Metal Slug Review (Drago)
Please do NOT repeat my mistake of buying this on a mad spree of getting entire available franchise at once x.x Why? Because this the worst Metal Slug I've ever seen and I've played them all but 6 (unless there are spin-offs).
One could think "oh all those reviews are old" and some even mention that, however, maybe performance got fixed and features added but...it's far from perfect: First you MUST set up controls in the tiny launcher that appears, then you still have to go to in-game key binding to change this ridiculous combination that activates Special Action to something else...like unmapped Y button (in game's mind, you set up keyboard key for Y earlier...).
AND THEN once in a mission you open menu, go for display settings and change screen setup to not have tiny game screen with some stupid borders and get full screen instead.
THEN you can play...or suffer because the game isn't any good:
If MS4 was bland or MS2 imbalanced - think again. This is so uninspired bullet hell (because it's not the run and gun you've learnt to love) I couldn't even imagine it could be done this wrong.
The levels are nothing but some meh JPEG as background, a few bland platforms and hordes of enemies that do nothing but fire or throw stuff - This is not like in other games that everything looked good and lush, levels were linear but cleverly designed and enemies were mostly set up to do something tricky or silly there and there - Here it's all about getting the player killed at any cost and then do it again as soon as your i-frames run out. All this for 7 missions straight. It shouldn't take 50+ continues for a seasoned player to beat it on normal...but the horrible structure and design of it all sure catches off guard.
The characters have now their own unique abilities which is a nice touch but most of them are completely useless given the fact you could fire your gun instead. But then it makes some characters better over others so that already causes favoritism. Titled Metal Slug vehicles are nothing special here and you literally get just 1 per level, some are very clunky to use and usually won't last in this onslaught.
This game sure is a mine of rare achievements as completion % for each are abysmal. Seems abandoned by the community and rightfully so. For a guide you should look for guides for PS4 version of the game.
You could think it's nice that at least there is no "clear with no continues" achievement for once but you're completely wrong. There is a long list of challenges in this game to be done for completion and most of them do include clearing a whole mission with NO DEATHS AND ON TIMER which means you will eventually clear whole game as No-Damage instead of One-Coin-Clear...if you will be up for such an absurd challenge. I'm going to try so that's why I may have way more hours total than on review time. Yes, I hate myself.
STAY AWAY!!!