Metal Slug Advance (Game Boy Advance) Review

The manual crafts a fine tale, so I will let it do the talking: "The special ops squad Peregrine (aka PF Squad) is known for demanding the best of its members in any situation to carry out the mission. A day in their corps does not go by without a vigorous regime of training. The mission this time is a simulated battle drill for new recruits..." Do you see where this is going? Off go Walter Ryan a 21-year-old Australian and the rather cute Tyra Elson, a 20-year-old American, two such recruits, to a remote island in the South Pacific. But soon things start to go wrong and what was simple training quickly becomes a fight against an unknown evil mastermind who will stop at nothing to claim victory...

Now, whilst the GBA might not be as powerful as some arcade machines, from playing through Metal Slug Advance you really would not be able to notice too many differences. Sure, the explosions are not quite as meaty as you might remember, and maybe some of the richness in colour has dissipated a tad, but SNK has done a splendid job of translating the powerful 2D graphics, with clever parallax techniques to instill a feeling of depth to the chaotic environments you charge across. Each character is refreshingly 'chunky' and large enough so that the gamer can see their facial expressions and bodily movements clearly and the overall cartoony-feel to the proceedings brings a sense of joy to the game that many GBA titles lack. This is fun to play just because of its style, not just its gameplay. People might say looks are not everything, but in this case without the level Metal Slug has here, then it just would not be the same!

When it comes to the music, you could very well be playing something like Fire Emblem or Advance Wars - in other words Metal Slug Advance's soundtrack is extremely military-orientated, which is perfect considering its setting. The music really does keep the action flowing more than adequately and the little extras added are superb, such as the voice-overs shouting Go! for when you are ready to move on to the next screen, or the screams of pain as you or your adversaries are hit by a flying bomb or some other such weapon of mass destruction! Which, actually brings me on to the point of how impressive the sound effects are, with all the weapons and background noises immersing you into the game more than you would expect, especially if you are wearing a set of earphones. Another thumbs up here.

As soon as you start you find yourself in the thick of the action

There are two slight drawbacks to the game, however

Gameplay
Fast, frenetic fun all the way through, with only a couple of minor qualms that never manage to break the exhilarating ride Metal Slug takes you on.

Graphics
This is wonderful work by SNK Playmore, managing to bring the arcade quality that fans know and love to life on the humble GBA with little-to-no sacrifices!

Sound
Highly appropriate, with its military overtones suiting the play perfectly. Tied with the excellent voice-clips and meaty sound effects, this is a very impressive package.

Value
With only five levels, this might seem too short for some. However, the difficulty level and the extra cards to collect and hostages to save bump this up a little more...

PROS
Arcade action crammed onto the GBA!
Highly detailed graphics
Thematic soundtrack

CONS
Enemies respawn too quickly/easily
No weapon-lock option causes frustration
Only five levels, in essence