SNK Eager To Revive Metal Slug, But Still Unsure About One-Hit Mechanic

The one hit system is what prevents me from enjoying contra and this genre in the slightest. Im open to new ideas

I like the idea of a “traditional” one-hit mode and a “contemporary” life bar mode with a few hit points, as Oda suggested. If designed properly, this might offer the best chance of satisfying both types of gamers.

The only life bar I need are infinite Quarters.

I'm cool with 1 hit kills, I grew up on Contra and wouldn't have it any other way.

I didn't mind one-hit deaths with unlimited continues, lol

Just bring over the collection or make a new game, and I will buy metal slug. In this day and age, I simply refuse to buy Virtual console style releases (Except Sega ages, because I don't expect them to put out another collection anytime soon), because why would I pay $7 for metal slug when I can go back a generation and get 6 of them for dirt cheap? However, I would love to get into the series, and SNK in general (Will be starting to dig into SNK when the samurai shodown collection comes out), so I would love a new game as well, and buy it just as fast as a collection.

Just have a hardcore mode.

Could go the extra mile and have one hit with no retries nightmare mode for the super crazy fans.

This is some exciting news to hear. I've been playing Metal Slug in arcades(at Ryan Family Amusements(God Bless the good times I had there))since the second entry. I've beaten Metal Slug 3 because I was able to get unlimited credits by pushing the coin return(do to a technical hitch).

@sfb Wait a minute, didn't Metal Slug Advance have a life bar.

Just throw in a revive mechanic to the multiplayer like cuphead and it’s fine.

A Metal Slug Anthology port wouldn't be a bad idea either, ya know.

Offering modes is the best option. It's like how FE became far more open to different options just by making permadeath an option rather than a requirement.

If I can One-Hit-Kill all enemies too.

I wasn't opposed to one-hit deaths, but I feel if they work with making a life bar, they could definitely reach a wider audience and have everyone shame Konami

I see no issue with the option for adding a life bar.

The last time I played a Metal Slug game I wasted like 20 continues on the final boss.

It's ok as long as you have unlimited continues, but I prefer health bar games as well.

...have a shield (X number of hits or a bar) and alternately make an Arcade Mode. Why is this a big deal???

Make a Classic Mode option. That way it'll satisfy both old fans and new.

I love metal slug! Would love to have a collection of all metal slug games into one (similar to contra or Castlevania).
Hopefully they stay the 2D route. Would be awesome for the game to be drawn animation (asthetic of maybe old manga/ shows?) Maybe even have it set up in pixel and animated version change.

I would love different modes. Maybe multiplayer (like 4 player co-op), bring back all the old characters too!

wow two modes, they're figuring it out, good job guys!

Why not add in a casual mode with lives?

Just do what Gradius does, increase the number of continues you can use with each Game Over until free play is enabled.

As long as it doesn't go the route of Contra, I'll be happy if it comes out.

I think they’d be better off implementing immediate respawning like Celeste, and perhaps removing lives in one mode for causals, and implementing life stock for retro enthusiasts.

@ReaperExTenebris by lives I mean like hit that can be taken before you’re dead, lives wasn’t the right word

I wonder how SNK have survived this long. It's not like have that many releases since Neo Geo died in 1990's.

@Ventilator Technically they didn't. They closed their doors in 2001 to bankruptcy, and their assets were all sold to Playmore, which was founded by SNK's original founder, who eventually rebranded the whole thing under the original company name.

Great news Absolutely love the NeoGeo and SNK. Give us two options for Metal Slug. But please don’t!! make a 3D slug it’s been done before total rubbish. And Konami have completely destroyed Contra with the tripe they just released.

@Wavey84 honestly depends on the games you play. There are plenty of difficult modern games out there.

Well the Japanese Contra Hard Corps on the Sega Genesis Mini and Metal Slug Advance for GBA both had a health bar so the addition is totally welcome especially since the Gunstar Heroes and Turrican series had it for years.

There is nothing wrong with having options.

I'd love a new Metal Slug. Konami sure crapped the bed with that new "Contra."

Plenty of games still do the one hit kill mechanic and Metal Slug has 3 lives per credit. What they need to tone down is blatant traps designed to suck quarters, those pretty much unavoidable deaths.
Easy mode could be also a solution, as long as "classic" mode is there as well. But there's also companies refusing to add easy modes to their games because they want to keep that hardcore experience (like Souls or Sekiro). No one is forcing anyone to play those games, no one is forcing you to play Metal Slug.

@PBandSmelly IIRC the original Japanese Contra had a life bar.

