Part 1: Basic
Movement and Attacks, and Introductory Information
Metal Slug is a run
and gun shooter, and that’s the easiest description any genre name
has had to make.
pictured: running and gunning
Originally released by SNK beginning in 1996, the franchise has since spanned multiple generations of hardware and offers gameplay that’s easy to understand but hard to get perfect. Along with The King of Fighters, this is the posterchild for SNK Playmore and the Neo Geo.
Chances are you’ve at least
played one that’s a similar style
(think Contra! Or some older Treasure games like Gunstar Heroes and Alien Soldier) but Metal Slug is at a completely different tone and pace. If you
haven’t played any run and gun before, you’ve picked a good series to start out with: each games’ first levels are designed to
help newcomers get used to the systems in place. Afterward, it stops
holding your hand and starts to beat you in progressing degrees of
pain.