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[FoneBone]

8.4

http://gameboy.ign.com/articles/572/572146p1.html

 

[ArcadeStickMonk]

wonder if he beat it in an hour

 

[TekunoRobby]

Hmmm...

The familiar one-shot-kill design of the NeoGeo arcade game, where a single bullet can take a player's life away, has been removed in favor of a much more forgiving health bar mechanic.

But the player's health can be replenished by finding food power-ups, which are about as in abundance as the 1-up collectibles are in previous Metal Slug games. The GBA cartridge also has unlimited continues, which definitely makes things a little easier since Metal Slug Advance has "checkpoints" within the mission that the player returns to after dying and restarting from the menu.

Sounds incredibly easy.

 

[Matlock]

There's a card you can pick up to unlock the 1-hit-death.

 

[Jr.]

What blows my mind is that it seems like NO ONE has ever owned or played any of teh MSocket games. WTF?!?!?! The reviewers for every site/mag say the same damn thing and not one mention the Pocket games.


Attention, this new game plays the SAME as the old Pocket series of Metal Slug. If you liked it, you'll like this, it is NOT the arcade game!!!

 

[chespace]

Agreed. Metal Slug Advance is fantastic. I can't believe Playmore actually made a decent Metal Slug for once.

While the level and enemy designs aren't as good as anything you'll find in Metal Slug X or 3, this game has plenty of "adventure" bits... meaning rooms you can wander into, side paths to take, etc. And if you beat the level without dying (which is a definite possibility since you have a health bar now -- although it's still very hard), you get to "save" the prisoners, foods, treasures, and unlockable cards you've collected in a big collectible catalog you can view later.

What that basically means is that Metal Slug Advance isn't just an arcade style shooter, and that's a good thing.

 

[mosaic]

Jr. - I have played them, didn't mention them in my review for Gspot, mainly because the GBA game doesn't quite play the same. There's a bit more platforming than the arcade Slugs, and yes, the game has a health bar, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it analogous to the NGPC games or to say it's easy.

Even with all the armor and weapon card upgrades, and unlimited continues, level 5 is still one helluva pain to finish up.

Frankly, I don't think any of the additions take away from the formula -- it's still easier to die than it is to live. The first few levels are cake once you learn them, but 4 and 5 are setup to be longer and tougher so as to mitigate most benefits gained by the goodies and what-have-you. Skill is still the main factor for beating the whole thing.

 

[jarrod]

Agreed. Metal Slug Advance is fantastic. I can't believe Playmore actually made a decent Metal Slug for once.

They didn't directly, it was made by Noise Factory (who I guess is part of SNK Playmore anyway now). NF also made MS5 and KOF MI recently.... they're probably doing MS6 on Atomiswave too.

 

[Pedigree Chum]

I bought it and I love it, it reminds me a lot of the first Metal Slug (which is my fav). The game is short, but I LOVE replaying this series. I've beaten MS1,2,X,3 MAN MNAY times in the past. And I'll do the same with this game, a lot of the replayability comes from me trying to beat the game on hard without getting hit once. A very difficult task.