An Extremely Intense 2D Shooter.
The story of the game picks up where the previous game left off. Most of 'General Morden's' rebels have been defeated. Major 'Marco' and Captain 'Tarma' have been ordered to assume leadership within the 'Pereguine Falcons Squad' waging war upon the remnants of Morden's army. Whilst 'Eric' and 'Fio' have been promoted futher up the ranks of the 'Sparrows' special ops unit. But the future certainly is'nt looking good for our four hero's. Sightings of abnormally large beatles and shell fish have been reported, and various world leaders and livestock have mysteriously started vanishing. Sensing a fearfull presence other than General Morden, government officials have been led to the undeniable conclusion of alien intelligence.
The single player campaign is broken down into five extremely intense and difficult arcade missions, each one consisting of its own unique hand drawn art style, lightning quick animation and impressive level design.
Gameplay basically consists of controlling either Marco, Tarma, Eric or Fio in 'third person' prospective. The main objective of the game is to simply guide your character through each mission obliterating enemies and rescueing prisoners whilst collecting items and power ups. Your character has a large amount of weapons at his/her disposal some of which include hand guns, shot guns, flame shots, machine guns, laser guns, cannons and enemy chasing rocket launchers. Various weaponised vehicals called 'Slugs' are also placed throughout the missions. Some of these include the 'Metal Slug', the 'Slugnoid', the 'Slug Flyer', the 'Slug Marinor', the 'Slug Copter' and the 'Slug Elephant'. These Slug vehicals come with a 'Vulcan Cannon' that includes unlimited anno and a powerful special weapon. The slug vehicals also have the 'Suicide' ability, which enables the vehical to bolt forward self destructing to destroy all near by enemies.
Keep your eyes peeled for the 'Warp Gates', because these are alternative paths that lead you to secret areas.
When you eventually beat the game, two bonus levels will automatically unlock. 'Fat Island' and 'Storming The Mother Ship'. Any gamer who's played through this title will probably confirm that 'Storming The Mother Ship' is EASILY the most impressive part of the game. So don't give up, because like all good things in life, the best bit is always at the end !
Personally, I really enjoyed playing through this game, even though the continual button mashing hurts your fingers after while.
If you enjoy playing 2D Shooter games, then you'll probably enjoy playing "Metal Slug 3".