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

[loathsomeleopard]

Result! Turns out not being half out of my skull on post surgical painkillers is good for my gameplay. Completed in 14 credits! 

[fat flatulent git]

Does a stick make any difference to this?  I always imaged a d-pad offered greater accuracy, but going by the popularity and price of arcade sticks, they must have something going for them.

[geldra]

Only lost 1 life to the Mission 3 mid boss earlier. That’s pretty good going for me. 

[peeveen]

On 19/01/2023 at 10:59, fat flatulent git said:

Does a stick make any difference to this?  I always imaged a d-pad offered greater accuracy, but going by the popularity and price of arcade sticks, they must have something going for them.

I 1cc'd MS3 on the 360 last year (on Easy, admittedly) using an arcade stick. I seriously doubt I could have done it with the standard controller.

[spatular]

29 continues! might have even been on a lower difficulty setting, not sure really

[Keyboard Koala]

2 hours ago, peeveen said:

I 1cc'd MS3 on the 360 last year (on Easy, admittedly) using an arcade stick. I seriously doubt I could have done it with the standard controller.

 

That's still very impressive considering the final boss! I could make it on 1 credit til the final boss, after which the continue screen just kept on popping up.

Same with the first MS game. One credit til I got to the final boss.

 

[Keyboard Koala]

On 19/01/2023 at 11:59, fat flatulent git said:

Does a stick make any difference to this?  

 

Completely changed the game for me. I bought MS3 on the OG Xbox many years ago, and was rather underwhelmed and so didn't really like it. A few months later I got me a discounted Hori arcade pro stick on a whim, and it became one of my all-time favourite arcade games.

[Barnard]

On 19/01/2023 at 10:59, fat flatulent git said:

Does a stick make any difference to this?

 

I found shooting up at the helicoptors on stage 1 much easier with a stick.

 

It's as if the game is expecting more of a rolling motion to register an up.

 

I noticed the main sprites reflection in a puddle on the first stage last night. What a beautiful game.

[merrychan]

2 hours ago, Barnard said:

 

It's as if the game is expecting more of a rolling motion to register an up.

Absolutely this, on Switch Lite I use the analogue stick and in the past it's been the NGCD pad and AES stick.

[SeanR]

MS-X

 

feeling very attacked right now:

 

[fat flatulent git]

I’ve tried a few in the series and had quite a good time but after a few missions I never felt like persevering.

 

Next will be the GBA and DS games.

[acidbearboy]

My lowest continue count is 16. 
My best score on one credit is 192940. 
 

Some good tips on high scores for stage 1 here: http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/index.php?threads/your-highest-scores-for-metal-slug-1-stage-1-only.59991/

 

Not had chance to try them out yet but it seems like items are random, annoyingly. 

[Yobo Ahoy]

On 19/01/2023 at 10:18, loathsomeleopard said:

Result! Turns out not being half out of my skull on post surgical painkillers is good for my gameplay. Completed in 14 credits! 

 

[MagicalDrop]

It's all going quiet in here so perhaps it's time to move on to the next game. I nominate @loathsomeleopard to choose the next game and start a new 'Let's Play...' thread.

 

Metal Slug 1 chat still welcome, I've started a play through of the whole series now. Metal Slug 2 done, Metal Slug 3 is an altogether tougher prospect. 

[megamixer]

Love the Metal Slug games but I am hideous at them and need to credit-feed like hell, especially on MS3 and some of the later ones by Playmore which were just bastard-cheap.

[Skull Commander]

I will be giving this another go when I get time. Unfortunately work, kids and assorted family stuff has been preventing as much time on the game as I would have liked, but I'm making some time over the next few nights. 

 

I would agree that even though the first Metal Slug is unfair in places, it has nothing on the later entries which are verging on impossible in places. 

[earlymodernsteve]

Waiting on an extension lead as managed to rearrange the room and there isn't a socket by the new retro setup! Should be here tomorrow - would have been quicker just to go out and buy one but not been well.

[acidbearboy]

I had another crack at this yesterday but only managed to finish it using 16 credits again. I really need to create save states at the start of levels 4,5,6 to practise them. 

[SeanR]

I think I need to disable sw7 on my mvs dipswitches:

 

“Freeplay”

 

[megamixer]

15 hours ago, Skull Commander said:

I would agree that even though the first Metal Slug is unfair in places, it has nothing on the later entries which are verging on impossible in places. 

