An unsatisfying port of an ingenious series
To cut it short: You all know the Metal Slug series and there's not much to say about it. Not because it is THAT simple but because everyone knows about the essential elements of this game: It's an arcade side-scrolling shoot'em'up to the core. You run through levels as a comic hero and shoot down every enemy that comes in your way. Sounds simple? Yeah, but look at those overwhelming 2D-sprite-arts, look at the details and the variety! There are no words to describe the charm of Metal Slug, you have to play it. And the best way is to look for an original Neo-Geo arcade and throw in a few bucks just for kicks. Definitely playing it on a console can't be that funny. And this is one problem of the Metal Slug Anthology for Wii, the control schemes have been ported very well and there are plenty of options to control this game but it simply doesn't have the charm of such a big arcade machine.
But in addition to that there's a big problem: performance, the Wii port is too slow. The framerate of the Wii port is way below the original framerate which makes it playable for someone who is new to the series but rather annoying and unfamiliar to someone who has been playing this game for years. Maybe it's nice to put every single Metal Slug game (actually seven) on one disc and even add a few achievements like galleries and music (hell yeah!) to it but... You know, it doesn't feel like the original, mainly due to the bad performance. If they had improved that, i would have given one and a half point more, but after all regarding Metal Slug it all comes down to gameplay. Sorry, but for a die-hard fan of Metal Slug this is not worth the buy.