SNK is a company mostly known for its many, many, MANY fighting game franchises, but if there is one series I associate them with more than anything else (even if, technically, they weren’t the ones who invented it), that is Metal Slug. It was a staple of my childhood, with Neo Geo machines in birthday parties, gas stations, supermarkets, you name it, all featuring it for me and everyone else to enjoy while mom was busy doing groceries or whatnot.

You can easily pick up a well-emulated copy of Metal Slug on pretty much any modern platform.

But when you start analyzing it in a technical matter, you end up realizing there isn’t anything particularly special about it. Its gameplay loop was taken from Contra, its controls can be janky at times, its framerate wasn’t anything special. In theory, better run-and-gun shooters existed before it, and would be released after it. So what made Metal Slug stand out in particular? Why is this franchise so beloved by literally everyone who has ever played it? Was it the availability? Something about its art style? Or was it something else, something a lot less tangible and easy to explain?

If you’ve been living under a rock for the past literal thirty years, you might be wondering what the hell a Metal Slug even is in the first place. The franchise was created by Nazca Corporation (a third party studio that only made games for the Neo Geo), and it is basically your standard run-and-gun arcade shooter, having you play as either Major Marco Rossi or Captain Tarma Roving, two members of a small army division on a mission to defeat an evil army led by the villainous General Donald Morden. The story is intentional shallow, as this is an arcade game meant for you to think less and shoot more. You’re here for frantic action, not a detailed plot.

Gigantic bosses flashing orange whenever you hit them with your ridiculous gun; the epitome of “game feel”.

The gameplay itself follows what Contra has done in the past, but in a slightly slower pace. That’s not to say that Metal Slug isn’t an action-heavy game, but the game trades Contra‘s insane pace and multitude of enemies onscreen for bigger sprites, detailed backgrounds, and its most important selling point: game feel. As previously mentioned, there isn’t anything special about its controls, mechanics, and so on. With the exception of being to occasionally pilot a tank, it’s your standard run-and-gun fare. A lot of enemies onscreen, one hit kills you, guns get increasingly more grandiose and idiotic, bosses occupy half of the screen real estate. What differs Metal Slug from other games is its charm and game feel, purely and simply.

Yes, that’s what made us fall in love with Metal Slug. It’s just neat to look at, and really fun to play. Its cartoonish aesthetic is deceiving, inviting us over, thinking it’s an easy-going experience. You proceed to kill the first few soldiers, hear them scream in delightful agony, save some hostages, get a brand new weapon… it all sounds like a fun time at first. When things ramp up to an utterly absurdist, coin-munching degree, you’re too invested – the gameplay is frantic, the action is intense, the level of absurdity is shark-jumping, and the moment you start wondering if this game is just too difficult or unfair, they give you a tank to REALLY take things to an even more absurdist level.

And when things start getting a bit dicey, Metal Slug gives you a tank to commandeer.

That’s how SNK and Nazca got us back then: it really doesn’t matter that this game is a quarter muncher. It’s just too fun. Even if you’re as frail as a twig, you feel powerful, as your guns deliver painful deaths to your enemies. The animations are great, the bosses are creative, the explosions are over the top; this is pure, classic 90s action schlock, condensed in a self-aware and tongue-in-cheek coat of paint. Nostalgia is a subjective manner, but even after replaying Metal Slug before writing this piece, even though there is a lot to complain about it, it’s almost like my brain doesn’t care; the game is tons of fun, it’s engaging, and it grabs you like a tractor beam. Even after thirty years and countless sequels, this might actually be the Neo Geo’s, and SNK’s, magnum opus.