Metal Black, a particularly nasty Taito Shmup

I’ve just gotten the chance to try out Metal Black on MAME (Arcade Emulator). The game was released in 1991. Don’t let the age deceive you, I honestly believe it looks great even today and it has some interesting features.

One of them is the powerup and special weaponry. It is a multicolored molecule called the “Newalone”, from what I’ve played, they have two functions: One is to power up the main lasers from the ship, called the Black Fly. The other is to reserve some energy in order to unleash a devastating super-beam that can decimate even bosses… Think DBZ a bit… However, bosses have the ability to pick up the Newalone too, and won’t hesitate to fry you when you least expect it.

The difficulty is pretty high, on my first play… I had gone down very fast, even tho I had the laser at full power… Enemies will make a point to run right into you even if you try to avoid them… That’s a cheap tactic… :mwahaha:

The music, composed by Yasuhisa Watanabe (Yack.), is of the usual Zuntata weirdness scale… A few of the boss themes don’t sound very threatening, and it causes you to lose your guard as they hit on you and eat up your credits… The level themes are also odd, but they still sound great. :smiley:

So, for those of you who have used MAME or are looking for a rough Arcade-Style Shmup, I heartedly reccomend Taito’s Metal Black. :slight_smile:

I played around with it, and it seems pretty good, but I prefer my shmups to be of the Treasure variety (particularly those Treasure shooters with words like “Gunstar Heroes,” “Radiant Silvergun” or “Gradius” in their titles).

Gradius? Treasure?

And you’re lucky we’re not elitist shmuppers like at GameFAQs or we’d all be like “OMG!!! GUNSTAR HEROES IS A RUN 'N GUN NOT A SHMUP U N00B!!!”

Aero Fighters 2 and 3 = Best.Shmups.Evar

Well. Not really :P, but they are very good. I’ve been having fun with them lately. That and Batsugun. MAME is great for finding games like these.

I’ll have to check out Metal Black though, sounds sweet.

Most of the guys at Treasure were still working at Konami when Gradius was made (also, many of the guys at Treasure worked on the original Contra and Castlevania, as well). Treasure was solely responsible for the recent Gradius V.

And, I see Contra and Gradius both as examples of shmups. Screw those elitist “run 'n gun” bastards. :smiley: