Metal Slug: Anthology has been a long time coming. After a decade of overpriced ports and limited support in the West, the quintessential arcade action series has finally been released in an affordable package on multiple consoles. Frothing demand for one of the most emulated and pirated franchises has been satiated, at least in part. Perhaps appropriately, the first legitimate compilation to span all seven main releases has been given all the care and consideration you might expect from a bootleg.

If you have never had the pleasure of wasting a few bucks on it at the local theatre or pizza shop, Metal Slug is a 2D side scrolling shooter in the vein of Contra or Gunstar. One or two players run from point A on the left to point B on the right, slaughtering an increasingly dense swarm of enemies with guns and bombs while ducking and jumping to avoid obstacles and adversarial fire. Cannon fodder ranges from the more conventional Nazi pastiches, frogman and stereotypical Arab terrorists to zombies, aliens, clones and zombie alien clones. While Metal Slug may not sound particularly unique, its signature appeal lies in its meticulously handcrafted sprite art. The games have personality in spades: each character has his or her own set of idle and victory poses, Nazis scream and flee when caught off-guard sunbathing or chatting among themselves, cartoony tanks jump around on bouncy treads only to be upstaged by more outlandish vehicles, from harrier jets to machine gun-equipped ostriches and elephants.

Though the series gets a little more complicated in later installments, it basically retains its simple and fun three-button gameplay throughout. You move, shoot (a lot!), jump and toss grenades while collecting temporary weapon power-ups, like machine guns and laser beams, in order to better mow down waves of enemies and dismantle giant end bosses in a delightfully bloody fashion. Same-looking POWs and other helper characters are scattered about each level in order to disperse power-ups, extra points and food or even join in the action themselves. Though it’s somewhat rare, eating enough food can make player characters obese, which naturally makes them more powerful.

Despite adhering to this winning formula, the games vary somewhat in quality. The original trilogy or so (Metal Slug 1-3, and X which is a remixed version of the rightly popular 2) was developed by SNK prior to bankruptcy, while the remaining releases were handled by other developers. As a result, the latter half of games feel rushed (part 4), experimental (5) or somewhat dull (6). Regardless of criticism, I have found that each of these “lesser” titles is worth playing through at least on occasion, even if they don’t have the purity (part 1), balance (2/X) or spectacle (3) of the early games.

Where Anthology loses points is in the nature of the compilation itself. The package, ported and put together by Terminal Reality, is a little shady. Case in point: the menus are text-based, MAME-esque affairs designed to be navigated while holding the remote vertically even though the default control scheme for the actual games has the remote oriented horizontally, like an NES controller. There is some loading for each game, but it’s inconsistent. Some games, like 2 and 3, pause to load briefly in between areas. While loading, the screen goes letterbox and a little tank icon scoots along the bottom. It’s awkward and a little distracting. Other games (1 and 6) don’t do this, which is curious. You can save mid-game, which is nice, but the rest of the options are a bit lacking, i.e. you can only choose between having twenty and an unlimited number of credits, and nothing in between. I have also noticed some very minor graphical hiccups, including missing “hit flash” (some enemy vehicles don’t blink red when hit where I’m pretty sure they did in the arcade) and one instance of sprite flickering in Metal Slug 1 that has not been repeated since.

The unlockables also strike me as half-hearted, but in a quirky way: by beating the games, you can earn tokens to purchase artwork, background music and a translated text interview where the developers talk about random things, like who they would cast in a Metal Slug movie. Quote: “Allen is half naked and muscular in the game, so how about Hugh Jackman who is sharp-eyed and strong?” Er, alright…

Surface complaints aside, what really threatens the anthology are the much-touted Wii-specific controls. There are a half dozen different control options to choose from (eight if you count the south paw configurations), but only half of them even approximate a conventional, common sense approach, and none of them hit it dead on. Of the more gimmicky and curious set, we have the option to (1) tilt the remote to control movement, yet press the D-pad up to jump, (2) hold the remote vertically against a flat surface like a joystick while using the Nunchuk buttons to jump and shoot and flicking the Nunchuk to toss grenades, or (3) use the Nunchuk exclusively, except for in the later games which require additional buttons for relatively unimportant functions like switching weapons. These configurations can be considered novelties at best, but they frankly just don’t work that well.

The only way to play the games properly (and competently), is with one of the other three set-ups. One option that works is the Gamecube controller, where you use the thumbstick to move while the rest of the buttons are fully configurable. The other two include the default option, where you hold the Wii Remote like an NES controller, use the 1 and 2 buttons to shoot and jump, and shake the Remote to toss grenades; and the Nunchuk-inclusive take on that scheme, where movement is controlled with the stick, jumping is assigned to A, shooting to B and grenades are still tossed by flicking the Remote.

To summarize the outrage of the Internet: there is no option to use only a d-pad and buttons. In all cases, you are either using a thumbstick or flicking the remote (or both). This is a pretty big oversight. Even after becoming accustomed to the shake-to-bomb mechanic I could never fire off grenades quickly and reliably enough to stop kamikaze motorcyclists or oddly-angled missiles. From my observations, even people who enjoy the visceral thrill of shaking the remote to bombard a boss can’t attack with their usual precision, especially if they have to move, jump, and bomb at the same time.

I personally opted for the Gamecube controller -- while the stick was awkward at first, I’m now maiming enemy combatants with ease. A more intuitive Remote option or Classic Controller support would have been ideal, but this works. It also doesn’t hurt that each configuration has an auto-fire option. Video game war is hell… on the thumbs. I certainly can’t guarantee that everyone will be satisfied with the Gamecube controller, but I did find using the stick to be more fluid than in, say, the Cube version of Mega Man Anniversary Collection. As an aside, Capcom, like SNK Playmore, hired a small Western developer to handle the Mega Man ports and it also botched the controls, swapping the positions of the jump and fire buttons -- the only two action buttons in the game. I wonder how these things happen…

But I digress. Metal Slug: Anthology is a hard title to score because the games themselves are basically excellent, but the package as a whole suffers from some shoddy production values. The final score then is a reflection of the quality of the games, minus the effort (or perhaps time and resources) put forth in faithfully porting them.

Overall: 7.5/10

The bargain-priced Metal Slug: Anthology may not give the series all the love it deserves, but the games themselves are well worth the investment.