Metal Black (Saturn) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

A playthrough of Ving's 1996 arcade shoot 'em up port for the Sega Saturn, Metal Black.

Played through on the default difficulty settings.

Metal Black was conceived as a follow-up to Taito's Gun Frontier (released in arcades in 1990), but there is little connection to that game aside from its genre and some members of its staff. Metal Black shares far more of its DNA with the company's flagship shooter franchise Darius.

It is also relatively unknown in North America. The original arcade game received a release in both Europe and Japan, and this, the excellent Sega Saturn conversion that I'm playing for this video, was a Japanese exclusive. It never officially reached American shores until its inclusion in the 2007 Taito Legends 2 compilation on Xbox, PS2, and PC.

The game is a horizontally-scrolling shoot 'em up that poses a unique take on many genre staples. There aren't any screen-nuking mega bombs nor selectable weapon types. The screen often fills with little clusters of brightly-colored orbs called "newalones" that you must collect to power up your ship's systems. They fill the weapon gauge up to a maximum level of five, and with each level your cannon gets a larger and more powerful shot. If things get too hairy, can spend your power level to launch a full-screen lightning attack from your cannon, or if you hold down the button, you can create a massive energy beam that focuses directly in front of your ship. This plays a key role in boss battles: much like in G Darius, bosses can launch their own powered up beam at you, but you can counter the attack with your own beam. If you have enough power stored up, you can neutralize their attack by absorbing it and redirect the power straight back at them. These attacks reset your cannon to its initial level, but they can be real life savers in a pinch. Just be careful to not leave newalones on the screen too long during a boss fight - the bad guys will collect them and power themselves up, which is clearly something that you want to avoid.

In between each stage you'll play a neat bonus round where the entire game shifts into a first-person perspective and, using scaling techniques seen in games like Night Strikers (or any number of super-scalar Sega games) you must lock on to the bad guys and take them out with missile fire. The inclusion of these stages feels a bit out of step with the test of the game, but they are cool nonetheless.

Metal Black really shines when it comes to setting a tone. It meshes Taito's typically excellent artwork with an unusually dark and somber feel that effectively paints the game's world as a grim, hopeless sci-fi dystopia. The first stage sets the scene beautifully with its destroyed cityscape - I don't remember ever being as impressed by a random detail in a shooter as I was the first time I saw the destroyed aircraft carrier being used as a shell by the crab-like monster that rises up from beneath it. And how awesome is that mega-flashy effect that you see when you destroy a boss?

The music is also entirely on point. It was done by Taito's famed in-house band Zuntata, and though the soundtrack is much more understated than you'd typically hear in a Darius title, it's equally as good and is worth giving a listen to outside of the game without the distraction of the sound effects. I also really loved the way the music was introduced - each track gets it's own title that's shown at the bottom of the screen when a stage starts. It's cool how something so simple, like "Born to Be Free" in stage one, can meaningfully make a statement that actively contributes to the experience.

The Saturn port, handled by Ving (who also did the stellar port of Bubble Symphony for the Saturn), is an effort worthy of the game. As far as I can tell, the game runs just as smoothly on the Saturn as it did in the arcade, and none of the visual effects have been neutered in the process. Granted, the arcade game is originally from 1991, but you really couldn't ask for a better conversion than what's on offer here. The controls are spot-on (and they really had to be for how difficult the game gets near the end!) and everything feels just like the original game - just now with the added benefit of being able to use a d-pad instead of a stick.

It's a bit of an exotic rarity to be sure, but Metal Black really should be lauded for its progressive gameplay mechanics, its (at times) stunning evocation of place, and the overall purity of the experience. It's not for everyone - the difficulty level will absolutely frustrate many inexperienced players - but if you value innovation, creativity, and demanding, precision-based game play, this one is for you.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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