The game only includes seven, fairly short missions to play through. There are no branching paths, no bonus levels, and basically nothing to keep you coming back after you quickly breeze through them all in an hour or two, depending on your chosen difficulty. Trying to rescue every POW can add a bit to your playtime but definitely not much. You can also play as any one of the six included characters. Despite their slightly differing abilities, such as more ammo or better melee attacks, your experience will be almost exactly the same.

In an attempt to compensate for this, the game also provides eighty training levels to extend its life. Each level in the game provides ten to twelve training missions that have you trying to achieve specific goals and giving you a score depending on how well you do. These missions break down into five basic categories including target elimination, base assault, special training, item collection, and POW rescue. Target elimination is roughly playing through each level trying to kill as many enemies as you can within a certain time limit, a set number of lives, or with limited weapons. Base assault typically has you fighting different bosses with similar stipulations. Item collection and POW rescue are fairly self-explanatory, requiring you to collect as many items and save as many POWs as you can respectively. These training levels can be extremely difficult and are often incredibly tedious in nature.

The only training levels that are somewhat inventive and entertaining are the special training missions. Here you’ll find some completely off the wall objectives and a good deal of variety. In one level you’ll be trying to keep a ball afloat and steering it towards your goal using bullets, and in the next you may need to collect a steady stream of falling fish, with an occasional mushroom thrown in that will temporarily invert your horizontal controls. Almost all of the special training levels are enjoyable but, unfortunately, they only make up two to four of each level’s training missions.

For what’s there, Metal Slug 7 is a very good game full of crazy action, great graphics, smooth animations, and a definite challenge. The only problem is that there is so much missing from this package. No multiplayer, no leaderboards, no branching paths, and only seven story missions won’t keep you coming back even with the additional eighty training levels. While you will likely have a great time with Metal Slug 7, its lack of depth makes it one you’ll want to rent rather than purchase.

By Adam Brown
CCC Staff Contributor

Game Features:

Battle your way through seven intense combat missions.

Play as your favorite Metal Slug character.

All-new Combat School Mode featuring 80 training missions.

New Slugs and Enemies!