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Get Seven Times The Bullets With Metal Slug Anthology PS2

There's an argument to be had about the glut of repackaged classic games hitting the market and whether or not they're worth the investment or whether they're keeping original games off of shelves. One thing is clear, though – they make money for the big publishers. Nintendo's GBA ports of its classic NES games paved the way for the current classic port zeitgeist, but inexpensive delivery platforms like Xbox Live Arcade and the Wii Store make it all the more attractive – the PacMan Championship Edition, Galaga Legions and Bionic Commando: Rearmed are testament enough of that. But few of these games make their way to disc, so when a game like SNK Playmore's Metal Slug Anthology (PS2, PSP, Wii) appears as physical media, there's reason to take notice.

The classic port boom has been a boon for run and gun and bullet hell shooters. And for the old-school gamers, there's no game that exemplifies run and gun gameplay like Metal Slug. Metal Slug Anthology brings every version of the arcade classic home to your PS2, including Metal Slug 4, which was developed after SNK lost the Metal Slug license temporarily.

While the three versions of the game are virtually identical, Metal Slug Anthology PS2 is the best of the bunch. The PSP version has the same interminable loading issues that plague most of the handheld's games, and despite a noble attempt to incorporate motion control into the Wii version, the title ultimately came out too soon and left gamers with glitchy, pedestrian controls that left most gamers opting for no-frills gameplay using the classic controller.

Metal Slug Anthology PS2 doesn't have any bells and whistles, just a fluff-free collection of seven really great arcade classics boasting high-frame-rate animation that is much more complex than it may initially appear and frenetic action to rival any of the bullet hell games from the heyday of TurboGrafX 16, and the games still stand the test of time against upstarts like Alien Hominid.

Metal Slug Anthology PS2 is over a year old now, but you can still find new, factory-sealed copies at GameQuest Direct. No gutted games or preowned copies, just great games, the way you want them.