snkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
In Metal Slug XX, you play as one of 6 different soldiers with varying abilities and proceed to run-and-gun your way through 7 levels packed with enemies while observing the action from the side, hence the term "side-scroller" could be applied to this game. Although the action is never very complicated, it can get pretty insane when the screen is packed full of enemies all shooting at you and explosions sending pixelated debris everywhere! It's all good fun, although it can get a little frustrating in spots due to the intensity of it all. Thankfully, there is not limit to the numbers of times you can die and come back, ready for more, making the difficulty more a matter of patience than anything else.
Starting with the good qualities of this game, the music, sound-effects, and visuals are all top-notch for this genre, looking and sounding very similar to the previous entries in this 2D series of games. The levels all are laid out well with a nearly nonstop stream of badguys for you to annihilate. Each level also finishes with a boss fight, making the game even more nostalgic. Even though some of the bosses are a little odd, most of them are appropriately epic and difficult enough to warrant their title without becoming overly frustrating.
As for the negative elements of this game, it is a bit on the short side for it's price, being easily beatable in under and hour, even at the hardest difficulty. The only reasons one would want to play through it again would be to achieve a higher score, take fewer continues, find more POW characters, or complete the game with a friend. Otherwise, you can play around in the Combat School mode which presents a variety of challenging ways to complete the 7 levels from the main game, but most of these tasks are overly frustrating due to the very strict conditions you are presented, such as making it all the way through a level on a single life.
Keeping the positive and negative comments in mind, this is still an outstanding game that will certainly bring back fond memories for gamers lucky enough to have played the Metal Slug games in arcades. Even for those who have not, this is a highly entertaining game that capitalizes on turning massive amounts of chaos into pure fun!