Imagine the movie Saving Private Ryan is a comedy. Now imagine that comedy is a video game. What would it be? Two words: Metal Slug. What you have here is a war game schmozz that's filled with tons of gore, violence, and humor, not to mention one of the greatest shooters of all time. I loved every minute of it. And it's quite a hybrid as well, mixing excellent gameplay with gorgeous graphics.

      As far as the storyline goes, well, it's a shooter, so there isn't much. Basically, there's this General of an Army, and you have to kill or capture him, rescuing P.O.W.'s along the way. So, with that aside, let the slaughtering begin. You get six stages to run rampant in, using various weapons such as the Machine Gun, Shotgun, Flame Thrower, Rocket Launcher, and the Tank. Of course, you're outnumbered about ten to one at any given point in the game, so the more firepower the better.

      The game's difficulty isn't too hard, just make sure you're shooting pretty much all the time and you'll do well. The music however, is a tad on the big band side. It reminded me of 70's cop show music. It's rather odd for a war game, but it adds to the madness. The sound effects are pretty good. Nice, clean sounding explosions, gunshots, and screams really make a good backdrop for all the carnage. About the only drawback would be the total lack of replay. Once you beat the game, you've pretty much done all you can do, unless you want to go through and beat your old score or something. But, it's a shooter, so what do you expect.

      If you're looking for old fashioned, mindless shooter fun, then Metal Slug is totally for you. Just sit back, relax, and decimate enemy soldiers with that lovely shotgun or flamethrower. In the words of Robert Duvall in Apocalypse Now: I love the smell of napalm in the morning.

Highpoints: Graphics, gameplay.
Lowpoints: Low replay value.

Max/10

Graphics: 10
Music/Sound: 7.5
Replay: 4

Overall Opinion Score: 8.5

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