Happyfragger

Tag: NEOGEO

  • Metal Slug Review — Is SNK’s 1996 Neo Geo Run-and-Gun Classic Still Worth Playing in 2026?

    Metal Slug Review — Is SNK’s 1996 Neo Geo Run-and-Gun Classic Still Worth Playing in 2026?

    Title Metal Slug
    Developer Nazca Corporation
    Publisher SNK
    Year 1996
    Platform focus Neo Geo MVS / AES original release
    Genre Run-and-gun
    Score 9 / 10

    Metal Slug still answers a very practical retro question in 2026: if you want a side-scrolling shooter with instantly readable chaos, ridiculous sprite work, and just enough arcade cruelty to keep your palms honest, is SNK’s 1996 Neo Geo classic still worth your time? I think yes. Very yes, actually. This is one of the cleanest recommendations you can make to anyone searching for the best retro run-and-gun that still feels alive the second it starts moving.

    What strikes me now is how playful it is. Plenty of old action games are technically impressive, but Metal Slug still feels animated in the broader sense: tanks wobble, soldiers panic, explosions bloom with real personality, and every screen seems delighted that it gets to be a little louder than the last one. Where Contra III still sells raw pressure and aggression, and Gunstar Heroes turns excess into a full design philosophy, Metal Slug lives in the sweet spot between them: sharp enough to stay tense, silly enough to stay charming.

    Why Metal Slug Still Hits So Hard

    The immediate answer is presentation. The hand-drawn sprite animation remains absurdly good. Not “good for 1996” good, just good. Enemy soldiers flail, vehicles crumple, backgrounds bustle, and the whole thing carries a cartoon war-film energy that makes even repeated runs fun to watch. Retro players regularly search for games that have “aged well,” but that phrase often really means “still pleasant enough to tolerate.” Metal Slug clears a much higher bar than that. It still looks joyous.

    The action helps too. Movement is simple, weapons are readable, and the famous Metal Slug tank is still one of arcade gaming’s great power-up rewards. The SV-001 does not just make you stronger; it changes the mood. Suddenly the same battlefield that felt hostile a second ago feels briefly conquerable. That swing from vulnerability to swagger is a huge part of why the game remains so replayable.

    I also still love its sense of mischief. POW rescues, hidden bonuses, weird visual gags, the occasional camel-mounted nonsense in later entries — this series always understood that military action games could be funny without losing bite. The first game is slightly leaner than its sequels, but that focus works in its favour. It wastes very little time before throwing you into another collapsing bridge, tank duel, or screen-filling mess. If you have any affection for the Neo Geo era as a collector or spectator, our earlier Evercade NEOGEO roundup touches the same enduring appeal: bold art, short-form intensity, and games that still know how to make an entrance.

    Where the Age Shows

    The obvious caveat is length. Metal Slug is an arcade game first, and you feel that in the way it burns hot rather than long. A good run does not take forever, and if you are coming in with modern expectations about campaign size, you may briefly wonder where the rest of it is. The answer, of course, is that the replay loop is the rest of it: score-chasing, cleaner routing, fewer deaths, more style.

    It is also unapologetically old-school about failure. Some deaths still arrive with that classic arcade sting where the mistake is technically fair but emotionally rude. Weapon loss after a slip-up can be brutal, and the final stretch is happy to remind you that spectacle and mercy are not the same thing. If you want frictionless comfort, this is not really that. If you want energy and commitment, it absolutely is.

    Why It Still Matters in 2026

    Metal Slug still matters because it shows how much personality can live inside a straightforward action template. The controls are not complicated. The premise is not complicated. Yet the craft is so rich that the game still feels distinctive in a crowded field of retro revivals and pixel-art tributes. Plenty of newer indies borrow its visual language. Far fewer capture the same snap, humour, and sense of cheerful destruction.

    It also remains a brilliant answer to a collector-minded search: what Neo Geo game should I actually play, not just admire from a shelf photo? This one. The original Metal Slug is compact, spectacular, easy to understand, and still excellent at turning five spare minutes into half an hour of “one more go” optimism.

    Verdict

    Metal Slug remains one of the purest arcade recommendations in retro gaming: gorgeous, explosive, funny, and still precise enough to stay exciting after the nostalgia wears off. Its short runtime and sharp difficulty are part of the deal, but the craft is so strong that they feel like boundaries, not weaknesses.

    9 / 10. If you want a retro run-and-gun that still looks spectacular and plays with real bite in 2026, Metal Slug is still an easy game to love.

