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AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWESOME!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: October 18, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Yep another confession: I have a Kawaks version of this and therfore it's not a port. But SNK's dying strength was ALOT MORE than they had done for previous installments. I mean MSX was awesome, but this was perfect! You blow up bosses, kill aliens and.....collect batteries. Yes it's a stupid idea for that last one but you only do that once so don't wig out. This is VERY HARD and pretty gory, and there are 7 new vheicles as well as 3 new weapons: a monkey, a thunder cloud and its variant, the mobile satellite. The final mission is TOO long though but very cool. Oh, and you can be a zombie and vomit blood. Get this game if you like Metal slug, cause there's no game better than this!

Exactly the old-school thrill we've all been looking for...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: June 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

"Modern" games have reached, of late, a level of complexity both admirable and dreadful. The obvious effort and attention to detail required to produce such titles is worthy of respect, but also of criticism. Many of the current chic trappings with which newer games are adorned lead only to, or are in themselves, distractions. An involving and complex story line, highly-detailed graphics and sound, elaborate controls and objectives - all of these are positive and rewarding, but also lead to a less visceral, less pure experience. They are, in some measure, less game-like.

As a result, it is a great relief to know that straightforward, old-school games like Metal Slug 3 are still available on mainstream systems.

Metal Slug 3 can be summed up, like the rest of the series, very simply: You shoot stuff. As an essentially traditional shooter, with both side-scrolling and top-down levels, any gamer can jump right in without instruction. Waves of comical enemies assault you in various ways, and you are tasked with eradicating them using a variety of amusing weapons and vehicles, from a basic handgun to a laser, from a camel to a helicopter - it's a time-worn game play concept with which everyone is familiar. However, as it is a traditional shooter, no one can master all the levels easily. As you advance through the levels, or 'Missions' as they're styled in the game, the action becomes faster and more complicated, and more frustrating as well. Unlike many other games, though, it is a pure kind of frustration that only a traditional, over-the-top arcade game can deliver, and it feels satisfying. Never is the player truly discouraged from conquering the game; he is only spurred to improve his coordination and planning until victory, which any dedicated player will inevitably achieve. In this way, Metal Slug 3 is an incredibly rewarding game, never feeling hopeless, but never feeling cheap. The deceptively simple dodge-and-shoot game play is wonderfully fun, always keeping the pace and never getting boring.

Now, by styling Metal Slug as a simpler, no-frills game when compared to other X-Box titles, am I advocating backward evolution? Hardly! Everything Metal Slug does, it excels at. The graphics, while 2D , are beautifully realized. The sprite animations are smooth and detailed, and possessed of their own character and emotion. The weapons each have their own advantages and disadvantages, and their own fun effects, and the game offers plenty of opportunity to mess around with them. The sounds are of a lower quality than you'd expect from a CD-based title, but there's charm in that as well: the game retains 100% of its character in the translation from the Neo Geo arcade system to the X-Box.

Control is simple, there is a primary fire and a secondary fire button, jump, and movement is accomplished with either the left thumb stick or the D-pad. The simplicity of the control, combined with the simplicity of the concept and the ferocity of the action can't be beaten.

A single gripe: X-Box Live wasn't really utilized effectively, which is a shame. The potential for wild four-player Live action is there, but the developers settled for a simple high-score ladder, which is amusing in it's own way, but not what it could have been. This small letdown in no way detracts from the fun quotient of the game, however, it simply represents a missed opportunity for an amusing bonus.

Though a relatively new game by genre standards, Metal Slug 3 is a purebred return to the fast-paced, white-knuckled, high-score obsessed days of arcade craziness that once were, and I couldn't be happier for it. Here's to enthusiastically awaiting 4&5, due out later this year.

Finally

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: May 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Finally metal slug 3 is getting an affordable state-side release. its been available on th aes for quite some years now. 5 has just been released. its a straight up port of the arcade version with minor tweaks. its going to have added levels and newer music. As usual you star as either Tarma, Marco, Fio or Eri. It has many fun old levels with many new ones. the gameplay is as solid as it ever has been and just as fun. the braching paths let you play through the same level a different way. again its the co-op that makes the game truly awesome. teamin up and kickin butt in all its glory. you cant go wrong with this game.

The be-all of 2D shooters.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: June 12, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This, is Metal Slug 3. This is the hardest 2D shooter you will ever play. And that's a fact. I'm not saying that based just on my personal experience. No, if you go to any gaming board, MS3 will surely get the vote as hardest shooter to date. I'll tell you straight up- if you ever get so frustrated with some games to the point where you throw the controller down on the ground or anything like that, stop reading this review, and lose all interest in the Metal Slug series. Because this game will make you cry. While the game doesn't really get hard until probably 2/3 through, there's no denying that the last stage is a test of skill and sanity. I mean it- SNK's so mad that their games don't sell well here in the US, and so they threw every bit of their rage into this level. I was so close to hate Metal Slug 3, give in and get a rapid fire controller just to beat it. But when I took down the final boss, it was like I conquered games in general.

