The shrapnel rain is just ridiculous.
PLAYERS: 1
PUBLISHER: Irem
DEVELOPER: Tamtex
GENRE: Action
RELEASE DATE: February 1991
The name “Metal Storm” screams late 80s metal festival with bands like Ratt, Poison, Cinderella, among other groups that I’m ashamed to know. But please, Hammer, don’t judge a game by its title. Metal Storm is an incredibly fun little platformer with an excellent hook: turning upside down. Each stage is designed to make great use of your mech’s zero-g abilities, from avoiding enemies that are blocking your path to acquiring hidden power-ups. Sometimes flipping upside down or returning right side up will open up new paths or power down laser blockades. The point is, if you seem stuck or a barrier looks impossible to overcome, flip your mech the opposite way. Power-ups will enable you to slightly enhance your weapon to go through barriers, allow you to take an extra hit (this is a one-hit-and-you’re-dead adventure), give you a shield, among other things. Metal Storm is certainly hard, but it has a fair amount of continues and a password system, so unless you’ve been raised on today’s grandma games, this will be a fantastic one-afternoon thrill-ride that any retro gamer should experience.
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7 replies on “#413 – Metal Storm”
My favorite Irem game is probably still Moon Patrol.
You know, when I first clicked on this – I was trying to remember if this was a game I had played – and then I saw the screen capture and read what you wrote and I do recall this one pretty fondly. Just a weekend rental on my part back then, but a good time all the same.
Great game, but what do you mean Irem can’t make gold? Ever hear of a little game called R Type?
Awesome game. Well deserving of the high mark you gave it. This game has a gimmick and it works extremely well.
Sleepyweasel
This could’ve been a classic. It starts off easy enough but gets too damn hard real quick. The upside-down gimmick was used in a Gameboy Color game called Wendy: Every Witch Way. A fun little game and much friendlier in terms of difficulty.
And I thought Ikari Warriors was a SNK game?
@FieryReign: Yeah, you’re right, Ikari Warriors WAS an SNK game. What was I thinking? Nice find.
And I quite enjoyed Metal Storm, despite its difficulty.
Greatest game in the World! It should cost a Zillion DOLLARS! It’s the best ever. I masturbated with excitement with how legendary this game is. Only a true Nes Collector deserves to have this in their Library.