Metal Slug Anthology Nintendo Wii Review

Introduction
Ah Metal Slug possibly the greatest shoot'em up series ever, every time you play a Metal Slug game you know its gonna be good.
Since its debut in 1996 Metal Slug has gained a huge following and its own franchise.


Single Player/Multiplayer
Metal Slug is an arcade game at heart so the game never changes no matter how you play it, one play, two play its all the same.
Metal Slug Anthology was released to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Metal Slug franchise, the game contains six classic metal Slug titles plus an all new one.
Let me tell you about each game:

Metal Slug (1996).
This is the game that started it all. Your mission is to shoot your way through wave after wave of enemy solider's and defeat General Morden.

Metal Slug 2 (1998)
The sequel to the hit Metal Slug added two new playable characters as well as new enemies including Alien's.

Metal Slug X (1999)
This game is just Metal Slug two but with a bunch of changes and improvements.

Metal Slug 3 (2000)
Metal Slug 3 took the last two games and went absolutely crazy, this is considered by many to be the best Metal Slug game, it has new enemies, new weapons, and levels with split paths, it has a huge amount of replay value.
Just to demonstrate how awesome Metal Slug 3 is let me tell you what the first enemy you kill is, go on guess, a GIANT ENEMY CRAB.

Metal Slug 4 (2002)
As always the Metal Slug games are still adding new stuff, this game has new weapons and new characters to play as.

Metal Slug 5 (2003)
You'd think by now that the Metal Slug formula would start to get stale well it doesn't. Metal Slug 5 gives you new ability's, new attacks and new background graphics to boot. This one does lack some of the older features but it does add new stuff like cut scenes to replace it.

Metal Slug 6 (2006)
This is the newest game available in the Metal Slug Anthology. This game features the most changes, now you can choose the games difficulty at the start, you can carry two weapons, and you can also build up a score by killing enemies, the more enemies you kill the more your score gets multiplied by.

The games are all alike but that is no bad thing really considering that this is the type of game that never gets old no matter how many times you complete it.


Gameplay
All the games play the same, which is good because that saves me going over all 7 games again.
Metal Slug is a side scrolling run and gun shooter, the aim is to kill your way to victory by shooting, stabbing, and blowing up anything that stands in your way.
I'll start with the controls, in the arcade the metal slug games tend to have a joy stick and three buttons, sadly the wiimote doesn't have the ideal layout for a three button arcade game, thankfully they found a way around it.
To play the game you hold the wiimote on its side as if it was a NES controller or something. You use the D-Pad to move, + to start and - to pause.
The 1 and 2 buttons act as the shoot and jump, the A and B buttons do nothing. What is this no grenade button, well good news they found a way around it, to throw and grenade you just shake the wiimote making the game fully playable.
The Metal Slug games have always been known for their trademark action and humour. The Metal Slug games have some of the best weapons and power-up's in video game history, for example one power up is that you can get fat from eating too much food, when this happens you fire power increases and you weapons are more wide spread. Another example are some of the weapons, you have the normal stuff like machine guns, laser beams and rocket launchers but you also have more bizarre stuff like thunder clouds and nappie wearing chimps that shoot enemies for you. Awesome.
Another thing that metal slug is famous for are the vehicles, the vehicles in these games are awesome, in fact did you know that Metal Slug is the name of the tank you use in the game ? Anyway these vehicles are great, they have large fire power and health bars (something you don't have), out of all the things you can ride on Metal Slug I'd have to say that my favourite is the Elephant.
Metal Slug is one of those classic hard core one hit kill games, you get hit by anything even once and you are dead, die three times and it is game over, fortunately unlike the arcade version you get unlimited continues so you don't have to spend all of your money trying to complete it.
All of the Metal Slug stages follow the same format, you fight some bad guys, rescue some prisoners of war who give you weapons that are in their underpants, fight some more enemies, save some more P.O.W.'s, fight a boss.
It's funny you'd think that games with a constant format would get dull and repetitive but for some reason they never do, people still play the old 2D Mario games, people still play the old 2D Sonic games and people are still playing the Metal Slug games, they have this never ending appeal that gives you near to endless replay value. The humour helps too ,if Metal Slug was more serious and didn't have that sence of humour I wouldn't see myself playing it so much.
I think I have said enough, Metal Slug, always has been fun, always will be fun.


Graphics and Sound
Metal Slug's soundtrack is time less everyone who has played the games knows it and it is used in all of the games.
The graphics are some of the best 2D sprites ever, Neo-Geo were great at 2D graphics, they have been using the same sprites for years and they still look nice despite their old age.


Conclusion
It's one of the best completion games ever made, each game is a classic and it is jammed fully of content.

+ 6 Classics
+ and a new one
+ good emulation
+ Great sound track
+ Cool unlockable content

- Some of the bosses just won't die
- some areas will pee you off.

9/10

NOTE: This is one of my worst reviews, I wasn't even taking a serious approach to it.