    • Play tip: Use grenades aggressively against clustered vehicles; hoarding them usually just turns into wasted panic.
    • Play tip: When you lose the tank, slow down for a few seconds. The game punishes the immediate revenge sprint.
    • Authority link: Wikipedia overview of Metal Slug
    • Authority link: MobyGames entry for Metal Slug

    When you go back to Metal Slug now, is it still the king of hand-drawn arcade mayhem for you, or does another run-and-gun take that crown?

  • Evercade NEOGEO Arcade 4 and Activision Collection 3 Announced — Which Cart Is Worth Buying?

    Evercade NEOGEO Arcade 4 and Activision Collection 3 Announced — Which Cart Is Worth Buying?

    Evercade announcements can be a bit dangerous for anyone with weak shelf discipline, and today’s double-hit looks especially effective. Blaze has revealed NEOGEO Arcade 4 and Activision Collection 3, two new cartridges that aim at very different corners of retro obsession but land on the same basic message: Evercade still knows how to package nostalgia as something you might genuinely want to play, not just display.

    If your search today is basically “what’s on Evercade NEOGEO Arcade 4 and Activision Collection 3, and which one is worth buying?”, the short version is this: the NEOGEO cart looks like the headline-grabber, while the Activision cart might be the sneaky comfort-food pick for collectors who want more early-80s charm on one shelf.

    Why this Evercade drop has a real collector hook

    One reason this works is contrast. NEOGEO Arcade 4 is selling swagger: Metal Slug 4, Blazing Star, Fatal Fury Special, King of the Monsters and The King of Fighters 2002 are not subtle names. This is the louder, flashier cart, the one you mention first when you are trying to tempt a lapsed arcade fan back into buying physical retro cartridges in 2026.

    Activision Collection 3 goes the other way. Its lineup leans into Atari 2600-era design, with Barnstorming, Chopper Command, Kaboom!, Keystone Kapers, Pressure Cooker and more. That is less about raw spectacle and more about texture: quick-fire score chasing, bright rule sets, and the kind of games that still make sense within seconds.

    That split gives the announcement a better buying angle than yet another vague “retro classics available now” bundle. Like the recent Spectrum White Edition collector push, this is retro hardware culture leaning into identity rather than generic nostalgia. You are not just buying old games. You are choosing which flavour of old games you want sitting in your living room.

    NEOGEO Arcade 4 looks like the prestige cart

    On paper, NEOGEO Arcade 4 has the easier sell. The official cartridge page confirms an eight-game lineup built around recognisable names and arcade heft, including 3 Count Bout, Baseball Stars 2, Blazing Star, Fatal Fury Special, King of the Monsters, Metal Slug 4, Robo Army and The King of Fighters 2002.

    That is a nicely balanced spread. You get fighting games, a beat ’em up, a shooter and one of the later Metal Slug entries, which means the cart reads less like a niche compilation and more like a broad sampler of why NEOGEO still carries such ridiculous charisma. Even if Metal Slug 4 is not the most universally beloved game in that series, it is still a recognisable anchor for anyone browsing Evercade news with their wallet half-open.

    More importantly, it fits the bigger story we have been watching across the 2026 retro revival: people are not only chasing childhood memories, they are chasing curation. A cart that says “here is a punchy little NEOGEO showcase” is easier to understand than a hundred-ROM download folder and a vague promise that you might sort it out later.

    Activision Collection 3 is the shelf-filler that could get more playtime

    That said, Activision Collection 3 should not be dismissed as the lesser cart. The official page pitches it as another batch of ’80s classics, and that undersells how good this kind of package can feel on Evercade. Chopper Command, Kaboom!, Keystone Kapers and Pressure Cooker are exactly the sort of games that make sense in short bursts, on portable hardware, or when you have ten spare minutes and no interest in a tutorial.

    There is also something pleasingly honest about this lineup. It is not pretending early Activision design needs to be modernised to matter. It is betting that strong arcade logic, clean presentation and a physical cartridge are enough. For retro collectors, that is often the whole point.

    The Happy Fragger take

    If I had to pick one, NEOGEO Arcade 4 is the stronger headline and probably the safer blind buy. It has the bigger names, the more obvious wow factor, and the sort of lineup that flatters Evercade’s whole “official retro showcase” pitch. But Activision Collection 3 might quietly be the cartridge that gets used more, because early Activision games are brilliant at slipping into the gaps of a day.

    According to Time Extension’s report, both cartridges are due in June 2026 and priced at £19.99 / €24.99 / $29.99. That feels about right for Evercade in 2026: not impulse-buy cheap, but still low enough that a good lineup and a little nostalgia can absolutely win the argument.

    Honestly, I’m glad Blaze announced these as a pair. Together they make Evercade look broader than just “the machine for one specific type of old game”. One cart is arcade flash. The other is early-home-format comfort food. Both make sense. Which one would earn your shelf space first?

    Sources