SNK is making quite the comeback. Samurai Shodown had a triumph return this year with new reboot, the King of Fighters series is continuing on steady basis now, and Terry Bogard is coming to one of the biggest crossover titles in history, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. But there’s another non-fighting gaming franchise the company is known for, which may be getting its time to return soon as well.
Speaking with Twinfinite, SNK Producer Yasuyuki Oda said that there’s internal discussions in SNK to bring back the legendary hardcore sidescrolling shooter series, Metal Slug. He didn’t offer any specifics, but said that right now it’s all about modernizing the game, as well as evaluating whether modern players would take to the game’s infamous and unforgiving difficulty level.
He said: “Nothing is decided at the moment, nothing has actually been started, but we’re definitely in the phase where we started talking about ‘let’s bring it back. We want to bring it back.’ The fans want it.
“On whether we’d do the one-hit kill, there are still a lot of discussions about that, but I like the idea of maybe bringing two modes, perhaps with an easy mode with a life gauge.
“But there is till a lot of talk going on internally about that. We want to make sure we do it right.”
There hasn’t been a brand new Metal Slug game since Metal Slug 7 in 2008. There’s been various remakes and re-releases since then, but it’s been well over a decade since an original title came out on any platform. Hopefully, the unique series can have its big return soon.