[メタルブラック/Metal Black] ALL CLEAR (Auto-fire ON) [Score: 411,360] [CC Commentary]
6Metal Black is kind of a reverse compared to Gun Frontier. Like, the good and not so good stuff are kind of opposites. In Gun Frontier, the difficulty is pretty brutal and there is a lot to do for scoring while still reserving some level of strategy flexibility. Metal Black? It's not that cruel, but while not difficult to execute the optimum tactic is pretty rigid. Harsher at the memorization, even. I love Metal Black, but not as much as Gun Frontier. Though on the other hand I hate it less than Gun Frontier. And seems like Metal Black is generally more beloved. Probably because it's harder to hate.
Metal Black is a hori shmup which, shouldn't this be considered a Darius game? It does feel like Darius, just without the route changes. Probably because the development budget got cut, but who knows. In fairness, it has its own uniqueness. You can shoot and laser. The laser is surprisingly flexible to use. The power up is the Newalone thingy that is common and you can recharge your power to max relatively quickly. Don't worry, the power level doesn't affect your DPS. But it does affect your shot's hitbox, so you may want to be a bit more picky about when to exhaust the power gauge. The main purpose of the power gauge is to unleash the laser, which is the main inspiration for many games in the future, notably Border Down (In fact, it works almost exactly the same, isn't it!?) and G-Darius with the beam duel. Since Metal Black is an old game, I'd say the beam duel thingy is a wasted potential. The thing is doing the beam duel here is not only riskier than simply pew-pewing at safety, the score count is the same, so no tactical incentive for doing beam duel. This got addressed in Border Down, for example, where safety is not only guaranteed, but it's key to scoring. It's also the case for G-Darius and also safety is much more guaranteed when beam duelling is initiated. My suggestion is for serious play, don't do beam duels. Save it for its other main purpose: Bomb. If you unleash the laser at max level and don't hold down the laser button, the laser gets spread out and functions as a screen-clearing bomb that has an astonishingly long duration! Well, to be fair, you can't use this in quick succession since you need to recharge it, so it makes sense. It doesn't cancel out, say, missiles that can't be destroyed, but it cancels out pink bullets. That is more than sufficient.
I'm not done yet with the intrigues of the laser. Once used, the power gauge will and must drop to 0. Otherwise the laser will keep getting fired. If you collect the Newalones while still doing this, well, you may still want the laser extension, but you may want to recharge instead. Keep this in mind. Also, what happens if you press the laser button while it's still not full? You'll still fire the laser, but it has 0 bullet cancelling properties. Sounds pathetic, but it's more useful than it seems. It has a piercing property. Yes, including through walls, which prove quite helpful on specific sections! When situation calls, mini lasers is a good idea!
The main weakness of Metal Black's stage design is the reaction demand for the memo is a bit too tight. If you let an enemy alive for just a second, you'll be in trouble! It's that bad! Yet these enemies usually are popcorns, so when you can shoot them, they don't make much trouble. The game wants you to camp on specific spots on specific moments, so it can be boring both for the player to execute and the spectator to watch at times.
But miraculously the game alleviates the two main things that made Gun Frontier brutal: The lack of RNG and intangible Rank. I shot a lot and I don't think the fire rate or anything became crazier in my run. Perhaps Rank exists? But it's so subtle might as well consider it nonexistent. Also there is still RNG, but the RNG spots are fair to deal with, so it's no biggie. It's also helpful to note that this game is not a checkpoint game. Nice! And on a normal playthrough, you'll get around 3 extends in the run. That's very kind for a single loop game that has no checkpoints!
The main attraction of the game is of course, the atmosphere, the visuals, the music, and especially the enemy designs. It's superb! It's like, a darker, moody take of Darius. It has one of the best visuals of its era. As expected from the Gundam anime director! The destroyed Earth, the moon, the big bulky boss ship on Stage 4, the trippy backgrounds on Stage 6 boss, it's not like any other.
Oh, the minigame segments. It's ignorable. I think the score gain isn't that significant when you count on extends. I suggest ignoring them if you just want to get your clear ASAP.
Metal Black is certainly a must play, but in comparison and ironically, because it's the kinder game than the goofier Gun Frontier.
The game is the Arcade Archives version.
Nintendo eShop:
https://store-jp.nintendo.com/list/software/70010000055533.html
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