Metal Slug 7

Grab your Heavy Machine Gun and rescue some POWs in Metal Slug 7, the newest installment to the popular shooting series. Much like its predecessors, the game is a 2-D side scrolling adventure where you kill enemy soldiers, defeat humongous bosses and save the world from evil, except this game will only appear on the Nintendo DS, marking the first time a Metal Slug will not have an arcade version. Seeing as how U.S. arcades are about as popular as dusty antique store in the middle of nowhere, this news doesn't bother us.

Like every Metal Slug before it, the seventh installment has tons of enemies, explosions and items to collect. In it, you go after General Morden and his army of thugs, as well as some cracked out futuristic army that'll make life difficult for the game's six playable characters: Marco, Flo, Eri, Tarma, Ralf and Clark. Fortunately, each of them has signature abilities and attacks. Marco's default weapons, for example, are twice as strong as the other characters', while Ralf has speedier melee attacks and the option to Vulcan Punch and subsequently destroy vehicles.

In the Metal Slug tradition, you move from left to right, slaughtering men clad in green uniforms with a pistol, shotgun, rocket launcher and machine gun, among other toys. In addition, there are several vehicles you can control, including two new rides: the Slug Truck and the Slug Gigantus. The former is a train with a cannon, while the latter is a giant robot. No matter which you're in, you should have no trouble smashing enemies.

All of this action appears on the top DS screen, with the bottom one displaying a map that features the locations of prisoners and power-ups. There are three difficulty levels (Easy, Medium and Hard) and when you finish the seven level single player, there's also Combat School Mode, where you must complete levels under certain conditions, such as killing all of the enemies.

Although SNK releases Metal Slug 7 November 18, we expect it to mirror the recently released Japanese version, minus all the Japanese, of course. It's a bit strange not seeing the game on PS3 or Xbox 360 (even Wii, for that matter), but since we're happy DS owners, we don't care what platform it's on, so long as we own it.