So the game froze on me the first time I encountered Jeff. The music kept playing, but it just kinda sat there. AFTER I saw him die the first time, after trying 5 or 6 rewinds and stuff to get him. I had to close the game from dash... which them forced me to start over from the very beginning, Tutorial and all! :/
Went back though, beat 198X, and have had no issues since then.
I don't understand complaints about it being overly complicated. It seems like it has layers for a variety of players. Some might want 1 uber troop, and others might want bullet-hell army. The game has the systems to allow you to do both! What's so hard to understand beyond that? I actually really like the "power up with your partners charge" idea, because that adds a new wrinkle I wasn't aware of much until the past few days, and it's better than simply giving you another HP. Something to band-aid your progress, and something to make you feel cooler and more powerful at the same time. Good Job Capy! Many modern game designers don't seem to get how to properly make someone feel better about such things.
I think it all works surprisingly well once you see WHY each implement is in the game. Speed-Up really helps when you're trying to catch dual-exploding Glorbs. Being able to GET to the point to save an ally a bit faster due to time-up is very welcome, and keeps the game from forcing a certain character as "the saver" each time.
I like the idea that people could make some very intricate boss-kill or stage-run videos by making loads of remixes atop each other. It's pretty nice how everything de-synchs a bit from each action taking bosses through new phases quicker. I'd love to see someone figure out how to basically force a 1-hit kill, or start spelling names in the air with certain shot patterns. Seems like a nice playground if you really get into it.
6955's music has been very nice so far, but I haven't found it particularly memorable or surprising. I've heard the replay theme so much from watching Game DVR vids that I have a love/hate feeling with it, ha. I hope future music stands out a bit more.
I love all the attention to micro details. Random sights littered all throughput the lushly-detailed environments, the way the rooms of your ship not only serve the base "here's you collectables!" purpose, but also how they have extra bonus stuff like showing the character's just Chillin'... it just feels like a game the designers had FUN making, which helps a lot to really reference the glory days of pixelated gaming.
For me, this might be one of the best Action/Puzzle hybrid games, because the action is engaging and deep enough to make the puzzling fun, and the world and characters have life to them. So many side-scrolling games by smaller devs seem to spend much more time creating the base game, than filling it out with the kind of bonuses and fun we've seen in gaming since the arcade era. One of the things that makes me love Metal Slug to this day, is how it's not only a very solid series of games, but it's full of personality throughout, whether it's from character death, vehicle destruction, comrade rescue, or even just selecting a character. This all makes punishing difficulty and retrying stages until perfection much more bearable.
Still really early in, but I look forward to seeing if things continue to be as fun as the game goes on.
