Metal Slug Anthology scores 8/10 in the verdict of The Games Market editorial team.
Once Upon a Time
Run, shoot, jump, boom: the side-scrolling shooter that set the standard!
by Simon Larocca·May 4, 2025
On evenings all marked by arcade talk, I’ve been to many, and any enthusiast who shows up at the game console proclaims incredible records, strictly without proof to back them up, and curious anecdotes tied to the titles of their childhood. But there is one title, and only one, that always comes up at every event, and the question is always the same, usually halfway through the evening when we played our Street Fighter bonus twenty minutes earlier.
«Can you put Metal Slug on for me?».
Metal Slug: Super Vehicle - 001, conceived and developed by Nazca, the team that made me lose hours and hours of sleep playing Neo Turf Masters when golf was a video game sport, belongs to the platform-run-and-gun genre, perhaps not the most innovative ever created, but certainly on the podium in terms of fun and cooperative gameplay, the series’ strong point. Released in 1996 and available on practically every existing gaming platform, as well as the arcade cabinet stormed by hordes of kids thirsty for enemy blood, it launched a series with mixed fortunes that still continues today.
With Metal Slug Anthology for PlayStation 2, we’ll have the first six titles in the series all at once, along with a generous selection of extras that will tickle the palate of those who, in the golden age of arcade cabinets, poured heaps of tokens into the pockets of the bartenders who hosted them: and so, through a kind of symbolic red thread linking past and present, by collecting virtual tokens after each successfully completed episode we’ll be able to unlock galleries containing the concept art of the classic titles, exclusive interviews with the series’ developers and creators, and other truly tasty content.
We are faced with a dynamic and ultracolored use of the most classic pixel art: playing, hold on tight, as Marco Rossi and his fierce partner Tarma Roving (nothing to do with the author of Harry Potter), we will have to make our way through endless hordes of soldiers from the Regular Army, who display physical features and military uniforms that are “slightly” inspired by what Indiana Jones would call Nazi scum.
The slugs that give the title its name are instead armored vehicles on which we can board and wipe out the enemies. During the game, captured members of the Rebellion will often appear, held by the bad guys, whom we will have to free: with their iconic long beard and torn clothes that make them look like shipwrecked castaways on a deserted island, these non-player characters have entered the collective imagination of video game players, lightening the warlike atmosphere with their mere presence.
L’interaction with the game elements is superb and nothing seems left to chance: balconies, guard structures and houses can be destroyed by our blows and those of the opponents, the setting presents a textbook level of immersion, and the bosses at the end of each stage will challenge even the savviest gamers.
The weapons at our disposal are countless and each of them seems to have been designed to destroy anything that stands between us and the end of the level: machine guns, hand grenades raining everywhere like the rain in Blade Runner, the inevitable rocket launcher and even laser guns straight out of a 1950s science fiction movie.
Metal Slug has never lacked anything, and with this splendid Anthology we can relive the saga of the great arcade classics, to be played standing up, side by side, until we finish the umpteenth title with sweat on our foreheads and the satisfaction of numb fingers.
O until we run out of virtual coins.
Because you won’t use infinite credits when you play from your own home, right? Right? :)
8
Pro
Metal Slug represents the purest essence of late-1990s arcade philosophy: frantic, fun, impossible not to love
Stimulating enough to make you want more and more, and with a collection like this you’ll stay glued to the various titles for hours, and it will never be time wasted
Interesting extra content, purchasable with tokens obtainable by completing the various levels: simple and effective
Contro
High replayability, but if not tackled cooperatively, it loses much of its charm
In hindsight, it’s a shame that the other titles in the series released later aren’t included.
My name is Simon Larocca, and I am a gamer, collector, and lover of pop culture in all its forms. I go to the cinema whenever I can, I have been reading since I started wearing glasses, so, basically forever, and I have a passion for storytelling in all its forms, so powerful that it became my profession. But as Doc from Ritorno al Futuro would say, there would be no present if one did not look at the past with respect and admiration, and it is the Simon child of more than thirty years ago, give or take a year, who is to thank for that.
Simon Larocca
My name is Simon Larocca, and I am a gamer, collector, and lover of pop culture in all its forms. I go to the cinema whenever I can, I have been reading since I started wearing glasses, so, basically forever, and I have a passion for storytelling in all its forms, so powerful that it became my profession. But as Doc from Ritorno al Futuro would say, there would be no present if one did not look at the past with respect and admiration, and it is the Simon child of more than thirty years ago, give or take a year, who is to thank for that.
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