← Back to the Library

The History of Metal Slug

A tank game that failed its own audition, rebuilt around the soldiers, and became the finest hand drawn shooter on the Neo Geo.

Metal Slug (Neo Geo, April 19, 1996) was developed by Nazca Corporation and published by SNK. It follows Peregrine Falcon soldiers Marco Rossi and Tarma Roving in 2028, fighting a coup by General Donald Morden's Rebel Army across six missions of forests, garrisoned cities, snowy valleys, canyons, and bases, freeing prisoners of war and climbing into the SV-001 and SV-002 tanks that give the game its name. SNK was so taken with Nazca's work that it acquired the studio in 1996, the year the game shipped.

THE MAKING

Irem veterans, a new company, an old craft

Nazca was formed by staff who had left Irem, where the same hands had made arcade shooters with a similar presentation, including In the Hunt and GunForce II. Takashi Nishiyama, SNK's own head of development and the creator of Street Fighter and Fatal Fury, produced; Kazuma Kujo and Meeher designed; artists including Akio Oyabu, Kazuhiro Tanaka, and Takeshi Okui drew the pixel art; and Takushi Hiyamuta, credited as Hiya!, composed the score. The stated concept was a simple yet exciting side scrolling shooter with an easy control scheme: one joystick and three buttons. The visuals took inspiration from the works of Hayao Miyazaki, a debt the game's soft, detailed, comic war makes visible in every frame.

The first playable version was a different game: slower, darker, and built around the tanks, with players controlling the SV-001 and SV-002 prototypes through shorter, simpler missions, crewed in the early plot by Regular Army members Phil Gene and Michiko Nakajima. Location test audiences responded poorly, and the project was heavily overhauled: the soldiers stepped out of the tank, platform elements were added, and SNK asked for the game to be lengthened to make it more attractive to console players. That rescue is documented on its own page: was Metal Slug originally a tank only game?

THE GAME

Six missions, one hit, endless jokes

The finished game is a run and gun in the Contra line with a comedian's timing. Enemies are caught sunbathing, roasting food over fires, and chatting when the player arrives, and much of the scenery is destructible, hiding weapons and bonuses. A knife handles close work, contact with an enemy does not kill, and a single bullet, a collision, or a fall does. Freed prisoners pay out random items and weapons, and the end of mission bonus counts them, which turns every stage into a rescue run performed under fire.

THE EDITIONS

Arcade first, then everywhere SNK could put it

Arcade and AES · 1996

MVS arcade April 19, 1996, then the AES home cartridge on May 24, 1996 in Japan and North America. The North American AES edition later became one of the platform's most valuable cartridges.

Neo Geo CD · 1996

Released July 5, 1996, adding a Combat School mode that lets players revisit finished missions under new objectives.

Saturn · 1997

Japan, April 4, 1997. To keep every animation frame, this port used new compression, loaded between levels, and leaned on a 1 MB RAM expansion cartridge.

PlayStation · 1997

Japan, August 7, 1997, developed by Ukiyotei, with Combat School plus an exclusive Another Story mode of plot based minigames and an art gallery.

THE RECEPTION

Praise for the art, complaints about the length

EGM · 7.25 / 10

The four reviewers attacked the one hit deaths and the AES version's unlimited continues, then agreed the game is fun chiefly for its smooth, humorous animation.

GamePro

Approved of the graphics, music, and arsenal, called it a tour de force, and still marked it down for slowdown, few levels, and low replay value.

IGN · 8.5 / 10

For the 2008 Virtual Console release, with an Editor's Choice badge: the re-release verdict was warmer than the 1996 one.

The Arcade Vote

Game Machine listed it as the seventh most popular arcade game in Japan in June 1996, and it finished among the top ten highest grossing arcade games of 1996 in the United States.

The game was later included in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die, and its success started a franchise of sequels, a remake, and spin-offs, beginning with Metal Slug 2 in 1998. The series outlived its maker: when the original SNK collapsed, Metal Slug 4 was produced under license by the Korean company Mega Enterprise, a handoff documented on the bankruptcy page. The shelf this game sits on, machine and all, is the history of the Neo Geo.

THE GAME ON THE SHELF

Metal Slug

Japanese cover · Neo Geo CD · 1996

The Japanese Neo Geo CD cover, with the Nazca Corporation credit on the box. The AES box is a named gap in this Library.