If you've been living in a cave for the past decade, Metal Slug is a simple 2D shooter series. You pick one of four characters, all of which are the same aside from appearence, and run around shooting the bad guys. That's all there is to it. No deep storyline or character development here. If you see an enemy, you shoot them and keep running to the right. And if you get hit once, you die. It's that simple. Now, beating the game is another story. There's an impressive assortment of weaposn you'll find as well. Machine guns, flame throwers, lasers, seeking rockets, bouncing shots, shotguns, and the most humorous of all when the announcer says its name: the RAWKET LAOUNCHAIR. Well, it's really the rocket launcher, but when the announcer says it, it in a league of its own. And there's the usual grenades, and various vehicles to pick up along the way. Anyway, the first level has you take on opposing forces in the jungle, where you're lead to branching paths- one of which has you on a boat in the river freeing hostages from the vines above and taking out truckloads of enemies. It's chaos. Soldiers are everywhere, and you have to wait until your boat gets under the hostage before freeing them, since they'll not officially be freed unless they salute you after touching your character. The boss for the stage is a huge crab that launches fireballs at your character while escaping on a bridge in the Metal Slug- a god damn awesome tank with unlimited ammo and a huge cannon. The second level is probably the most fun to play- you run around a stage where zombies are on the loose. And there's other humans in the level, so if a zombie attacks them, they become an enemy as well. This applies for your character as well. When attacked, you turn into a wacked-out zombie version of yourself, and your bomb attack becomes something so priceless you'd have to see it to believe it. You vomit a HUGE streak of blood, capable of taking down helicopters and lines of enemies in one hit. The only problem is that you barely jump, and are slower than Louie Anderson trying to get out of bed. And the end boss here has two forms. You better have saved some bombs for this one.

I'm not going to go into detail about every level, but I do have to mention the fifth and final stage. It's a pain in the ass, plain and simple. And it also brings out the only real con in the game. The level itself spans roughly 5 sections. You start out in either a helicopter or jet, and take down some enemy fighters in the sky (and some unfortunate para-troops). After this, you zoom down to ground-level and dispose of the enemy forces there. Most of which are in covered wagons and tanks. But then, comes the first boss of many- an angry guy with a machine gun in a heavily armored plane. If you lost your vehicle prior to this part, start over. You'll need the extra hits because for first-time players, his grenades can be hard to see. Following this section is the second half to it where you fight another boss in a helicopter while using a mounted gattling gun. This part isn't too hard, and can be finished in no time. But, once defeated, your character gets captured, and another comes to save them. The guy in the helicopter turns out to be an alien, and goes off into space. Guess where you go next? That's right. It's off to the alien mothership in your tiny rocket. This part is fast-paced and enemies come from all sides of the screen. Luckily, you'll get more weapons than you'll know what to do with here, and taking them out isn't too much of a hassle. Keeping the rocket though, is a whole other story. Since I've played this level so many times, I've memorized it, and don't lose it anymore. But again, first-timers will go nuts at this part probably. If you can finish this section, you'll start flying into the mother ship which at first, seems like a living thing. The walls are all organ-like, but aliens are flying around in here too. Beating this finally gets you to inside the real ship where you'll probably die in the first 3 minutes. There are limitless enemies here. Some take dozens of shots before dying, and others have cheap attacks. Moving on, you have to rescue your partner, who was cloned trillions of times, hope for the best, escape while avoiding zombie-clones THAT CAN DO THAT BAD-ASS BLOOD ATTACK WHICH KILLS YOU ALMOST ANY TIME THEY DO IT, and THEN you'll make it to the last boss. Yes, this is the entire last level. And there are no save or checkpoints. This is where that con kicks in. With the arcade versions, you just popped in more quarters to continue from where you died. But in the Xbox version, once your lives are up, you start over from the beginning of the level. Not the section you died in, the -very- beginning of the level. Yeah, try beating the last level in one shot and you're a gaming god. The only way to do this is to plug in a second controller and hit 'start' immediately after your character dies, and before the countdown begins. This'll net you the second player's character with a full stock of lives, which is your only shot at beating the game. Believe me, when/if you beat this last level, it'll be the finest moment in gaming that you'll ever accomplish.

