The Metal Slug franchise made a surprise appearance in the App Store this evening. SNK Playmore has brought a version of the classic game to the iPhone:

“METAL SLUG”, the 2D action shooter which has fascinated game fans from all over the world with its beautiful dot pixel art and gaudy action, has arrived on the iPhone for a new type of Metal Slug, “METAL SLUG TOUCH”! It will give gamers great excitement and thrills together with the simple and intuitive controls available only on the iPhone. Handle the versatile armored tank Metal Slug, and give chase to Morden’s Army!

Movement is tilt controlled (left/right) while turret rotation is handled by tapping on the left/right side of the screen. This results in your turret moving in the desired direction. Jump and squat movements are handled by swipe control (up and down) and finally, there are two additional on screen buttons: avoid and cannon. Controls of the game are shown through this trailer video.

If that all sounds confusing, it is at first. In the end, I found the primary controls to focus on were the turret rotation and tilt controls. Jumping and squatting came into usage much less, and with unlimited continues, actually trying to dodge enemy fire became were less of a concern. The game only comes with 4 missions, and I ran into a crashing issue that prevented me twice from completing the game. With no auto-save or ability to restart at a later level, this became particularly frustrating. A reboot later, and I was able to make it through the relatively brief campaign and had a reasonable amount of fun during.

In the end, Metal Slug Touch isn’t all that bad, but it’s also just not all that great either. Meanwhile, long time fans of the franchise seem particularly disappointed with the changes made to the iPhone adaptation (no non-vehicular levels, for example).

App Store Link: Metal Slug, .99

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