Play Metal Slug online

On UsuArcade, Metal Slug plays as online two-player co-op: you on your phone or PC, your friend on theirs, in the same game and in real time. Nobody forgets the first time they saw Metal Slug in motion: enemy soldiers laughing, panicking and running for cover, hand-drawn explosions and a tiny tank that jumps. Right when everything was going 3D, this game proved pixel art still had plenty to say.

History

Metal Slug came out in 1996 on SNK's Neo Geo, developed by Nazca Corporation, a studio of action-game veterans. Its subtitle, Super Vehicle-001, referred to the tank at the heart of the game.

This first entry set the template for the whole series: goofy humor, over-the-top animation, prisoners to rescue and a difficulty that eats quarters. Later games built on it with more characters and vehicles.

How to play

You play as Marco Rossi or Tarma Roving in a side-scrolling run-and-gun. Shoot in eight directions, jump and throw grenades; up close, you slash with a knife. Rescue the bearded, tied-up prisoners and they hand you weapons like the heavy machine gun, rocket launcher or flame shot.

The star is the Metal Slug itself, a small, nimble tank that can jump, swivel its gun and fire its main cannon. When it's about to blow, you can bail out before it explodes. There are six missions, and one hit costs you a life.

Fun facts

• Only Marco and Tarma are playable in the first game; Eri and Fio joined in later entries.
• The announcer calling out each new weapon, like Heavy machine gun!, is one of the series' signature sounds.
• At the end of each mission the game tallies how many prisoners you rescued.

In the arcade

Just like the arcade, only from your own couch: sit down at the Metal Slug cabinet, invite your friend once they're in the lobby and push forward together and split the firepower. Nothing to install: it runs in your browser on phone or PC, gamepad supported, and every game starts with INSERT COIN, free.

Your friend can even jump in after you've already started. Anyone else in the lobby can drop in as a spectator and watch live while chatting, and your scores go up on the arcade's high score board.

FAQ