Yes, the 2D sprites are in a low resolution, but that's made up with the incredible attention to detail. There haven't been any improvements from the arcade version, but it's a near flawless port ' in fact, the framerate hitches that often occurred in the arcade can't be found in the Xbox version.

It's easy to dismiss Metal Slug 3 simply because it's 2D, but it really does look great even if it's not technically advanced. In an age where it takes millions of intricately woven polygons filled with bump mapping to wow the masses, Metal Slug 3 is somewhat of an anomaly. There's also this undeniable feeling of satisfaction that overcomes you when you wade through a hail of bullets to obliterate enemies, and that in itself just might be what Metal Slug 3 is all about: providing brief flashes of old school gaming nirvana that's hard to find anywhere else nowadays. It never deviates from the standard side-scrolling shooter formula of throwing a million enemies on the screen so that the player can somehow find a way to compensate with quick reflexes and sharp timing, but it still feels strangely unique. There are a million side-scrolling shooters out there, but Metal Slug 3 is undoubtedly heads above them all. Despite it being a straight up port of a four-year-old game, Metal Slug 3 still a complete blast to play, and stranger still, it's hard to explain just how that's possible. Metal Slug 3 is all about shooting stuff before it shoots you - a game that's true to its retro roots - but strangely enough, it doesn't show it's age in its gameplay. These new Slugs are not just fun to use, but SNK was very clever and made sure that many of them have an actual purpose in some of the levels. The Astro Slug lets you kick some serious alien butt and is probably my favorite. The Elephant Slug is exactly what it sounds like, an elephant with some heavy-duty firepower. There are even more Slugs for you to wage war with this time and they are even more over the top than in the previous game. This time you can turn into a zombie and even sport some really cool scuba diving gear for an underwater section.

I really liked the transformations in the second game and that has been brought back here. Metal Slug 3 does add a few fun things to the game. I knew I was going to go back and experience them all. I know the first time I ever played the PlayStation 2 version of Metal Slug 3 and heard that there were multiple paths on the levels. This is great stuff as for me it really does improve the replayability of the game. You example the very first mission actually has three different routes that you can take! The big improvement here is that the levels now have branching paths that you can take. It does what the previous games did and it does it just as well if not better. The core gameplay is unchanged and I am not going to criticize the game for that at all.

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