top of page
Search

Metal Slug 3 Portable Full Version: Why This Game is Still a Blast to Play in 2023

  • cherilyndicus240af
  • Aug 19, 2023
  • 3 min read


Eurogamer's Spanner Spencer scored the Xbox version 7 out of 10. He praised the original game, but as an Xbox game, he found it somewhat wanting: "So short, so sweet. Two-player spins it out for a while, and there are Hard and Very Hard modes, but at 15 if you shop around Metal Slug 3 arguably transcends the usual rental recommendation. No lie, you'll finish the lot in a day. You can try and collect all the extras (Japanese radish and Chinese cabbage are all there for the taking), but there's no getting away from the fact that there's not enough in here to warrant shelling out full whack, no matter how perfect a slice of arcade action it may be".[23] Patrick Garratt were more impressed with the Xbox 360 version, which he scored 9 out of 10, writing: "What's really fascinating here is the fact that a vaguely ageing title appears to have found its niche market on a modern console - this is Metal Slug 3's ideal home, and you'd be a fool not to make it welcome in yours".[24]




Metal Slug 3 Portable Full Version




In 2004, it's kind of odd to see a 2D video game that's not being presented on some sort of portable device. While most have traded in their hand-animated sprites and parallax-scrolling environments for rag-doll physics and pixel shaders, SNK has remained a diligent practitioner of 2D gaming and has continued to cultivate a passionate following for it. Metal Slug 3, which has just been ported to the Xbox, may be a 4-year-old arcade game, but if you've never experienced the unique Metal Slug brand of frantic side-scrolling action, it's probably one of the freshest, most exciting games to hit the Xbox in a while. From a technical standpoint, this is a superb version of Metal Slug 3, and in some respects, it's even better than the original. However, when taking it out of its native arcade environment and bringing it to a home console, SNK has made some specific choices that make this already challenging game difficult to a fault.


Playing Metal Slug 3 in the arcade with a pocket full of quarters, you could beat the game in about an hour. But the Xbox version introduces a twist to the game's existing continue system that makes finishing the game a nearly impossible task. The structure is basically the same as the arcade version, giving you between three and five lives--a setting you can adjust in the options menu--and whenever you run through your allotted number of lives, you have to use a continue, of which you are given four. However, unlike in the arcade version, every time you use a continue, it starts you back at the beginning of the level rather than where you last died. It's understandable that SNK would want to extend the playtime of Metal Slug 3, but there are significantly more elegant means. Both Ikaruga and the Time Crisis games are perfect examples of a good way to add extra legs to relatively short games. They start you off with a meager number of extra lives and gradually reward you with more as you continue to spend time playing the game. The continue system in Metal Slug 3, however, simply leads to unnecessary frustration, and ultimately, it will probably lead to players giving up on the game sooner rather than later.


This was the first attempt at making Metal Slug portable, and SNK came out of the gate firing. They simplified things from the console versions by offering just one playable character but gave gamers 17 missions with branching paths. There were only two Slugs on offer here, but just having a game of this caliber on a handheld device was revolutionary at the time.


The Steam version of Metal Slug 3 features full controller support with Steam's Big Picture mode, achievements and leaderboards. The title is compatible with Windows Vista, 7 and 8 operating systems, but does not support Windows XP. Currently in beta, the recent version of the classic title includes an arcade mode featuring five stages with "multiple branching paths," stage selection options, online multiplayer as well as online and local co-op 2ff7e9595c


 
 
 

Recent Posts

See All

Commentaires


bottom of page