Metal Slug: Awakening Review

Sand and Lead

Metal Slug may well be the definitive side-scrolling shooter series and Metal Slug: Awakening is not the first spinoff to come to Android and iOS. Developed by TiMi and published by SNK, it sees the Regular Army deployed to liberate the Egypt-inspired Kemut from General Morden’s tyranny. Our heroes discover that Morden’s Army is trying to resurrect an ancient evil Pharaoh and must collect four magical gems to seal him away once more.

The game features the six main series heroes alongside several new unlockable characters. You’ll start with just Marco but quickly pick up Fio and Eri to fill out the rest of your early-game squad. Players can only control one soldier at a time, but the game lets players combine their abilities and different weapon effects.

Each character boasts a Unique Skill and Ultimate Skill in addition to their regular attacks. Marco’s Unique Skill, for example, throws a grenade with an upgrade to throw multiple grenades. His Ultimate Skill slows time while he sprays lead with dual submachine guns. Fio’s Unique Skill, on the other hand, is a melee attack where she swings at nearby enemies. Her Ultimate drops several refrigerators on the battlefield, damaging enemies and dropping food that increases fire rate when eaten.

Metal Slug: Awakening players can further differentiate each character by equipping them with one of 15 weapons. These range from conventional weapons like machine guns and shotguns to exotic items like the Boxing Gun and Saw Launcher. Each is handled very differently and afflicts enemies with different status effects. Rapid-fire weapons can mow down basic enemies without much effort. However, you must mix it up and stack modifiers to take on more powerful opponents.

Rolling Thunder

Of course, it wouldn’t be Metal Slug without the titular vehicles. Initially, you can only pilot them by finding one at predetermined points on certain levels. However, the player eventually gains the ability to summon them once the Slug gauge fills up. Classic Slugs like the SV-001, SV-Camel, and Drill Slug all return alongside new variants. Each vehicle features two unique Skills and one unique passive effect. Overall, the tools at your disposal are nicely varied, and I have no complaints in that department.

Where I do have complaints is the controls. As a side-scrolling platform shooter, running and gunning is the point. Unfortunately, doing so can be finicky at times. The virtual joystick usually works fine for movement, but the left, right, and up directions are much more forgiving than down. It’s only really apparent when using flying Slugs or the jetpack power-up, which are rare. Still, it was annoying every time it happened.

A more significant issue was the shooting. Metal Slug: Awakening gives players the choice between manual or automatic aiming, neither of which feels very natural. It’s not game-ruining and works fine about 80% of the time. However, sometimes, mostly during miniboss encounters, targeting is critically important. In those cases, I felt I was working around the targeting system rather than with it.

The Mummy Returns

I also have mixed feelings about the story. Having recurring villain Morden playing second-fiddle to the Pharoah strikes me as an odd choice. Maybe it would have been better if the Pharaoh hadn’t been introduced as the antagonist until later, so Morden would have had more time in the spotlight. The opening cutscene talks him up as the big bad, only to introduce the Pharoh as the main villain soon after.

While I’m nitpicking the new characters, something bugs me about the recurring NPC Elia. Each character in the game has a cartoon portrait and up to two 3D models, with the models used in gameplay resembling the 2D sprites of the older games. Most of them look fine, but Elia’s looks like she was ripped out of another game. She looks like an off-brand Bratz doll with her big head and eyes, and she sticks out when put side-by-side with the other characters.

But as I said, I’m starting to nitpick, and the game as a whole is fine. Ultimately, I came away from Metal Slug: Awakening feeling mostly positive. The shooting never felt like it 100% clicked, but it was still fun. The story was just an excuse to string a sequence of stages together, but sometimes that’s all it needs to be. I won’t be shouting its praises from the rooftops any time soon, but it’s still worth a look if you are in the market for a 2D platform shoot em’ up.