![]() ![]() The weapon collection system in principle places an emphasis on staying alive. ![]() The more onscreen enemies there are, the more time you spend dodging projectiles. There's the unthinking comprehension that foot-soldiers are only dangerous if allowed to accumulate in sufficient numbers - or, more pressingly, allowed to linger long enough to take a pot-shot - and so you manage the screen carefully, dividing your time between threats. This forces you to strategise, but in an immediate, non-rational kind of way. One of its (oft-repeated) tricks is to pit you against a relatively strong foe - such as a helicopter, or a tank of some description - and then distract you with the introduction of a wave of easily dispatched grunts. Its opening exchanges pit you against cannon-fodder soldiers, but a more involved pattern of play emerges as you progress. It's pure, unadulterated, visceral this is what gaming used to be like before better technology blurred the boundaries between it and cinema.īar a few set-piece sequences and minor platforming elements, there's a very simple routine to Metal Slug 4: move from left to right, stop to dispatch a scripted wave of adversaries, catch breath, repeat. Enemies attack from left, right and above, you instinctively duck, jump and change your position, and there's a metronomic quality to the hammering of your finger on the fire button. There's no cut-scene-based preamble, no mood building: expect exposition no more elaborate than the brief looming of 'boss' before the battle ensues, or a thumbs-up from an ally at the end of a level.įrom the moment your character's feet hit the ground in the first stage, Metal Slug 4 is relentless. It's been long, too long, since I've played a game of such simplicity. For the first twenty minutes, I loved Metal Slug 4 intensely.
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