Metal Slug: a great stress reliever

This week has been hell for a number of reasons but it hasn’t completely diminished my capacity for gaming. I started Valkyrie Profile a few days ago and haven’t got past the first few cut scenes; even that was a struggle for me while my mind wasn’t truly in it. But something else has come to the rescue and it’s all about shooting stuff until it explodes. Metal Slug is a run and gun series from SNK. Nazca Corporation made the first game and then they merged with SNK who made the rest. In most of the franchise games, you can play as one of four characters: Marco Rossi, Tarma Roving, General Donald Morden, and Allen O’Neil, and make your way through multiple missions, defeating soldiers, enemies, and final bosses at the end of each mission. Along the way, you free hostages with your trust pocket knife and collect new weapons, food, and power-ups along the way. It’s the perfect kind of arcade game and the sprite work is incredible. Under any circmstances, this game would frustrate me no…