There are two added mini-games for the Xbox version here. Fat Island and Storming the Mother Ship. They're both fun, epecially Fat Island. You try to reach a set weight by eating all the food that appears on the screen and dodging enemies with the help of your snowman bombs. Two-player chaos ensues. Storming the Mother Ship is a total jerk though. You play as one of the three different enemy soldiers in the game, but this time, you're on the good side. One has grenades, another has a bazooka (grenades in gun-form more or less), and the other has a shield and melee attack. Play through most of the last level as any one of them and see how far you can make it. Here's a hint- the shield and melee attack is a big plus.

For the graphics, I can't give Metal Slug 3 a real score. It's almost 10 years old, and 2D, AND originally for the NeoGeo system. You know, that ancient thing with games that were in the hundreds of dollars per cart. It looks good though. Character animations are great, as are the backgrounds. There's a lot of detail to be found. While some say it's the "best looking 2D game ever made", that's hardly the case. Go check out Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike and say otherwise. As for the sound, the music is so good that I got the soundtrack, and the voices are to die for. RAWKET LAOUNCHAIR!

Only, and I mean ONLY get Metal Slug 3 if you think you can handle it. I'm not trying to make myself sound high and mighty, but it -is- a tough game. Probably the toughest I've played mostly thanks to that last level and screwed up continue system. And don't you dare play it with two players (at the same time) on that part. Any level where you have two players leads to twices as many enemies, and the bosses seem to have even more health. 'not a good idea for the last level at all. But pick up MS3 if you can still find it. And if it's too hard, try 4+5 which were just released, and are much easier. I so kicked your ass MS3. Of this, I am proud.

The Legend

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: June 05, 2004
Author: Amazon User

If you're reading this, you fall into one of two camps; those who love Metal Slug 3, and those who haven't played it.

If you belong to group 1, buy it. You know the drill regarding Metal Slug, and if you didn't already import the PS2 release, here's your chance to grab it for less money. In addition, you're supporting SNK's stateside buisness, and that's always a good thing. C'mon. It's SNK, for God's sake.

If you belong to group 2, then sit back and let me see how much of this game's history I can pack into 1,000 words.

Despite the name, Metal Slug has nothing to do with the animal, or even really the type of ammunition, which you'd think would make sense. Back in the arcade days of 1996, a group of laid-off Irem staffers (the company responsible for the immortal R-Type) got together and kicked out a game by the name of Metal Slug for the Neo Geo MVS/AES system. The concept was the same as any basic Contra-style shooter. You moved from left to right on the screen, jumping on platforms and shooting anything that shot back at you.

Like R-Type, Metal Slug had a "gimmick" that set it apart from other, similar shooters, and that was the Metal Slug itself; a cute, almost anthropomorphic mini tank that could jump and crouch. The player could find the Slug in the game's levels and it allowed a huge boost in power. That was really the whole concept.

It's also *not* the defining point of Metal Slug, merely it's namesake. Less memorable than the mechanic of the vehicles was the game's presentation, pacing, and level of fun. See, the thing about Metal Slug was not so much the raw game mechanics as the amount of obvious love that was poured into it. At a time when the Neo Geo was still the undisputed king of 2D graphics, Metal Slug reigned king as a pinnacle of what could be achieved artistically with supposedly "primitive" 2D graphics.

It's a little like the Color vs. Black and White debate with films. There's no denying that color is the way of the future, and it certaintly allows for a comparable amount of artistic expression, but B&W enables certain things that color does not, and a skilled director can make the most of these things in a way that color will never be able to reach. Apply the same argument to 2D vs. 3D, and you get what's so special about Metal Slug. Little touches like the hand-drawn cell animation in every single moving object in the game (and *everything* is animated in some way) allow for a remarkable amount of character, and it shines through in everything from the standing animation of the player's character to the facial reactions of the enemy troops when your character comes back from the dead after you put another quarter into the machine.

Anyway, Metal Slug went through two more arcade versions: Metal Slug 2, and Metal Slug X (basically a revamped version of MS2, which also landed on the Playstation 1 in the U.S., so grab it if you can find it). When Metal Slug 3 came out in 2000, it quickly became apparent that this was the zenith of arcade shooters. If you're a Led Zeppelin fan, here's an easy comparison: Metal Slug 3 is like the game version of Led Zep 4. It's that turning point when the end product becomes aware of it's own mystique and uses that knowledge to take things to a whole new level. Metal Slug 3 is a game that's aware of it's own following, and it manages the rarely accomplished task of giving the fans what they want, and giving them something entirely new at the same time.

Even if you're not familiar with the previous games in the series, Metal Slug 3 still has that aura of a game that's legendary and knows it, and is therefore unafraid to try things that it would have stopped short of in previous installments. This is hard to explain properly in few words without having some kind of visual aide, so you're just going to have to trust me when I say that this game reaches the level of inspired art, and there are several occasions where you'll grin while playing it, and probably mutter to yourself "Oh, man, that's really cool."

