Dark Arms: Beast Buster 1999

[ SNK / Action / 16 Megabits ]

Dark Arms is a pretty good game. It has a nice storyline, cool enemies and an interesting (but tedious) weapon development system where you feed your weapons with the monsters you capture to upgrade them. I like the exploration and shooting elements; feels a bit like an RPG.

However, the game suffers from one serious problem; it's way too short (only about 4 stages + extras)! For an adventure game, one would expect it to be longer than this! However, this does not affect my opinion much because I like to take my time and I intend to try and obtain 100% in the game's Weapons & Monsters Encyclopedia.

Overall, I think it's quite a cool game. (You can even play VS against a friend in several deathmatch arenas). If you do not mind the length of the game, you may want to consider getting it. I feel that it's quite a refreshing action/shooting title after playing Metal Slug for too long.

Metal Slug: First Mission

[ SNK / Action / 16 Megabits ]

MS: First Mission is not based on any of its arcade incarnations. Instead, SNK has chosen to build a completely new game from scratch. What we have here is a side-scrolling platformer with some shooting & exploration elements. All the stages are original and there are even some new vehicle-specific missions.
     Throughout the various missions, the game features multiple branching routes to take which make the game interesting. However, the game will feel very repititive if you unintentionally re-play the same stages over and over whenever you start a new game.
     MS:First Mission is a very fun shooting game with adjustable difficulty for gamers of all skill to enjoy. Its downside is that it's pretty short and you can't skip some of the missions which you must play through all the time. SNK should have included a stage select to make things more convenient.
     Being the NGPC's first action title, MS: First Mission is a must-own for those who want a break from fighting games. I am only disappointed that this game is not an all-out arcade style shooter like all the other MS titles.