METAL SLUG 2 SUPER VEHICLE FREE FULL VERSION GAME DOWNLOAD

METAL SLUG 2 SUPER VAHICLE :

The review of this product is based on a re-released version of the game. Because of this change of medium and the passage of time, it is possible that there are slight factual differences between the original retail product and the version reviewed. The following review should be used as a reference for how well the game stood up over time rather than an evaluation of how it would have scored based on its original release date.

Fifteen missiles and twelve bullet blasts. Ten different enemies fighting two heroes, while three newly-freed prisoners run for their lives, dashing past a tank. A big boss rolls into the scene and triggers twenty-seven explosions, the score counter keeps climbing higher, you're trying desperately to grab one of the seven power-ups that lay strewn about the ground -- it's no wonder Metal Slug 2 suffers from slowdown. There's just way too much stuff on the screen at once.

That visual overkill is part of the appeal of SNK's Metal Slug series, a run-and-gun action franchise that got its start in the arcades of the '90s before moving onto home consoles and portables -- but in Metal Slug 2, the balance between graphic effects and machine capability wasn't quite right. It pushed the hardware a little too hard, and got some push-back in the form of several unintentionally slowed-down sequences.

The drawback is worth mentioning right up front, because Metal Slug 2's Virtual Console edition is based on the same build, and so features the same issues. But though the slowdown does take a little something away from the experience, it's not an outright dealbreaker. And that's because the rest of the package is pretty solid.

You've got more playable characters than the first Metal Slug, for one thing, as female fighters Eri and Fio join male mercenaries Marco and Tarma to double the available roster. You've got an expanded arsenal of weapons, including the new straight-firing Laser and enemy-roasting Fire Bombs. And you've got more new vehicles to command, too, beyond the titular Metal Slug tanks -- robotic, jumping mobile suits, a flying jet fighter, and even a common desert camel that has a cannon strapped to its hump.

The series' signature sense of humor is also here in even fuller force than in the first Metal Slug. This entire franchise has always been known for not taking itself too seriously, and some of the best reasons for that reputation come from MS2 -- where you can get yourself cursed into a mummy transformation, which forces you to play as a shambling, embalmed undead until you find and grab a cure. You can also succumb to the horrors of obesity, by picking up too many food items. Your character will then plump up into fat mode, where your rate of movement is slowed down considerably and all of your attacks get altered -- your melee weapon, for example, becomes a fork.

So the foundation is definitely there in Metal Slug 2, and if it weren't for those nagging technical issues like the slowdown it would be an amazing game across the board . . . which is what must have prompted SNK to revisit this title with a remade version a few years later. An improved "director's cut" of this sequel, called Metal Slug X, came out about a year after 2's original arcade debut, and succeeded in correcting many of the graphical glitches that plagued it. It also added even more weapons, enemies and features, and pretty much rendered the original Metal Slug 2 obsolete by comparison.

What's more, that little piece of history is likely to repeat itself again here on the Virtual Console -- Nintendo's retro gaming download service has done it before, like when Capcom's first home version of Street Fighter II was released to the Wii Shop, only to later be made mostly unnecessary when Street Fighter II Turbo came along later and trumped it. It's probable that Metal Slug X will show up in VC form sometime in the future. And, when that happens, there will be very little reason at all to considering downloading this older, slowdown-ridden version.

THE VERDICT :

But that's not all! Because, of course, there's also the matter of Metal Slug Anthology -- the physical disc release that already came out for Wii years ago, and contains both this game, and Metal Slug X, and every other installment in the series up to and including Metal Slug 6. So if you're weighing out your Wii Point investing options, there's a whole lot to dissuade you from downloading Metal Slug 2.

It's still a pretty solid game on its own, and there's no denying it's both hilarious and filled to the brim with great run-and-gun action. But it's brought down considerably by the slowdown that plagues many of its scenes, and it's almost guaranteed to be brushed aside by Metal Slug X when and if that superior edition arrives in Virtual Console form. If you're a hardcore Slug fan, go ahead and drop nine bucks. But everyone else is going to be better off waiting for a while, or else just going back to revisit the Anthology release.