Occasionally you’ll encounter gun or rocket emplacements, or locked doors, that require concentrated attacks to get rid of. Pressing the shield button will turn the pet into a permanent shield, until the shield button is either pressed again, or until the pet takes a certain amount of damage, in which case it disappears. Holding down the shoot button charges the player’s pet and when released the pet will make an attacking charge for a number of seconds. One unique feature is that each of the four characters brings along a pet with them that can be used to attack enemies or used as a shield. There are three different buttons on the arcade cabinet – shoot, jump, and shield – and the basic idea is to run left to right, blasting everything that gets in your way. You can play either single player or two player simultaneous and can choose between four different characters at the start of the game. It is a scrolling run-and-gun shooter that is basically a shameless clone of Metal Slug, but with a few unique ideas of its own. They managed to top Slug in this regard, at least.Demon Front is a 2002 arcade game developed and manufactured by Taiwanese company International Games System. I will say that I very much like the over-the-top announcer who enthusiastically shouts the name of every boss and level area.
So what we have here is a collection of great pixel art without solid game mechanics or aesthetic themes tying it all together. I could see myself 1CCing this after only a couple days' practice, though I don't know how much things ramp up in the late stages. The boss fights are the most challenging part of the game, but they're just not frantic enough compared to Slug's. This might be excusable in a console game-however, Demon Front was for the arcades. The "regular" shotgun is more like Slug's Big Shotgun, and all the weapons have tons of ammo. You're given far too many concessions to difficulty: a powerful charge attack accessible at any time, the ability to glide in the air, and a full-body shield that can sustain numerous hits (after powering it up with close-range attacks). The playable characters are weird and unappealing, though it's nice that the game beat Slug to the punch at giving them unique characteristics (different charge attacks).įurthermore, it's just too easy. Sure, there's different enemies, but they don't have meaningfully differentiated attacks. Most of the time, the levels don't even have many platforms to speak of. The cave, valley, and jungle stages just kind of blend into each other, without many distinguishing features. The graphics are very detailed, possibly moreso than the original two Slugs (love the skeletal village), but they lack any kind of cohesive theme. There aren't even any grenades you can use (the charge shots don't count), nor are there any drivable vehicles. It's missing many of the little nuances that made Slug what it was, like the heavy machine gun curving to shoot at diagonals. There's far too many times where you're simply waiting for the game to finish throwing popcorn enemies at you so you can move on. The game just kind of chucks shit at you instead of carefully placing enemies and obstacles throughout the levels. The levels completely lack any sense of pacing or progression-rather, they clumsily meander forward. It's nice to see it preserved for posterity, though. It attempts to imitate Metal Slug without actually understanding what made Slug work.
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