Retro Game Club - Jan 14-31. Let's Play 'Metal Slug'. Leaderboards in first post

[MagicalDrop]

Quote

 

I've been nominated by @Ninja Doctorto pick a game to restart the 'let's play' concept. 

 

I've chosen 'Metal Slug' for the NeoGeo. 

 

Reasons:

- it's easily available via emulators or relevant e-shops for modern consoles so hopefully as many members as possible can join in. 

- it can be credit fed to see the end or played for high scores on a single credit

- it's one of the greatest examples, perhaps the pinnacle, of the run and gun genre (separate discussion required!) 

 

Also selfishly many of you will know I'm ill and I've decided to play through all the Slugs anyway. I'm going to dispense with my usual moral high ground of not using continues and just pump in the credits so I get to see all the wonderful pixel art this series has to offer. 

 

Hope you decide to join me on the journey of Metal Slug SV-001 😊

 

LEADERBOARDS

 

Single Credit High Score:

1. 299,270 - Magicaldrop

2. 213,550 - Yasawas

3. 192,940 - acidbearboy 

 

Fewest Continues Used To Complete:

 

1.   8 - Down By Law

2. 13 - Yasawas

3. 14 - Loathsomeleopard

4. 16 - Magicaldrop

    16 - acidbearboy

6. 21 - megamixer

 

[Qazimod]

Yessss. I'm terrible at the whole series, but I might see how low I can get my "total credits used". I seem to remember Allen O'Neil (bald guy with M60 machine gun) being one of the first big hurdles... but it's been ages since I've played, so I don't know if I'll even get there before having to insert more coins.

 

I think there are even some web browser emulators that host the game if you don't want to trawl dodgy ROM sites.

[earlymodernsteve]

I'll give this a whirl. Think I've got it on Retroid Pocket 2+ and a Super Console thing hooked up to a spare monitor so should be pretty hassle free. I also totally suck at these but replay them every now and again just for the animation

[watusi]

I'm up for this, I'll be firing through it on the Mister. Will be sure to note how many credits it takes to me to fumble my way to the end!

[phillv85]

Good choice! I’ll load it in my cab tomorrow and gave it a blast. Not played the first game for ages, spend most of my MVS time on Metal Slug 2 or Magical Drop III.

[MagicalDrop]

1 minute ago, phillv85 said:

Good choice! I’ll load it in my cab tomorrow and gave it a blast. Not played the first game for ages, spend most of my MVS time on Metal Slug 2 or Magical Drop III.

 

Sorry to veer slightly off topic but I almost chose Magicaldrop III, purely to reference my username. I still play it a LOT but stuck in a score rut of c. 37000. I might start a topic on that game for some tactical chat. 

 

Anyhow congrats on MVS ownership, I used to own a cab with both those games too. 

[phillv85]

7 minutes ago, MagicalDrop said:

 

Sorry to veer slightly off topic but I almost chose Magicaldrop III, purely to reference my username. I still play it a LOT but stuck in a score rut of c. 37000. I might start a topic on that game for some tactical chat. 

 

Anyhow congrats on MVS ownership, I used to own a cab with both those games too. 

Thanks! It was my first, and now my last cab. Please do start a topic, I’ve still never 1CC’d the Challenge mode despite coming close a few times.

[Paulando]

Yesss, I’m up for this. Love MS2/MSX, which is the best of the series as far as I’m concerned, but I haven’t played the first one since owning it on PS1 back in the day. Will definitely give it a go on one of my many retro handhelds and join in the chat.

[bradigor]

Will need to see if I actually have the neogeo rom. But up for this.

[SeanR]

Mmm, the MVS 161-cart, the Pandora, or something a little more…legit? 

 

[SeanR]

I’m an idiot.

 

I use the same psu for the Pandora and supergun for my mvs.

 

I’ve added an inline switch extension , connected to the psu cable, so I can switch off the Pandora, without unplugging it.

 

but it doesn’t fit the supergun socket.

 

and it didn’t occur to me to remove the switched extension until I picked up my phone to write this post…

 

[spanky debrest]

I'm in. 

 

All these years I've never sat down to play it properly. 

 

I'll be happy if I can stretch a credit out to get me to Stage 3. That's the goal I'm going to go for. Shouldn't be too tough (I have no idea)?

[Ninja Doctor]

Fantastic shout! I’ve got this on switch arcade archives. Handy for infinite continues and save states.

 

I remember the first time I played this. Must be about 25 years ago on one of the floors in either Jilly’s rock world or the Krazyhouse. I don’t recall doing very well but I was likely seriously bladdered.

 

During my first stint as a NGPC owner I did also own first mission. I think that’s on the switch ngpc collection too!

[Ninja Doctor]

Update: just done a run through. 21 continues used. Man it gets cheap after about stage 3. 

[SeanR]

i stopped during stage 4

 

[Skull Commander]

This thread has came at the perfect time as just got a Neo Geo Arcade Stick Pro.

