Metal Slug 3 Review

• Platforms: Steam, Xbox, Playstation, Switch
• Price: $7.99 (PC/Switch), $9.99 (Xbox), $14.99 (PS4)
• Release Date: March 23, 2000
• Genre: Run and Gun, Shooter, Platformer, Retro, Arcade Games
• Developer: SNK
• Publisher: SNK

Heya folks, Shaun here, and I’m back with my latest review! In this one, I’m covering a retro arcade game in the form of Metal Slug 3 by SNK. This review is for fun, I completed the game and wanted to review it.

Metal Slug 3 is a run and gun platforming shooter that features 4 playable characters and offers 5 separate missions to play through. For this review I’m covering the 2014 PC version that wound up being given away for free on Amazon’s Prime Gaming setup.

This version of the game runs on a dotemu emulator and I’ll admit that the emulation isn’t perfect. There are visual slowdowns when there is a lot happening on screen at once. The scanlines show up huge in video and screenshot thumbnails as well. They go away once you load the image but it’s definitely weird.

The game itself is a ton of fun either solo or in local multiplayer. Gameplay wise it’s easy to learn but you can definitely expect to die a lot over the course of the game. It’s designed to be really difficult but it’s a blast to play regardless. The whole alien theme to this one was a lot of fun as well.

In the end, I’ve decided to give the game a 7 out of 10. The slowdowns definitely take some of the fun out of the experience but the game is generally a lot of fun. Just don’t expect the best emulated experience. Another downside to the Amazon version is that it doesn’t have leaderboards so you can’t compete with other players, which is disappointing.