Well, okay, here's a "quick" example. The final stage in the game starts out with your character in a flying Slug -- an evolution of the tank from the first game. It then mimicks other spaceship-themed side-scrolling shooters (like R-Type) until you wind up on the ground, where it re-creates the final level from the original Metal Slug. Then, the alien enemies from Metal Slug X make an appearance, capture your character, and abscond back to their mothership. You then get a different character (of the 4 selectable) and, combined with the forces of the soldiers you fought in the first game, get into spaceships and rocket off to go fight the aliens. From there, the game becomes a vertically-scrolling shooter (like Ikaruga) until you finally make it onto the mothership, where it's classic Metal Slug until you finally rescue your originally selected character...And by then, you're about halfway through the level.

See what I mean? It's self-referencing, well constructed, funny as hell, and just all-around amazing.

Also, unlike many other games of this nature, Metal Slug 3 is for the casual and hardcore alike. It's graphics aren't so poor that they'll turn anyone off (in fact, they've held up very well) and the concept is so simple that anyone can pick up and play. The one caveat is that the game is quite hard, but there's selectable difficulty and enough leeway that, even if you can't make it all the way through, there's a good chance one of your buddies can. Expect to spend some time with it, mind you, but it's not so hard that it stops being fun, which is really the most important thing of all.

This is an excellent chance to grab the Holy Grail of 2D games. Don't miss it; you won't regret it.

This game will rock!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 8
Date: April 02, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I would paly the first metal Slug a the arcade. I could play all day for free. I hope they keep it 2D, 3D would be nice but I would not know if I would like it. I kinda like old games like this. If you like 2D games you got to like this one. I'm going to get it the day it comes out.

Some of the best side-scrolling action you can get

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: May 24, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game is incredibly fun, and I'm happy that the arcade game I hold so dearly in my heart is finally being ported to console. Unfortunately, I do not have an X-Box, but I might have to get one. I'm writing this review because everyone is giving it rave reviews, but NOT RATING it! People write "5 stars" but give it none. It deserves better than a 1 1/2 star rating when people have only good things to say.

Mad Fun!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: June 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

classic arcade adventure shooting game. buy this if you miss those old arcade games, you won't regret it. loving it.

Solid good old skool arcade fun!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: June 01, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game represents what classic gaming used to be, gameplay! This game is similar to contra, streets of rage, double dragon, castlevania, and ghost and goblins. Its got the best of all these games and more! You shoot to kill. There are tons of enemies, huge variety, huge bosses, and non-stop killing/shooting action. Lots of different weapons and power ups. This game is not all walk and shoot, you get to operate many different machines during your adventure. Then you can rescue hostages, get a monkey that works like a familiar, and many other things. Sometimes you get transformed into a zombie and the zombie can be powerful too with its own attacks, you might not want to pick up the medicine which heals you back to normal. Just one of the many fun piece of this game.

Graphic was good but not awesome. Its only little better than Metal Slug X for Playstation One but without the choppy animation. Metal Slug 3 runs super smooth at all times. The sound is excellent, just like the arcade. There are only 5 levels but 2 extra levels were made for the Xbox version, pretty cool here. The stages are medium sized in my opinion, could be bigger.... There are usually 2 alternate path you can choose during each "1/3" of the stage, but they all lead to the same boss stage. There all 4 characters to choose from, they all have the same abilites.... 2 players can play this game together, multi-player makes this shine! Game is rather short, you can blast thru it probably in an hour or two, but the 2 extra stages is there for you. This is one of those game after you finish you would like to play again.

Overall this is a golden classic arcade style game, it represents the zenith of 2-D action era. A must buy for all Xbox owners.

the mighty metal slug 3

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: August 30, 2004
Author: Amazon User

this game is built for those who grewup on nes and genesis games as a kid and wanted those beautiful arcade games that only the neogeo(700 bucks at the time) could run basically its alot like contra a 2 player run and gun action game but with slugs that are vehicles or animals you can ride with big guns on them this game has alot of weapons its fun but very hard youll die hundreds of times before beating a level and its some of the best 2d hand drawn graphics ever seen soldiers dont just die they point get mad laugh at u run away every stage screams style and the little effects drawn in complete 2d are great my personal fav stage is the zombie stage in a graveyard with metal and organ playing if youre hit by a ghoul youll become a zombie and start dragging your foot slow another thing that gives this game depth is every stage has multiple paths so you might find a truly amazing area you never seen before so if youre a fan of classic 2 d shooters and want to see the best handrawn classic graphics around by snks legendary artist buy this version for xbox its an exact carbon copy of the 500 dollar neo geo aes version

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