 

I've played all the Metal Slug games before, and used to be able to get to the 2nd Stage of Metal Slug 3 without losing a life. Unfortunately that was a good few years ago and I would imagine I will be very rusty now.

 

I should get some time tomorrow to give Metal Slug a good go and I will report back with what is likely to be my pitiful effort!

[spanky debrest]

To be honest, none of the Metal Slugs have struck me as games that can be reasonably mastered (i.e. comfortably 1CC'd with enough memorisation, strategy and repeat plays).

 

The chaos just gets out of hand and at some point you have to decide whether you're happy to credit-feed to see the end. 

 

I remember always getting annoyed at having a decent run through an early level only to lose a life during the boss which results in forfeiting all your P.O.W bonuses. 

 

Will report back tomorrow.

[fat flatulent git]

I would love a Mario Maker style level editor for the Metal Slug series.  That would be a day-one purchase for me.

 

Anyway, I’ll have a bash at this.  I have it on Switch, NGPC and a couple of compilations.

 

That said, I soon get tired of the gameplay on this series, probably because I’m utterly crap at it.  I enjoy it for the fantastic animation and graphics but I wish I was better at it.

 

Cant believe it’s four years since we started doing these threads (very nearly).

[merrychan]

8 hours ago, Ninja Doctor said:

Update: just done a run through. 21 continues used. Man it gets cheap after about stage 3. 

"SEE YOU IN HELL!"

[fat flatulent git]

Anyone rich enough to be playing it on an original AES cart?

[Colonel Panic]

I’ll do a credit spam play through. I love it but as has been said, once you get a few levels in things get ridiculous making 1CC something I don’t think I’d have the patience to learn. 

[MagicalDrop]

Decided to start tackling this playing on my Anbernic RG351V. As I mentioned in the opening post morals are out of the window and save states are the only way I'm going to get to see the end, at least as part of a first run to the end. 

 

This of course brings its own dilemmas. It would be utterly tedious to save and reload every 20 seconds so for now I've set myself mental waypoints to get to on each mission without losing any lives  before saving. 

 

Replaying sections seems to reveal that some of the points awarded for bonus items are random. Or are they? Certainly those adding 50,000 to your score make a big difference if you can work out if there's a way to trigger them. 

 

Anyhow, early morning play got me to a save at the start of Mission 3, will resume battle later. 

[phillv85]

Yeah the smaller items appear to be random, but the big items need to be triggered. I’m not as familiar with the first one as two, but in 2 you can do things like kill the helicopters in order for big points and bundle over the NPC’s so they drop stuff etc.

[Qazimod]

14 hours ago, Qazimod said:

I seem to remember Allen O'Neil (bald guy with M60 machine gun) being one of the first big hurdles... but it's been ages since I've played, so I don't know if I'll even get there before having to insert more coins.

 

Okay, nothing's changed then

 

 

Although I did make some dumb errors on the way there and got there with 0 lives and no weapon.

[spanky debrest]

Just finished my first run.

 

One credit got me to Stage 2, I was spamming credits from Stage 3, and got to the end using 18 credits.

 

Very impressed with all the one off and level specific graphic flourishes, and every enemy vehicle having huge sound effects. The whole thing felt a lot fresher and tighter than later entries I'm more familiar with. 

 

Tempted to relearn how to use the unibios (looking up that button combo, basically) and seeing how much easier a lower-than-default difficulty setting makes things for another run at some point. 

 

It felt like most of the game was cruising along without significant shaping of difficulty; a spike here and there, being pincered between enemy tanks every so often, the final level unsurprisingly throwing the most at you.

 

The high score table made me smile. APE, BAT, CAT, DOG, EEL. 

[KriessG]

I’ll give this a go, I’ve got this on Steam so I’ll play this on my ‘deck. I think I have a Jap Saturn copy somewhere too but I’m not even sure where my Saturn is stored and my CRT’s aren’t accessible right now.

[phillv85]

Just had my first credit on it in ages, managed to get to the stage 3 boss, although I dropped two silly lives along the way. My best ever run on 1 credit was the stage 4 boss so I’m going to work towards getting there again. I have credit fed in the past and the last stage is an utter twat, it’ll take some learning.

[geldra]

I got through stage (sorry, Mission) 1 unscathed just before, then lost everything by the electricity wotsits about 1second into stage 2. 
 

My fave thing about Stage 2 is shooting the flags and the clock right at the start. 
 

Mission 3’s actual boss is relatively easy in comparison to that dude halfway through. 

[Skull Commander]

First playthrough and it wasn't pretty. 23 credits, around 5 of them were on the last boss.

 

The game is REALLY unfair in places, but I'm sure there are some ninjas around that can manage to master this (haven't looked on YouTube but will), but I have no chance!

 

Still a lot of fun though (since I don't have to actually pay for my credits!).

[SeanR]

I got the shotgun once…