A few extra credits at your discretion are no bad thing when you want to sample the delights that latter levels might bring, so in this case I'm happy to agree with SNK's decision to leave credit allocation to the prudence of the punter.

Bow to the artists that worked on Metal Slug 3: This is gaming art at some of its finest. The gameplay is up there among the better coin-op action games of all time, too, and it translates well to the Xbox 360 controller to boot.

Jump on Live for a two-player co-op romp and let the old-school arcade love flow freely like so many unspent quarters. [Mar 2008, p.91]

Extremely bizarre, but still a retro classic. [Mar 2008, p.102]

This is top-quality shooter fare, blessed with visuals bright enough to be pleasing on the eye, yet not garish enough for bullets to be easily obscured. [Issue#29, p.119]

This is not a game for the faint of heart; you may throw your controller at the television screen, but this game is a classic, and it was bound to find its way on the XBLA collection list, next to games such as Sonic 2, Golden Axe & Bomberman.

If you’ve never heard of this series, but enjoy classic stuff like Contra and its ilk, MS3 is made for you.

The sounds of the game are something to be proud of, indeed. Not only are the tunes cool and action-packed but the sound effects are also really nice and suitable for this arcade gem. The voice over is funny and reminds you of the good old times at the arcade.

It is well worth the 800 points just to blast around for a little while when you aren’t playing CoD4 or Halo 3.

It's a little pricey for what you get, but this is still one of the craziest, most entertaining side-scrolling shooters you'll play.

Metal Slug 3 is a lot of fun, but this should be a $5 download. Especially when original, awesome-looking shooters such as Omega Five are storming Xbox Marketplace.

Platform shooters don't get much better, but the plop filter and slowdown problems let it down. [Mar 2008, p.94]