Designer(s) Yoshimiru Hoshi | Initial release date 30 August 1991 | |
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Genre(s) Graphic adventure, Visual novel Similar HAL Laboratory games, Adventure games | ||
Metal Slader Glory (メタルスレイダーグローリー, Metaru Sureidā Gurōrī) is a science-fiction-themed graphic adventure game developed by HAL Laboratory that was released for the Family Computer (or Famicom) exclusively in Japan on August 30, 1991. It was the final game released by HAL Laboratory as an independent third-party developer before their buy-out by Nintendo. The game's story and character designs were done by manga artist Yoshimiru, who loosely based the game on his 1984 manga Akûtensô Fixallia (亜空転騒フィクサリア, Akūtensō Fikusaria).
Contents
The game's development took more than four years to complete, with graphics and sounds that pushed the Famicom's hardware to its limit, requiring the need for an 8-megabit cartridge (the largest for any Famicom game) and the use of a specialized chip known as the MMC5 to render its graphics. However, by the time the game was released, the Super Famicom was already on the market and sales for the game were not enough to cover its advertising budget, which ended Hal Laboratory's business as an independent game publisher. It has since become a sought-after collector's item in the secondhand market due to its quality and its rarity. The game was remade for the Super Famicom on November 29, 2000 under the title of Metal Slader Glory: Director's Cut, which featured improved graphics and sounds, as well as new scenes. The original Famicom version was released for the Virtual Console in Japan on December 18, 2007 and again for the Wii U Virtual Console on July 1, 2015 along with the Super Famicom version on December 9, 2015. The Super Famicom re-release is notable for being the last title officially published for the system, roughly three years before the Famicom line's discontinuation in 2003.
metal slader glory nintendo famicom playthrough
Gameplay
Metal Slader Glory is a graphic adventure game where the player interacts with the protagonist's surrounding via a menu-based commands. The commands the player can choose varies between context, which usually ranges from talking to supporting characters to investigating the surrounding. The player must explore every possible option in order for new choices to appear. However, if the player makes a wrong selection, the game will end and the player must restart the game from where they left off. The player can quit at any point of the game and continue later via a password feature.
Plot
The game takes place eight years after a great war was waged between colonies in outer space, and peace has finally settled back onto the Earth. The main character, a 17-year-old war orphan named Tadashi Himukai, purchases a used worker-mech in order to start a construction business with his girlfriend, Elina Furfa. However, when he first activates it, the worker-mech disguise falls away, revealing a combat model Metal Slader, which were all supposedly dismantled after the war, and an enigmatic message is displayed in the cockpit: "EARTH IN PERIL... SEEK THE CREATOR". Prompted by this warning, Tadashi, his sister Azusa, and Elina head out into space to find the answers behind it.
Director's Cut
A 16-bit version was released for the Super Famicom titled Metal Slader Glory: Director's Cut, which was released via the Nintendo Power downloadable service. It was also the final Super Famicom game released by Nintendo. The Director's Cut features improved graphics and audio over the original Famicom version, including redrawn graphics by Yoshimiru himself, additional scenes that were excluded from the original version due to the lack of ROM space, different background music, and new art assets added to the ending. Players who pre-ordered the Super Famicom version from Lawson convenience stores were given a set of five post-cards drawn by Yoshimiru.
Manga
Akûtensô Fixallia, a sci-fi manga by Yoshimiru Hoshi that served as the predecessor to Metal Slader Glory, was serialized in the Tokuma Shoten magazine Hobby Boy from January throughout October 1984. The collected edition was released nine years later in 1993 by Tatsumi Publishing. The manga centers around a young man named Shin, a mechanic from the space colony Moonface, who is transported to an alien world along with his two friends, Luna and Ai, after receiving the remains of a strange robot.
In 1995, a manga spin-off was published by MediaWorks on Dengeki Comic Gao! titled Metal Slader Glory: Traces of Amia (最終機攻兵メタルスレイダーグローリー エイミアの面影, Saishū Kikōhei Metaru Sureida Gurōrī: Eimia no Omokage), which was also authored by Yoshimiru Hoshi. The manga is set after the events of the game and further expands upon its back-story.
Drama CD
To coincide with the Virtual Console release of the original Famicom game, a Drama CD adaptation of Metal Slader Glory was released by Frontier Works on July 24, 2008. It featured the following voice cast.