characteristics, such as unique alternate attacks, more durable slugs, and more powerful weapons. Additionally, characters can now carry two weapon power-ups at a time and can switch between them on the fly. The sum of these changes doesn't really affect the overall feel of the game and seems a bit like change just for the sake of it.

On a technical level, the switch from SNK's own NeoGeo hardware to Sammy's Atomiswave hardware is immediately apparent. The hard-pixel look that was indicative of NeoGeo games is gone, giving the graphics a kind of soft, dull look. While it doesn't have the crisp feel of the previous games, Metal Slug 6 will automatically zoom the camera out during specific encounters, a little trick that allows for even bigger boss fights. Metal Slug 6 also sounds quite a bit different from its predecessors, with the rescued POWs featuring a new voice sample and music that sounds much less synthesized. Considering the inherent throwback nature of the series, these changes, while a technical improvement, make Metal Slug 6 feel less authentic.

Metal Slug Anthology is ultimately a great value. Along with seven full arcade games--each rife with alternate paths, hidden areas, and some clever Easter eggs--you get music and concept art galleries. You also get a confounding Q&A with developers of the series, where they discuss topics ranging from the underlying design ethic of the series to their personal casting choices for a nonexistent live-action Metal Slug movie. While the traditional 2D action on offer in Metal Slug Anthology might not seem like the best use of the forward-thinking Wii hardware, that doesn't keep it from being a good deal of fun.

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Medal of Honor: Vanguard Review

To say first-person shooters based on World War II are a dime a dozen might be putting it mildly. There are still some great ones every now and then, such as Call of Duty 3 on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, but even the best WWII games are getting dangerously close to having their top-notch gameplay overshadowed by the "been there, done that" feeling you get from doing the same or similar missions over and over again. There's no great gameplay to be found in Medal of Honor: Vanguard, so there's nothing to hide those feelings of déjà vu that you'll get when you play it. Nearly everything in the game has been done before, and it has all been done better.

Vanguard places you in the role of Frank Keegan, a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne division. Each mission is set up with a bit of black-and-white footage narrated by Keegan, followed by a brief cutscene once the mission starts. It's the same basic story from previous games, and you're not likely to give it a second thought. There are four campaigns, each of which is divided into two to four missions. You'll be fighting in Italy, France, the Netherlands, and Germany, doing just what you'd expect to be doing in a WWII FPS. You'll plant charges on enemy antiaircraft weapons, procure documents, rescue missing soldiers, clear bunkers, use bazookas on tanks, and shoot a ton of Nazis. You'll get to do a little bit of parachuting here and there, but there's nothing to it--you have a tiny bit of control over where you land, and it doesn't matter a whole lot where you end up. There's no online play to speak of. This isn't a huge shock on the Wii, but considering that other Medal of Honor games for the PS2 have had online play, its omission is notable. You can play some split-screen multiplayer if you'd like, but come on--this is 2007, not 1997.

Even if you can look past the clichéd mission objectives, there's plenty of other issues to bring you down. Enemy artificial intelligence is atrocious. Nazi soldiers exhibit no advanced tactics, unless you count ducking their heads back behind cover for a few seconds after bullets whiz past as an advanced tactic. Even if they do seek some sort of cover, they'll just stick their heads back out in a few seconds so you can shoot them. The soldiers you fight with are just as brain-dead, and it's almost comical to watch your group fight the enemy--everyone's in plain sight, but nobody's hitting anything.

One of the biggest problems is horrible hit detection for bullets. It routinely takes two or three shots to register a hit, if it registers at all. Most weapons have terrible range, so you've got to get pretty close to your target to get a kill. Nazi soldiers don't seem to have this problem and can easily hit you from any distance, through even the smallest openings. It makes it pretty tough to find cover when you can't see who is shooting you, or even discern the enemy's general location. You don't have a health bar, but your screen grows red as you get hit, so you've got to take cover to regain health. Even this system, which has been used in countless other games, doesn't work very well. You're frequently given very little warning that you're getting hit and near death; sometimes just one or two seconds pass from the first shot to the last. All of these problems are at their worst near the end, when the developer tried to make up for the game's brevity (you can beat it in about six to eight hours) by making the last two missions ridiculously difficult. The checkpoints are few and far between, and you're getting shot from all angles. It's extremely frustrating and not much fun.

Like most of the other first-person shooters on the Wii, Vanguard has been saddled with lackluster controls. The basic controls are fine, and being able to look around corners is a nice touch. Once you get a hang of aiming and looking around with the Wii Remote, you'll find that it offers much more precision than the PS2's analog sticks. But because many of your moves are mapped to the hard-to-reach face buttons of the remote, you'll find yourself accidentally moving the remote and thereby altering your aim when you try to change weapons or select a grenade. Don't even bother trying to move the remote forward to melee--you almost always mess up your aim and miss. You move around by using the Nunchuk's analog stick, and this works well. The problems come with the more advanced controls. The Nunchuk's buttons are used to change your stance from prone to crouching to standing, but you can also do this by moving the Nunchuk up or down. It doesn't take much movement to make this happen, and you'll often wind up crouching or standing up at very inopportune times. You can turn 180 degrees by moving the Nunchuk quickly to the left, but if you move it to the right, you reload your weapon. Needless to say, mixing these two up is an easy and often fatal mistake.

