Metal Slug Anthology (PS2 PAL)

[Plisken]

Here's a short review : load of crap

it's a straight port of the psp version, HUGE borders, no 60hz, slowdown, long load times.

absolute garbage. stay away, Slug fans.

[crocky-chocky]

Got rid of the PSP effort some time ago in preparation for this.

It does feature the same half-arsed menus and presentation...and massively huge borders. Though I'm personally not noticing any long loading times or major slowdown, and there certainly isn't that 5 second gap when you're switching characters anymore.

It's better than the PSP version...noticeably so, and it's only 15 quid for 5 awesome games (Slug 4 is turd and X doesn't count). Personally I'm loving it.

[Oh_Mutants]

Got the Japanese version, and overall it's great. Naturally 50hz and borders aren't issues, however there is one pretty big problem... there seems to be input lag present, particularly noticable when jumping and also seems more prominent in MS1
Other than that, it's a nice little compilation and nice to have all the games on one handy disc

[JazzFunk]

Got this in the afternoon. Whilst it is rather disappointing compared to the individual releases (with their 60Hz modes and extras/bonuses) this is still a pretty damn good comp and definitely worth the budget price (£15 in Blockbuster at present, probably even cheaper elsewhere.)

Luckily, Blockbuster gave me £6 each trade-in on Beverly Hills Cop(!!!!!) and Return To Castle Wolfenstein, meaning it only really set me back £3, cashwise.

Still, I really wished they had 60Hz-ed it. But I can cope.

[Akihabara]

I reviewed this game and I gave it a 20/100.

Get MS 3,4,5,6 individual for PS2 and you'll see the difference.

[Plisken]

I reviewed this game and I gave it a 20/100.

Get MS 3,4,5,6 individual for PS2 and you'll see the difference.

agreed, Metal Slug is side-scrolling purity and the slightest errors make it unplayable for me.

get the Wii version if you simply have to own it

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

Doesn't the game suffer from random crashing too?

Apparently my mates copy crashed randomly when booting up, as did the one they had on display in town.

[pentarou]

An absolute travesty, Metal Slug 1 is almost unplayable. Why they couldn't spend a bit longer on it to include a 60hz option and make the buttons responsive, I don't know.

[Ryo Saeba]

agreed, Metal Slug is side-scrolling purity and the slightest errors make it unplayable for me.

get the Wii version if you simply have to own it

Wasn't the Wii version universally hated by hardcore fans cause of the lack of Classic Controller support?

Anyaway, has anyone tried to patch the PAL PS2 version to NTSC?
Although that probably wouldn't eliminate the mentioned control problems (slow response time?) that are also present in the japanese version, you could at least play it in full-screen 60Hz.

[davyK]

I have to admit to being a bit disappointed with this (despite the price which makes it more or less an impulse buy). The overall presentation feels very much thrown together.

I hate loadtimes with a vengence but the in-game load times in this title are acceptable to me.

I also have the separate releases for 3, 4 and 5 and it is hard to see why they didn't include the 60Hz at least - I can forgive the absence of the bonus games that came on Metal Slug 3 for example.

I was wondering about the borders though -the image in anthology doesn't appear squashed compared to the individual releases - just smaller. On my system the image sits up and to the left with a small border at the top and to the left while the borders to the right and to the bottom are quite large. It initially made me think that the game is running at the original resolution.

Switching between Slug 3 on the anthology and the 60Hz version I didn't notice any great difference in speed either. Maybe thats just me.

I'm afraid its just another case of a retro anthology being done on the cheap.

Having said all that it is still great fun and I have no real issues with the control. I really like Metal Slug but I'm not a hardcore fan. I think maybe the control issues are with the controller and not the game itself. Modern controllers just aren't up to the job in my opinion. The last proper 2D controller I used was on the Saturn.

[elkatas]

Wasn't the Wii version universally hated by hardcore fans cause of the lack of Classic Controller support?

Most common complaints were that there isn't support for Classic Controller and that Gamecube analog stick isn't precise enough for Metal Slug games. Ironically, nobody who made claim about precision of Cube's stick hadn't actually played the collection. In reality it works extremely well, and I had no problems to surf into last level of first MS without dying.

[Purpledump]

Was really looing forward for some old-school arcade action playing this on a PS3 and the Virtua Fighter High Grade stick I just bought. Got the 3 in 1 game pack and was optimistic after trying out KOF11 in 60Hz, but what a disappointment MS anthology was and so sad to see that this thread confirms there's no 60Hz hidden away.


After a while, the black borders didn't bother me so much, but the game seems to run slow (I can only compare it to what I remember playing in arcades and seeing in Videos).

However, the input lag is game-breaking for me! Could be a combination of input lag when playing PS2 games on PS3 and the additional lag experienced by others playing directly on the PS2!

UPDATE - switched off "upscaling" and smoothing which helped with speeds and input lag somewhat, but it is still noticable. Is this by design?

[jimtendo]

Having received the japanese version recently (mainly bought because i liked what i saw in the XBL Arcade Metal Slug 3)

I've played a bit of it and it seemed alright. Even though if there is a bit too much loading going on, but other than that it's all good.

Just wanted to know from guys who have bought the individual PS2 games (Metal Slugs 3/ 4/ 5/ 6) How much does it differ from the Metal Slug Collection?
Is there more loading times?
As on Metal Slug 3 there's slight loading for changing characters on the select screen ffs.
Are they different enough (or better) to buy individually?

*EDIT*
How are the PAL versions of Metal Slug 3/ 4 & 5?
bordered?
or got a 60hz select?

[Kubrick]

I got the Japanese Metal Slug Collection when it came out but haven't played it yet. I was hoping it would be good enough to do away with the individual games but it sounds like it's just as bad as the rubbish PSP edition, so I guess MS3/4/5/6 will be going nowhere...

Can't speak for the PAL editions but the individual JP releases have no obtrusive loading, and of course red blood. They also keep a record of your high-scores on the in-game scoreboard, which the PSP collection doesn't. PS2 edition the same?

[jimtendo]

I've literally gave each game 1 playthrough (but i have set high scores in each of them) so i'll report back once i've loaded it again.

But yeah, each version of Metal Slug have some sort of loading going on, with a lovely 'loading' icon in the top left of the screen in-between stages to remind you