Nostalgia collections as of late haven't struck me as all that great. I've purchased a few retro collections, a Sonic, and a Street Fighter at least, and after playing for only a few hours, my temporary fix is finished and I don't bother ever picking it up again. I guess when it comes to games I'm living too much in the present now and memories are best left as that – memories of things in the past. However, along comes Metal Slug Anthology, and though it ultimately suffers from some of the same trappings, it manages to reach beyond to a new level as well.

THE STORY SO FAR
If you were to play the game without ever having once looked at the manual, you'd have absolutely no clue what the story of the game is, because frankly there isn't one. Since the Metal Slug series has always been an arcade staple, frequenters of those establishments rarely needed or wanted a story since if all the time you have to play is condensed to a handful of minutes or a pocket full of change, you really didn't have time to invest in the story. Since the anthology remains true to the arcade games, nothing has been done to address the situation, other than provide a few paragraphs of text in the manual to give you a little bit of backstory to what "should" be happening while you are playing the game. However, if you don't bother reading the manual, the story will be nothing more than running across a level, shooting everything in your path, and not bothering to ask questions until…well…never.

GAMEPLAY
As one of several different heroes that you can choose from, you'll run from left to right, up and down, blowing everything up that stands in your way and dodging every last bullet and knife slice (just to name a few ways in which you can die) as it goes back to the old Contra days of gameplay, where one hit means death. Run, shoot, dodge, fight smaller enemies, fight large end of level bosses, and do it all by yourself or with a second player buddy. There really isn't too much else beyond that as that is the central gameplay at the forefront of Metal Slug Anthology.

As you move through the levels, you'll run across POWs, who upon being freed, will grant you either items to make your points total go up, bombs to add to your inventory, or powerups to improve your weapons. The weapon powerups are the most beneficial out of the three, because though you have unlimited ammo for your default pistol, it works terribly against the larger enemies like the tanks, helicopters, and the massive end of level bosses. Powerups range from heavy machine guns to rockets to lasers and more. Another thing that makes up the Metal Slug series are the vehicles you can enter, such as gun blasting tanks, submarines, miniature airplanes, and even camels with guns on their humps.

The big thing about the game is a two-fold one: 1) seven games in one package, and 2) the unique control schemes that the Wii offers up. First up, you've got seven games with Metal Slug 5 being offered for the first time, so if you are a Metal Slug fan, then this is your first chance to own this game on a system. Having seven games in one package is a great deal, but that deal is only as good as the gameplay will take you; things remain so much alike between each game in the series, I could show you a handful of screens and only the die-hards would be able to sit here and go, "Oh yeah, that is the third level from number four." Once again, if you like what you are paying for you'll love the game, but if not nothing changes from one to the other, so if you don't like game one you won't like any of the following ones either.

The control scheme differentiates Metal Slug Anthology from other Metal Slug releases in the past, as there are a total of about seven control schemes alone. You can use an old Gamecube controller if you want, or you can use just the Wii remote or a combination of both the Wii remote and the nunchuk. Each control scheme had a fault, but kudos for them at least trying something new, such as tilting the Wii remote left and right to make the characters move that way. Ultimately, you'll choose whatever works best for you, which for me was the Nunchuk Control Stick style, with the only fault being sometimes the character didn't want to look the way I told them to or would crouch because I pushed slightly down instead of straight left or right.

The game is customizable to a fault, allowing you to simply breeze through the game with unlimited continues or set limits as if you only had so much money in your pocket at an actual arcade. I'd highly recommend choosing one of the limit choices (preferably medium or hard difficulty) because the game simply isn't any fun for the older players out there as not being able to die takes all the excitement and fun out of the game.

Upon completion of any given game and based on the difficulty you chose, you'll get tokens which you can use to unlock various fan goodies such as artwork, music, interviews, etc. It is a nice touch for the hardcore fans out there, but otherwise it is a minor plus for those who beat the game and winning the tokens was just an afterthought.

GRAPHICS
Though the graphics suck when compared to games today, it is important to remember that the game wasn't trying to update the look, but rather remain faithful to it, and that it does marvelously. Simple 2D sprites on flat backgrounds has never looked so good, and the only reason the game succeeds so well is because of the impeccable animations, which are perhaps the best animation of an old school 2D game I've ever seen; everything from a squid dissolving into nothingness to a enemy soldier spraying blood to the destruction of a building and the billowing smoke are all highly detailed and beautiful to watch in action (still screenshots really do not do the graphics justice).

The only complaint I have with the graphics (or at least I'm chalking it up here in this department) is that there is some major slowdown, especially in Metal Slug 2, where the game shugs along at a relatively slower pace.

SOUND
Though good, the sound work is far from great or perfection. The background music is tolerable while the sound of you getting killed or your path of destruction sound good, but repeat way too often and doesn't offer enough variety from the beginning of the game to the end; it does get the job done satisfactorily though if that is all you are looking for.

IN CONCLUSION
If you are a hardcore Metal Slug fan then the game is probably an unquestionable purchase. For everyone else out there wondering about a purchase, as long as you know what you are getting it is a perfectly fine game, but it isn't anything new and something we haven't seen before. If you want a quick nostalgia trip then pickup the game, but otherwise, perhaps a rental would be best since each game in the series can be beaten rather quickly (about forty something minutes for each).

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