I'm also staying away because of 1-hit mechanic. Call me a wuss, a casual gamer or what you want, fact is, practicing a game like this to the point where I can play it through with a 1-hit mechanic is just not on my agenda and not something I'd be eager to brag about. I want to have fun. Dying constantly isn't. A life gauge or maybe just 3-hearts or something with an occasional drop here and there sounds reasonable.

@Sabrewing Thanks. That made more sense.

Why is this even a question? YES, BRING BACK METAL SLUG! A two mode system is just fine, in fact I kinda liked the health gauge from MS Advance, even though you only had one life it worked great for continuity of play.

Yes, bring back Metal Slug. Unlimited continues is what helped me out with this series lol. Playing Metal Slug 3 on Xbox, man that was tough.

It's always kinda strange to me that standard difficulty for these kinds of games is usually considered "hardcore" these days and often gets delegated to it's own difficulty mode. I don't see a problem with one-hit deaths in these games, it was NEVER a problem. I never once met anyone who said "You know, this game is awesome, but I hate dying in one hit!". It's just how the games were and we accepted it. Nowadays this is apparently seen as a bad thing. I especially hate it when a reviewer reviews a game and docks points for "difficulty". same with Fire Emblem and how the game is meant to be actually played gets called Classic Mode. It's just so weird to me that these things even exist. What weirds me out even more is how other franchises get celebrated for their difficulty. So it's like gamers hate one franchise for being hard but then another can do it and people throw the devs a parade. It's all jacked up.

I would say just leave the one hit deaths in and simply give more credits on lower difficulties, with a "free mode" that has infinite credits for people just wanting to practice or enjoy the game. instead of difficulty modes, they can also opt to simply have the different characters have differing amounts of life, with one character having no lifebar and others having small or large lifebars. At least then there would be some notable difference between characters.

@Jim_Purcell This

I thought we were past the point of wondering whether people would play hard games. Feels like I'm back in 2006.

Anyway, Metal Slug without 1HKO isn't Metal Slug. Throw in a newbie mode, sure, but keep the real game intact.

@RadNitro89 Interesting, I don’t think I ever tried Metal Slug Advance — I’ll have to check that out

I think it needs to keep it. Look at what happened to Contra Rogue Corps.

sheesh... the ones who don't aprecciate this mechanic have to try harder to learn the way to play these kind of games

I agree that a easy mode will bring more people, but the original proposal of the series is the OHK.

I just want a new game already

@RadNitro89

Yes it did. But you only had one life per mission. What it did was so you dont drop your powerups. It was similar to how Raiden V works. You had one life per run but you had armor that replenishes at the end every stage

Most people who played the home versions of Metal Slug have already infinite continues, the only difficulty selection Metal Slug needs is choosing how many continues you will get and try to beat the game with a limited number.

I'm a big fan of the Metal Slug series, so I'm all for keeping the one-hit kills. I think an option for something a bit more forgiving, like three hits, or something like that, is a reasonable thing to consider. It all comes down to the game balance. If the easy mode isn't too easy that it kills the fun, or if they don't overcompensate by making the normal mode super hard, then it would be fun for a wide audience, potentially. It's worth pointing out that several Metal Slug games aren't nearly as hard as they're made out to be. Some in the series, 3, 4, perhaps 6, 7, and XX may be quite hard for various reasons, but 1, 2, X, and 5 are actually very fair once you get used to the game play, not requiring as many credits as many may expect. I like playing through the games and seeing the game report on number of credits and then trying to get the number down.

Yeah, a health meter would be nice to be honest, while I do like the metal slug series, it always surprised me they never included one in any of their main series games. Well, except Metal Slug Advance and probably another one in forgetting. But yeah I'm definitely hoping for one.

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooo creater a life bar then. There you go SNK playmore you can now start making the game.

I think the 2 modes would be fine. I'd most likely stick with the one shot mode but I think having multiple hits like Cuphead would be fine.

@EmmatheBest A life bar was the least of Rogue Corps' problem, if at all. A three or four hit life bar would help the series reach a wider audience, that is if SNK intends to make a more conventional Metal Slug game instead of the 3D Contra slop Konami rushed out.

@MortalKombat2007 - When I played the demo, my biggest issue was the fact that... I just couldn't die. I mean, I could, but it was impossible to game over at all. Which is basically completely opposite to everything Contra has been up until now.

The two best Metal Slug games (1st Mission and 2nd Mission) have life bars anyway.

A new Metal slug, I hope it happens.