There's one that has a ridiculous Aztec grim reaper death god thing as a boss which is beyond stupid. That one always stuck in my head.

[Yasawas]

Calling out @acidbearboy with a 213,550. I bet he died to that prick at the top of the Mission 3 mountain too! Never had a consistent strategy for him.

 

This is actually the first time I’ve tried the High-Score Mode in the ACA series releases, it’s quite addictive on its own. Restricts your options, doesn’t even let you pause and posts the next tier of scores to yours at the side to goad you on. Nice stuff, Hamster.

[MagicalDrop]

Added @Yasawas to the leader board.

 

Agree on the additional modes Hamster have added to all the Neo Geo games I've bought. Of course they emulate brilliantly - I've no idea how many devices I have Metal Slug on - but the extra modes make a purchase worthwhile for the global leader boards, especially if you can pick the games up in the half price sales at £3.

[acidbearboy]

I’ve added a bunch of their Neo Geo and arcade games to my Deku Deals wish list. Some of them don’t seem to have ever been on sale, so I’m kinda in two minds about whether to stump up £6 for Metal Slug 2 and play the series in order or to just dive into MS4 which I grabbed while it was half price recently. 
 

Will be having another crack at the one credit high score first tho! Nice work @Yasawas

[Yasawas]

1 hour ago, acidbearboy said:

I’ve added a bunch of their Neo Geo and arcade games to my Deku Deals wish list. Some of them don’t seem to have ever been on sale, so I’m kinda in two minds about whether to stump up £6 for Metal Slug 2 and play the series in order or to just dive into MS4 which I grabbed while it was half price recently. 
 

Will be having another crack at the one credit high score first tho! Nice work @Yasawas

I like 4 (and 5) myself but regarding MS2 it should be pointed out that Metal Slug X is a reworked version of that and almost universally preferred. MS2 itself is plagued with slowdown, and feels like it eats your inputs at the worst possible times.

[Yasawas]

6 hours ago, MagicalDrop said:

Agree on the additional modes Hamster have added to all the Neo Geo games I've bought. Of course they emulate brilliantly - I've no idea how many devices I have Metal Slug on - but the extra modes make a purchase worthwhile for the global leader boards, especially if you can pick the games up in the half price sales at £3.

 Totally, I just wish they acrually did proper sales. I saw the Nintendo stuff was all on over Christmas but otherwise it seems to be the odd few outliers from the middle of a series at a few quid off every few weeks. I’ve been stubbornly waiting for Waku Waku 7 to come down for literally years now 

[megamixer]

Played through the game today on credit-feeding mode and took a shameful 21 continues to beat the game. Half of those were used on the last level I think, with that bridge area where you have the two levels and bajillions of tanks and other crap coming at you.

 

That said, I was playing it on the closest thing to hand which was MS Anthology on the PSP. The d-pad is not great for diagonals, especially when trying to "roll" your Heavy Machine-Gun bullets in mid-air.

 

Had a crack at MS2 as well and I think I enjoy this more than the original (even though X is obviously the better revision) but it took my 28 continues to get through. Again, half of those were spent on the last level with all those screens of fucking aliens - that seem to go on forever - and the last boss, where I've always found it difficult to evade the slow-moving lasers from the little alien ships, especially with all the distracting explosions and chaos going on.

[MagicalDrop]

Thanks for declaring a 'continue' score  @megamixer, have added you to page 1's leader board.

I think my total for MS2 was 28 as well. It's a noticeably longer playthrough than the first game. Storyline seems bonkers. 

[Yasawas]

If anyone has yet to play the Neo-Geo Pocket games in the series btw, they're definitely worth a go. I hear the GBA one is good too. I'm reminded of this whenever people bring up the credit-munching of the later arcade ones as being made for a console market led the design in a noticeably different way. 

[megamixer]

Yes, I did really enjoy the GBA game. It is definitely less brutal, though I seem to remember that I could never complete the last level. It has been a LONG time since I played it however.

 

I also seem to remember that it fell foul of being on a Nintendo platform and had considerably less gore and freaky stuff. Doesn't spoil the game itself of course, and I think it feels a little more pure actually.

[Qazimod]

The GBA game is really interesting, if perhaps less of a "pure" Metal Slug experience. You have a lifebar rather than the one-hit kills and life count, and there's the collectible card system where you unlock certain gameplay modifiers. It's a neat idea - albeit one that might suit a different game rather than a Metal Slug.

 

Definitely worth a look for the curious fans.