Series vs Series

[Nintegageo | 582]

Genre: Run 'n Gun

Contra vs. Metal Slug

I'm torn on which to choose so thought I'd ask some people who I know have their opinions .

Edited December 6, 2020 by Nintegageo

[Gloves | 11,774]

Metal Slug.

[DefaultGen | 5,401]

Every Metal Slug game so similar in style, I’ll go Contra as the better series overall just because it has variety.

[DarkTone | 984]

Metal slug. 

[Mega Tank | 960]

Metal Slug of course

[The Count | 526]

Contra gets my vote. I like the first and third especially. I do like how Metal Slug utilizes the knife though.

[Dr. Morbis | 2,088]

Both awesome but Contra gets the tiebreaker for being able to shoot at diagonal 45° angles.  That's the one thing I f'n hate about the MS series, you have to keep fanning your shots by shooting up then straight, then up, then straight to shoot stuff in the corners of the screen.  I guess the Neo Geo didn't have the sheer processing power it would have required to program in diagonal shots.  Soooo annoying...

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

Contra, mostly out of familiarity. I don't think Metal Slug is bad, per se, but I've never had any desire to play any game in the series through to the end. Based solely on Contra (NES) and Contra 4 (DS), it's not even close for me.

[Tanooki | 4,932]

Contra probably will win due to it being a true classic and people being comfy and familiar with it, but metal slug is the better game and franchise, and consistent too.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,520]

Contra

Metal Slug is great.  But I think the variety of Contra, Super C, Contra III, Hard Corps, Shattered Soldier, Neo Contra, Contra 4, Hard Corps Uprising (and the other ones I guess) is a strongpoint.

If I ever get around to playing Gunforce II than perhaps that could slightly shift things in Metal Slug's direction.

[Webhead123 | 675]

This is actually a tougher choice than I thought it would be but I have to give it to Contra.

Both are fantastic but, as others have said, the Contra series has more overall variety and there are some subtle control advantages as well. I've also played more of the Contra series than Metal Slug but that is what it is.

It's also tough for me to disregard the sheer nostalgia that I have for Contra, since it was one of the first handful of games that were gifted to me the day I got my NES. I've been consistently playing it and its sequels for more than 30 years (and still do regularly). Since I didn't have a Neo Geo, my only opportunity to play more than 10 minutes of Metal Slug really began with the Wii Virtual Console in the mid-2000's and, a bit later, Steam.

[Sumez | 2,941]

Very interesting series to compare, because both are some of the best examples of the same genre, but take vastly different approaches to them.

Recently I've worked on 1 credit clears for both Metal Slug 1 and Metal Slug X, which is obviously a much much bigger challenge than for any Contra game. Especially the later MS games are massively difficult games with almost no leeway for mistakes (while the Contra games traditionally pump you full of 1UPs)

So I think I'm sufficiently familiar with both series to really judge them on more than just a superficial level. Because on that one Metal Slug easily wins out. Its chaotic and visceral explosion of incredibly detailed graphics is next to pretty much nothing - and it really works in its favor looking at the overall game experience - the feedback you get from ravaging hordes of enemies is a huge part of what makes the game. It's so damn enjoyable. And they are well designed games, overall very fair in spite of their challenge, and fun to play.

But I also get frustrated with Metal Slug much more often than I do with Contra. In MS a big part of the challenge is trying to keep an overview of what's going on when a huge group of enemies enter the screen from both sides of the screen. The primary skill to hone is the ability to constantly decipher when a bullet or a grenade is going to fly at you, or whether a soldier is about to put a knife in your gut. It's a side effect of the lack of contact damage, which massively changes the approach to taking out enemies.

Meanwhile in Contra, every piece of graphic on the screen is an immediate danger that needs to be avoided or shot ASAP. If an enemy walks into you, you'll die, simple as that. And personally I'm just a much bigger fan of the much more direct visual indication that represents 1:1 gameplay experiences as opposed to the Metal Slug series expecting you to decode what's going on.

Contra 3 especially, on hard mode of course, is probably the single best experience you can have with a run'n'gun platformer ever. It's simply brilliant.

In short, both series have a ton of merit, but my vote goes to Contra with very little doubt.

Edited December 7, 2020 by Sumez