Onto what this double pack offers outside of the shooty-bang-bang. I think I recognised some remixed versions of classic tunes, but it’s hard to tell. Effects are low quality, weak and repetitive and the music doesn’t fare much better. The same can’t be said for the sound, however. The graphics are an obvious step back from the mainline Metal Slug titles, but a lot of the charm, animations and style absolutely carry over to this game. This is a crying shame because First Mission looks surprisingly good all things considered. The game is a glorified slideshow, and whilst this kind of thing was more accepted back in the days of the Neo Geo Pocket Colour, it is far from acceptable now. It’s unacceptable at best – barely scraping the double digits, and unplayable at worst – barely able to hold a single one. Related:Īlthough that taste was preferable to the game’s performance, which is abysmal. I felt like I was fighting the game constantly, and that left a bad taste in my mouth. Shoot in two directions and throw grenades – just not always when you tell him to. I am talking about input delay so bad that you may as well not play the game. Controls are one of the two major offenders here.

There is certainly a lot of variety in the package, it’s just a shame that First Mission is an absolute slog to play through. Surprisingly enough, First Mission also has a few vehicles to mess around with such as the eponymous Metal Slug tank and a rather swanky jet. This makes sense as First Mission was released on the Neo Geo Pocket Colour, and shorter stages gel nicely with handheld experiences (and battery life…). The game will take roughly 2 hours to beat, and those hours are split over a fair number of brief missions that one could say were bite-sized. That means side-scrolling 2D shooting action, plenty of guns and loads of mooks to test those guns on. This looks and plays like a Metal Slug game, just on a smaller screen with graphics that aren’t as flashy. Metal Slug First Mission is a mess, but not one that doesn’t have some redeeming qualities. Let’s get the “working” game out of the way first. Metal Slug First and Second Mission Double Pack is kind of like Metal Slug, if Metal Slug was on a handheld, half the pack was awful, and the other half was completely missing. I have no idea what Spain looks like, but I do know what Metal Slug looks like. One of my fondest memories is going to Spain, finding a Metal Slug 2 cabinet hidden in the back corner of the bar, and pumping about one hundred quid worth of holiday money into it. Disclaimer – A review code for Metal Slug First and Second Mission Double Pack was provided by SNK.

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