I almost get the feeling that Metal Slug 1's score was meant as more of a head-to-head thing, with the game recognising the player with the most POWs saved at the end of each mission.
TBH, I also kinda wonder how seriously Nazca themselves took the matter, with Mission 2's riverbank randomly offering either a lucrative ragdoll... or
a literal piece of shit. (definite toilet humour streak among Akio & co - that official art of Marco recoiling in mortal horror at said turd item comes to mind D:)
At any rate, I adore the games, and while I could never play them for score, I do respect the endeavour. Metal Slug 3 in particular sounds like an utter nightmare, with it packing in so much content, then tasking the player with that exhausting final mission.
Rastan78 wrote:Oh, also would the original arcade Shinobi be considered a run n gun? If you think about it, it's a very similar setup to Metal Slug. Shurikens are unlimited and basically function as a gun. Bonus for using proximity based melee attacks, rescuing POWs etc.
Good observation - Shinobi definitely seems the most likely influence on Slug's melee, with the proximity trigger. Kage also rewards you extra for sword kills, and the same year's Spartan X has a proximity bonus too (kicks score less than the shorter-ranged punches), but neither's as exact a match.
I also wonder if Guevara's POWs were any influence on Slug, the way its forerunner Ikari's Gun/Grenade/Tank triptych (and ammo/fuel management) seems to have been. POWs give you ammo+fuel in Guevara, too. I like to think of future devs observing all this stuff in real-time, back in 80s game centers...
And I know this has been discussed elsewhere, but what's the distinction for which run n guns are on topic here for the strategy and high score forums? Is it only games like Outzone or Gunsmoke that are legit?
I forget exactly when it happened, but free-scrolling stuff like Granada and Kiki Kaikai has been on-topic in the main, HS and ST forums for over a decade now, as have vertical push-scrollers like Senjou and Ikari.
As for Gun.Smoke, Elemental Master, Out Zone et al, AFAIK they've always been on-topic, in the forum's current 2005-onward incarnation (as they should be - I could understand someone regarding the first group of games as OT, but these are traditional auto-scrolling STGs in all but aesthetic).