Kraut Buster - ngdevteam does metal slug

[Decider-VT]

looks like Germans got accustomed to history deceiving movies and games. just imagine a UK based team developping a WW themed shooter "Tommy hunt" - highly impossible!

I'll bite, as I saw the same comment posted on Facebook. What do you mean by "history deceiving"?

[Uli]

you are welcome. it means that in movies and also games German forces mostly get portraited as dumb cannon fodder, attacking in high numbers, well equipped or outnumbering the opposing allies. every German soldier is a Nazi per se and, of course they they can't hit a thing, let alone a tank within range of 15 meters. just watch Hollywoods latest effort "Fury" and you get it. if lucky the German soldier is depicted with stereotypical features based on old prussian war doctrines like total obedience and the like (e.g. "All quiet on the western front").

but in fact the Wehrmacht was the most "efficient" military force of the 20th century, and this despite being always vastly ountnumbered by their opponents, mostly undersupplied and short of tank and air support. Wehrmacht units, and to smaller degree some Waffen-SS units, used the so called "Auftragstaktik" which left much room for improvisation, even on platoon level leadership, to reach the mission or campaign goal. German forces fought with realtively high morale and discipline even in the face of loosing the war, which became very clear after the Stalingrad debacle. taking a look on casualty rates is even more eye opening. on the eastern front the casualties inflicted on the Soviets were sometimes 4 times higher than on German side. and on the other fronts (Africa, Italy, France) casualty ratios were almost never dropping under 1:2 in favor of the German forces, no matter if being in defense or offense. not really very gaming friendly numbers i guess.

if anyone is interested in a more realistic and free of ideology look at the German soldiers, especially in the decisive eastern front battles, i recommend the book "The Forgotten Soldier" (auto-biography) or the movie "Stalingrad" (1993).

[Darwock]

It's not just the German's who get the short end of the Hollywood stick. If you take Fury as given, there were no Europeans in the fight at all!

[Uli]

i would like to see Germans as Europeans too but of course i know what you mean. so yes, that's just typically Hollywood - just send in the 101st and a few crappy Sherman tanks to save the poor old world from evil dictators. to their credit though, the US war effort in Europe was more of an industrial one, since without their supplying of the Soviet and British war economies, both countries would have faltered and been defeated by Germany.

also, if you look at games you can clearly see that most triple A games are more or less catered towards an american audience. most of all shooters like CoD and Battlefield. it's kind of a mirical that the Halo military forces are called "UNSC" and not "USSC"

[speedlolita]

[gordon]

@Uli: thanks for the book and movie recommendations. I'll check those out. In return, for anyone who hasn't seen it, I'd recommend 'Come and See' (1985). It does have one moment of stereotypical Nazi evil, but apart from that is probably the best war film I've ever seen - full of chaos and horror.

[Uli]

yes Gordon, "Come and See" is also a hidden gem among the WW themed movies. highly recommended but very painful to watch. it's astounding though that you know of this one and still haven't seen Vilsmaier's Stalingrad. feel free to let me know what you think of it. just make sure you go for the original german language version with english subtitles!

@ speedlolita
actually we should mention it even more often, so that the whole truth about WW1+2 will hopefully be uncovered sometime and our history books, which are full of lies, will have to be rewritten.

[briareos_kerensky]

[Decider-VT]

The Nazi aesthetic is a good visual shorthand for cartoonish villainy though. I don't think that you need much more than that for Metal Sl- er, Kraut Buster. I don't really see why it's an issue.

[Neon Ignition]

The real question is, where's my Metal Slug 8?! Damn you SNK

[Super Monkey Balls]

It's not just the German's who get the short end of the Hollywood stick. If you take Fury as given, there were no Europeans in the fight at all!

Or when the British troops are portrayed as tally-ho fools like this:

[Uli]

that's really nothing compared to the cowardy of the Tiger tank commander in the recent Brad Pitt's "Fury", leaving his well camouflaged position to stupidly and completely unneccessarily engages the American tank platoon in close combat, when he could have picked them off easily one by one from a safe distance.

having Tigers or any tank support at all was really a rarity for most German Landsers, especially at the eastern front pockets of Demjansk or Stalingrad. sometimes they just had to rely on improvisation and courage. here's one of my favourite tank battle scenes from "Stalingrad".

[Decider-VT]

They still lost, though. :P

[Colin]

I think we're getting away from the important issue that the game looks like a load of old ****e, just to get us back on tangent.

[Yakumo]

I think we're getting away from the important issue that the game looks like a load of old ****e, just to get us back on tangent.

I though so too. First thing that came to my mind was a low quality Metal Slug flash or phone game