Uploaded December 2014 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Recently I've been slugging away at Metal Slug 3; an excellent but difficult shmup from SNK. Been meaning to pick this up for a while now, and though I knew it'd be good I wasn't expecting it to be THIS good.
It's pretty damn tough, though. I needed 32 Continues to clear the game the first time on Easy, so I've a long way to go before I get half-decent enough to try and get a clear on one credit. But for now, here's the first Mission done on Very Hard with one life.
-Mission #1-
You start off on the beach and have to fight your way ashore through legions of hermit crabs. There are multiple paths in this game, and I opted to go up then down (Forest then Boat).
The boat path is dangerous because you're on a two-floor platform with lots of dudes and bombs to deal with, but it rewards you at the end with a 'Metal Slug', the adorable little tanks that the games are named after, to fight the boss with.
My strategy for the boats is to quickly shoot down the POWs then hammer in a salvo of grenades into the truck before sweeping out the soldiers, POWs, and their pick-ups (while dodging the Truck's bombs if they've started to fall) before finishing it off with some gunfire. The truck's bombs also vanish when the truck dies.
When the truck explodes, it showers the boat with Fish which usually completes the Big status, earned when you pick up too much food; this makes your attacks more powerful, so for the second Truck you can easily smash it apart with what Grenades you have left.
The boss of this stage has two phases; he starts off launching fireballs that drop down on your current position so the trick is to maintain some distance away from the Crab to avoid his charges and then moving out of the way when the fireballs drop. His phase 2 is easier, the large cannon tends to drop shells on the middle-ground so hovering around there tends to be safe.
Recently I've been slugging away at Metal Slug 3; an excellent but difficult shmup from SNK. Been meaning to pick this up for a while now, and though I knew it'd be good I wasn't expecting it to be THIS good.
It's pretty damn tough, though. I needed 32 Continues to clear the game the first time on Easy, so I've a long way to go before I get half-decent enough to try and get a clear on one credit. But for now, here's the first Mission done on Very Hard with one life.
-Mission #1-
You start off on the beach and have to fight your way ashore through legions of hermit crabs. There are multiple paths in this game, and I opted to go up then down (Forest then Boat).
The boat path is dangerous because you're on a two-floor platform with lots of dudes and bombs to deal with, but it rewards you at the end with a 'Metal Slug', the adorable little tanks that the games are named after, to fight the boss with.
My strategy for the boats is to quickly shoot down the POWs then hammer in a salvo of grenades into the truck before sweeping out the soldiers, POWs, and their pick-ups (while dodging the Truck's bombs if they've started to fall) before finishing it off with some gunfire. The truck's bombs also vanish when the truck dies.
When the truck explodes, it showers the boat with Fish which usually completes the Big status, earned when you pick up too much food; this makes your attacks more powerful, so for the second Truck you can easily smash it apart with what Grenades you have left.
The boss of this stage has two phases; he starts off launching fireballs that drop down on your current position so the trick is to maintain some distance away from the Crab to avoid his charges and then moving out of the way when the fireballs drop. His phase 2 is easier, the large cannon tends to drop shells on the middle-ground so hovering around there tends to be safe.
