AL82 Retrogaming Longplays | Metal Slug 3 Longplay (Neo Geo) [QHD] @AL82RetrogamingLongplays | Uploaded 1 year ago | Updated 5 hours ago
Game Info
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Developer: SNK
Publisher: SNK
Year of Release: 2000

Game Review & Impressions
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Set an number of years following the antics of Metal Slug 2, series antagonist General Morden tries, once again, to overthrow world governments with another display of military might. Having allied himself with a force of extra-terrestrial invaders, Modern hopes their combined forces will deliver the knock-out blow to world order he has so desperately longed for.

Unfortunately, the aliens have other ideas, betraying Morden, taking the despotic General hostage and leaving his forces in disarray. With humankind's existence on the line once again, Marco and Tarma of the Peregrine Falcon Strike Force, assisted by Eri and Fio of the S.P.A.R.R.O.W.S. special intelligence force, engage in a series of frantic run-and-gun battles with mutant crabs, bile-spewing zombies, not to mention ray-gun toting jellyfish xenomorphs, in a bid to save Earth from certain destruction.

Given the mainstream adoption and relative maturity of 3D by 2000, the Neo Geo, a console already a decade old by this point, somehow managed to extend its life, carving out a niche by specialising in what it does best. That niche is some of the best 2D sprite-based pixel art to ever grace our monitors; Metal Slug 3 looks absolutely incredible.

In terms of new features, Metal Slug regulars Marco and Tarma are joined by series newcomers Eri Kasamoto and Fiolina "Fio" Germi, boosting the total number of playable characters to four. New mechanised "Slug" vehicles are added to the mix, and branching paths are added for the first time, providing players with different routes through each of the game's levels.

The gameplay mechanics, however, remain unchanged. Every level consists of blowing up legions of enemies with increasingly ludicrous weapons, rescuing hostages, and dealing with some of the most ludicrous end-of-level bosses ever conceived for a video game. It's pure, unadulterated Metal Slug which, by itself, is no bad thing.

However, I think it's fair to say that, in the quest to give the game a sense of identity, Metal Slug 3 is a less cohesive experience overall. The series was always somewhat off-the-wall, but the inclusion of zombies, mutant crabs, not to mention the weird ice cave full of yetis and war mammoth, all feel out of place. The sense of fighting against an alien menace is absent right up until mission 4, thus feeling like yet more daubs and random brush strokes that fail to coalesce into any meaningful image on an already-saturated and gaudy canvas. The second-to-second play is great fun, but the sheer amount of random stuff in this game does it no favours, at least in my opinion.

In conclusion, Metal Slug 3 is an exceptionally stunning game and definitely worth playing, but the late arrival of the aliens as an actual threat result in a game with an incongruous narrative that feels slightly jarring. It's a fun game, just one that, in my opinion, could have been better.

Chapters
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00:00 Attract mode
01:57 Mission 1
07:01 Mission 2
16:22 Mission 3
23:55 Mission 4
32:53 Mission 5
1:04:34 Ending

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