Know Your Roots -Session 2: Metal Storm

Here we go again with session 2 of the Know Your Roots series! For this entry I’d like to take a look at a great title that as a whole is greatly ignored and unknown by many folks in the retro gaming community. A game with an amazing mechanic that was expertly implemented by the team over at Irem and easily one of the most enjoyable experiences you can have with a classic Nintendo console. A game that should have had the perfect recipe to be a success with it’s blend of run and gun style gameplay, the ingenious mechanic of gravity manipulation, mech suits, intense action, great powerups, and a boatload of fun; I am of course talking about the venerable and awesome Metal Storm for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Root 1: Metal Who???

Before we get into the meat of this game and analyze it’s design choices and mechanics I’d like to first address the fact that nobody has ever heard of this game. Despite even the best efforts of Nintendo Power Magazine, who graciously placed this game on the cover of their 22nd Issue and had a full 12 page article covering the ins and outs of playing this game, not having a bad reception at the time of its release, and even scoring slightly better than average numbers in many of the existing publications at the time (such as Gamepro and Nintendo Power) the game is still relatively obscure. “How the hell does that work?” One might ask one’s self, and one might then have to look at one’s computer monitor and read the next paragraph!

Well there are going to be a million debatable reasons why this game might not have gotten the reception that it deserves, I personally believe it was a perfect storm of bad luck, bad critics, and most importantly BAD TIMING. You see the bad luck comes into play in the sense that this game was competing with next gen titles being released for the SNES, and I mean heavy hitters like Super Mario World, F-Zero, Final Fantasy II, Gradius 3, and Final Fight just to name a few. Games that carry that kind of clout are hard to compete with especially when it comes to an 8-bit game competing with 16-bit titles. The bad critics come into play in what makes up our second strike against Metal Storm. “But NESJess, I thought you said the critics gave it respectable numbers?” Well they did, but respectable isn’t really good enough for this title in my eyes, and the eyes of many other gamers who actually are aware of and have played this game. “Well that’s just your opinion!” you might retort, you clever, clever bastard you! And I would respond by saying that, Yes, this is my opinion but if you put into context the fact that the original NES had over 700 titles made for the console and that we really only remember a group of less than 30 titles (that’s being generous considering that more realistically the number is under 10 for many nostalgic gamers) this game should have shined through the rough like a beacon atop a lighthouse slicing through the dark. But alas, even back then average scores and reviews lead to only average sales.

Finally there was the bad timing. As stated in my first point about bad luck this game was competing with not just the games coming out on the newer, more powerful Super Nintendo it had the bad luck of simply not being on the console. It was a NES game coming out brand new at a time where for the same price you could pick up a newer, shiner SNES game instead and take a step into the next generation of gaming. I personally think that this is the circumstance that affected the sales of this title more than any other. Considering that the gaming frontier was not much different back then than it is now in the sense that many gamers always want to upgrade to the biggest and best technology in the format in order to enjoy the most sophisticated and polished of gameplay and graphics it’s easy to understand that the game essentially released brand new at a time when it was already obsolete. This isn’t quite the issue today that it was back then, but regardless it can still be seen affecting sales of modern titles releasing the same year as the console becomes outdated in the here and now. Several PS2 titles suffered from this awhile back. Whatever the cause of it was, this game certainly got undeservedly passed over.

Root 2: Parallax Scrolling and Anti-Gravity

Just one more little aside before we get into the mechanic that makes up the bread and butter of this game. I wanted to simply touch on the amount of work and dedication that went into this game simply in the form of the emulated parallax scrolling that the programmers implemented through the use of continuously redrawing the tiles that make up the game’s backgrounds in order to give them a different scrolling rate than the games foregrounds. The reason this is impressive is due to the fact that parallax scrolling was not directly supported by the NES. This effect gave the stages a more detailed feeling of depth and speed. Though this might not sound like much to some of you, anyone with some programming chops might see this as quite a feat for a 22 year old game. Now admittedly as a designer my knowledge of programming is primitive and basic at best, but even I had to be impressed when I found this out.

Okay so now on the main event, the anti-gravity mechanic. Despite the simplicity of how this mechanic works in the game and is executed (simply pressing up or down and the jump button simultaneously) it becomes one of the most fun and inventive design choices I’ve ever seen implemented into ANY game let alone one as old as this one. And while simply hearing this (or reading this as you are now) may seem like a shallow and gimmicky mechanic it’s extremely satisfying in its execution when playing the game. The fact that the entire game’s level design is built around this mechanic in order to successfully traverse the levels and force the player to master the maneuver it can become one of the most satisfying game devices to master in any game of any era.

You see the neat thing about this whole anti-gravity experience is the fact that not only do you change the flow of gravity for yourself, but also any free-standing enemies on screen at the time as well. By free standing I mean anything that isn’t bolted down and attached to the terrain itself. Also there are several puzzle-like elements within the stages such as hatches that open and close in different facing directions based on whether or not you are currently pulling a Lionel Richie and dancing on the ceiling or if you are currently under the effects of normal gravity. Also the mech you pilot is capable of four-way fire which can lead to some awesome moments of being upside down on the top of the stage firing down upon your pathetic adversaries. All this combines into a brain-busting, trigger pulling, mech-riding, all out fun-fest that shouldn’t be missed by any self-respecting retro gamer.

Root 3: Final Thoughts

Metal Storm is the kind of game that unfortunately, wasn’t recognized at it’s time for its greatness. Much like the painters Vincent Van Gogh, Franz Kafka, and Henry David Thoreau (yeah I made a high-brow reference, so sue me!) It’s almost criminal how this game has been passed over and forgotten to the fog of time. To me this game should be up there with the likes of Zelda, Mario, Metroid, and dare I say it…CASTLEVANIA!?!? Well yes, I do say it, and I don’t regret it!!

If you have never played this unknown classic then you owe it to yourself to somehow get your hands on a copy of it for yourself and play it. Sadly, due to its rarity and slightly newfound popularity from the HVGN’s first episode this is a pretty high price ticket item on ebay and other such online shopping sites of the day costing upwards of 60 dollars American for the loose cart and lord only knows what a boxed copy would cost you, but regardless there are *ahem* shall we say…”other” methods of playing this title such as the big “E”. That which shall not be named, etc. etc. But whatever you have to do to get yourself into this amazing title you owe it to yourself to play this game through any means necessary.

I guess all that’s left to say is keep on gaming, Till next time guys, I’m NESJess saying never, EVER, forget to Know Your Roots!!!