Medal of Honor: Vanguard looks pretty much like every other WWII game out there, though it looks a little better on the Wii compared to the PS2 version, thanks to widescreen and 480p support. The frame rate isn't all that fast, but it's usually consistent, slowing down only when things get really hectic. You'll fight in bombed-out villages, fields, and churches, as well as inside war-torn homes. Most of these locations aren't very interesting, though there are some nice touches here and there, like when you look up in the sky and see it filled with paratroopers. Very little of the environments are destructible, and outside of some decent-looking smoke, the effects aren't much to get excited about. There are lots of browns, grays, and greens, which makes it hard to discern enemy soldiers from their surroundings unless they're firing their weapons. There are some decent enemy death animations, but they often take place a full second or two late, which makes them look quite silly. Probably the game's best aspect is its audio. You'll recognize the main theme from previous Medal of Honor games, and the orchestral soundtrack kicks in when the action gets intense. The game's sound effects are good, and while the voice acting isn't remarkable, it is helpful. Your fellow soldiers will warn you to get down when you're getting shot and even point out enemy locations from time to time.

With so many World War II games already on the market, just being average isn't enough anymore. In many ways, Medal of Honor: Vanguard isn't even average; it does too many simple things poorly and does nothing particularly well. There's really no reason to pick it up on the PlayStation 2, and thanks to a higher price tag for the Wii version, there's very little reason to buy it for the Wii, either.

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Legend of Kage Review

Now that the Nintendo Entertainment System version of The Legend of Kage is available for the Wii's Virtual Console, you can experience the same sinking feeling that players felt within minutes of powering up the cartridge 20 years ago. After you press the start button, a brief noninteractive scene introduces the story. Apparently, it's the Edo period in Japan, a princess has been kidnapped by a warlord, and you've been hired to rescue her. So, with your trusty sword and an endless supply of throwing knives, you set out to fight your way through multiple levels of a dojo that's populated by other ninjas bent on killing you. Once the cinematic is over, you're thrown right into the game. It's all downhill from that point.

In simple terms, The Legend of Kage is like every other side-scrolling action game. You're supposed to run to the end of the level, use your jump to scale platforms and avoid attacks, and use your weapons to kill the bad guys that constantly appear. However, accomplishing those tasks isn't simple at all, because every action in the game has some frustrating consequence inherent to it. You can jump to ridiculous heights, but you're open to attacks until you land. You can stab enemies and block attacks with your sword, but your sword has a range of about four pixels and stays drawn for just an instant. So, you end up throwing knives most of the time. That works, except that you can only throw two of them at a time, and then you have to wait until they leave the screen before you can throw more. Even if you get the hang of these restrictions, success is more a matter of luck than skill. When new enemies appear, they tend to throw a knife or fireball immediately. If you happen to be standing in the line of fire or landing from a jump when an enemy appears, you're going to get hit and lose one of your three lives. That's what people will probably remember most about The Legend of Kage: cheap deaths that you have no control over.

Also, since the game was originally developed as a quarter-munching arcade cabinet way back in 1985, it reflects the limited capabilities and bite-size play sessions offered by arcade games from that early period. The faceless ninja characters look fine painted with four colors, but there are only two frames of movement for every action. The trees and decorative screens in the background are intricately detailed, but everything else is painted shades of blue, grey, or pink. The game's sound effects consist of beeps and ticks. Surprisingly, the short melodies that play during each stage have an Asian flavor about them and aren't altogether unpleasant, even though they're also made up of beeps and blips. The NES didn't have any trouble with the graphics and audio when Taito ported the game to it in 1987, and the Virtual Console has no trouble emulating the NES game now.

As far as overall length goes, there are only five different stages and six different enemies. Each stage takes less than a minute to get through. However, the catch is that you have to go through the game three times to truly beat it. Every time the game loops, the stages change color and enemies become more plentiful. In theory, it's possible to beat the game in 10 minutes. Of course, with luck being such a factor in whether you live or die, you'll probably make numerous attempts before you get through the whole thing in one sitting.

Some games are brief but beg to be played over and over again. The Legend of Kage isn't one of those games. Its design is repetitive, Kage's attacks are lame, and the constant cheap deaths are frustrating. Even at the low price of 500 Wii points ($5), the NES version of The Legend of Kage that's available on the Virtual Console isn't worth buying.

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Kororinpa: Marble Mania Review

Kororinpa is a marble-in-a-maze game that requires you to tilt the world around with the Wii Remote to move a marble around, collecting gems as you make your way to the exit. It feels like a stripped-down take on Sega's Super Monkey Ball series, with simple and pleasing graphics but not a lot of variety. While players with steady hands might enjoy what Kororinpa has to offer, it doesn't offer enough of it, making it feel as if it's about half a game.

Your goal in every level is to collect all of the gems on that level and then find the exit. The action starts out slowly, with plenty of very basic levels stacked up at the front of the game. But as you proceed, you'll tilt the Wii Remote to roll your marble across conveyor belts or have to quickly rotate the entire level and get the marble to hop from one area to another. The only penalty for falling off of the level is that you're reset back to the start of the level, though the timer keeps running.

You'll have finished 15 or 20 levels before you feel like you're really being challenged, and there aren't many levels in the game. You can unlock a mirror mode and play the levels in reverse, if you like, and you can also unlock secret stages by collecting special gems in the levels. But overall, Kororinpa is a little too short and a little too plain to hold your interest for long. There's a two-player split-screen mode, and you can go back through stages if you'd like to get a faster time, but neither option is especially appealing.

Graphically, Kororinpa is a plain-looking game that doesn't support widescreen or 480p. But the different marbles you can choose from look nice, and the levels look OK as well. The level themes change after a handful of levels, taking you through a candy world, a city-themed area, and so on. As you unlock levels and new marbles, you'll also get to choose new music. The sound effects aren't exciting, but some of the cuter, animal-shaped marbles make animal noises through the Wii Remote's speaker, which at least gives the game a little personality.

Kororinpa: Marble Mania would make a good $20 budget game. It's little and it has a bit of charm, but it's all too basic for a full-priced game. Unfortunately, the game's $40 price tag is too steep for the amount of gameplay you'll find on the disc.

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