Handheld Wars #180 - Metal Slug

This is a series that can never do wrong at the time, with one of the most artistic pixel art, and an outstanding upbeat vibe that made everyone that played these games have some real joy. Definitely a master class in game design that welcomed everyone, from those who just wanted to play through to those that wanted the challenge of 1CC. I never played the handheld versions, but I would had loved it for sure.

Excellent work as always, Armored Core. YOU'RE GREAT!



I haven't played any of the handheld Metal Slug games, but I thought First Mission vs Second Mission vs the GBA Metal Slug game would be a fun WHO DEFATEZ since they all run on 16 bit (? or was it 32 bit?) handheld hardware, unlike the DS and PSP Metal Slug titles. Also, for this reason these are the handheld Metal Slug games I want to play the most, since the engine they run on are closer in power/architecture to the Neo Geo AES than the DS and the PSP were.

I really like the box art for all three of these handheld Metal Slug titles, and there's even some nice in-game pixel art in all three games based on the screenshots Armored Core posted. I have to give the Neo Geo Pocket titles extra credit for drawing entirely new pixel art exclusively for the handheld, unlike Metal Slug Advance which just reused or recolored Nazca Corp's pixel art from Metal Slug 1-3 and possibly some pixel art from MS 4 & 5, too.

I still respect the legacy that Nazca Corp created with the first three Metal Slug games, which were three of the finest 2D games ever made. It's a tragedy that Nazca Corp had to cancel Metal Slug 4 (i.e. the REAL Metal Slug 4, which was teased in the ending of Metal Slug 3) when SNK went bankrupt in 2001. I wish they could have continued the series instead of it being handed off to some inferior offshoot of SNK, and it would have been INCREDIBLE to see them create a new game engine and new pixel art for the Metal Slug series just like SNK did with KOF XII in 2009, considering the immense artistic knowledge the Nazca Corp team possessed. I know I'm kind of digressing by this point, but I just loved and respected Nazca Corp as a developer that much. RIP they were legends.