Every Metal Slug game, ranked
All 4 Metal Slug games we hold, spanning 1996 to 2015: 4 ranked by the GamingPickz Score and plotted below, the rest listed in release order so nothing in the series is missing. Together they carry 18,076 Steam reviews.
Where to start
- For the best-reviewed: METAL SLUG 3 (GamingPickz Score 7.5), the highest-rated entry we can score.
- For canon order: begin with Metal Slug (1996) and follow the release-order timeline below.
- For the money: Metal Slug 2 gives the most score per dollar right now.
The Metal Slug games on the grid
Compare the whole catalogueThe same 4 games, plotted rather than listed. The two axes below are the ones the ranking is built from, so a game sitting high and right is a game the formula placed near the top. Change either axis to see the field a different way. Where we hold a publisher wordmark, the game is drawn as its mark rather than a dot.
4 games have both
Axes are fitted to these 4 games rather than the full 0 to 100 scale, because a filtered list shares a narrow band and would otherwise sit in one corner. End values are marked. A point on the left edge is the lowest of thesegames, not a low score.
Players. The share of Steam reviews marked positive, pulled toward the catalogue average in proportion to how few reviews stand behind it. A game with 200 reviews moves a long way toward the average; one with 200,000 barely moves at all. Without this a title sitting at 100 percent on nine reviews outranks Half-Life 2 at 98 percent on 278,000.
Popularity. A blend of two things that are not the same. Audience is how many people wrote a Steam review, which is a floor on how many played it. Reach is how many language editions of Wikipedia document the game, which is cultural footprint rather than sales. A game can score high on one and low on the other: a huge free-to-play title has audience without reach, and a landmark console exclusive has reach without a Steam audience at all. Where both exist they are averaged; where only one does, that one carries it.
- PC
- PlayStation
Every point links to that game's entry. The value map and the reception map are fixed views of the same data.
How positions are decided
No paid placement, no favouritism, live third-party data
- Placed by the published method, not by us. Every coordinate is computed from the axis definitions and weights printed on this site. Nobody moves a point. See the axes.
- Nothing here is paid for. No sponsored placements, no promoted slots, no arrangement of any kind affects a position. If that ever changes it will be labelled and sit outside the ranking.
- No favouritism, including our own. The 16 games we have written full reviews of are scored by exactly the same formula as the other 1,510, from the same third-party inputs, and they land where it puts them. Our own opinion of a game does not enter its coordinates.
- A position is not an endorsement. It says how a game was received and what it costs, not that we recommend it. Where we do recommend something, it carries a written review with a name on it.
- Fetched from live third-party data. Player sentiment from Steam, critic aggregates as published on store pages, prices checked hourly, attention from Wikipedia. Each figure carries its source and the date it was read, and we do not adjust any of them.
4 best Metal Slug games, ranked
Ordered by GamingPickz Score. Every figure links back to the source that produced it.
METAL SLUG 3 at a glance Released 2014 Studio SNK CORPORATION Player sentiment 90% positive of 9,156 Critics No aggregate Price $7.99 Steam Deck unsupported Install size 0.49 GB Accessibility 1 declared feature Raw 90% shrinks to 89.7 on 9,156 reviews, giving 7.5. No critics data, so that weight was redistributed across the rest rather than counted as zero.
What the data supports- Small install at 0.49 GB.
Worth checking first- Valve rates it Unsupported on the Steam Deck.
Metal Slug at a glance Released 1996 Studio Nazca Corporation Player sentiment 89% positive of 5,258 Critics No aggregate Price $7.99 Steam Deck playable Install size 0.49 GB Accessibility 1 declared feature Raw 89% shrinks to 88.6 on 5,258 reviews, giving 7.1. No critics data, so that weight was redistributed across the rest rather than counted as zero.
What the data supports- Small install at 0.49 GB.
Metal Slug 2 at a glance Released 1998 Studio SNK Player sentiment 89% positive of 1,432 Critics No aggregate Price $6.99 Steam Deck unsupported Install size 0.49 GB Accessibility 1 declared feature Raw 89% shrinks to 87.9 on 1,432 reviews, giving 6.7. No critics data, so that weight was redistributed across the rest rather than counted as zero.
What the data supports- Small install at 0.49 GB.
Worth checking first- Valve rates it Unsupported on the Steam Deck.
- 4
METAL SLUG DEFENSE
Best for: Trying the genre without spending anything
5.2GamingPickz Scoremedium confidenceMETAL SLUG DEFENSE at a glance Released 2015 Studio SNK CORPORATION Player sentiment 57% positive of 2,230 Critics No aggregate Price Free Steam Deck unknown Install size 0.29 GB Accessibility 1 declared feature Raw 57% shrinks to 61.1 on 2,230 reviews, giving 5.2. No critics data, so that weight was redistributed across the rest rather than counted as zero.
What the data supports- Free to download, so trying it costs only time.
- Small install at 0.29 GB.
Best and worst entry
The best-received Metal Slug game we can score is METAL SLUG 3 at 7.5. The lowest is METAL SLUG DEFENSE at 5.2, a 2.3-point spread across the series. The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment, critics and popularity, computed the same way for every game.
How the series scored over time
GamingPickz Score against release year, 1996 to 2015. The later entries score lower than the earlier ones: the series has been trending down.
Cheapest way in, and best value
- Cheapest right now: METAL SLUG DEFENSE at Free. Prices are read live from Steam and move.
- Best value: Metal Slug 2, the most GamingPickz Score per dollar in the series at its current price.
On a Steam Deck
Valve's own Deck compatibility rating for the Metal Slug entries on Steam:
- Playable: Metal Slug
- Unsupported: Metal Slug 2, METAL SLUG 3
Platforms across the series
Where the 4 Metal Slug games have landed, counting every entry we hold:
| Platform family | Entries |
|---|---|
| PC | 3 of 4 |
| PlayStation | 1 of 4 |
The Metal Slug series, game by game
Every Metal Slug game we hold, in release order. Each description is the game's own, from Steam where it has a listing and Wikipedia for the older entries, never ours.
- 1996
Metal Slug
7.1“METAL SLUG ”, the very first title in SNK’s legendary 2D run & gun action shooting game series where all began, returns to the missions on the Steam gaming platform! (Steam)
Plot
Setting The first game's story involved the Peregrine Falcon (PF) Squad, a small but skilled team of soldiers serving under the Regular Army's special operations division, who fight against the army of General Donald Morden in order to prevent a massive coup d'état and the creation of a New World Order. Later games featured characters from the Sparrows Unit, which is under the control of the Regular Army's intelligence division. Beginning with Metal Slug… (Wikipedia)
Characters
Characters of Metal Slug Heroes Major Marco Rossi (voiced by Takenosuke Nishikawa in NeoGeo Battle Coliseum and by Kenta Miyake in Neo Geo Heroes: Ultimate Shooting ) and Captain Tarma Roving were the only playable characters in the first game, and each was reserved solely to the first and second player, respectively. From the second installment, characters can be chosen independently, and Sergeant 2nd Class members Eri Kasamoto and Master Sergeant… (Wikipedia)
- 1998
Metal Slug 2
6.7“METAL SLUG 2”, the 2nd entry in SNK’s emblematic 2D run & gun action shooting game returns to the battlefield on the Steam gaming platform! (Steam)
Plot
Two years have passed since the end of Metal Slug , when Capt. Marco Rossi and Lt. Tarma Roving of Peregrine Falcon Strike Force defeated and killed the evil General Morden, who had staged a coup d'état against the worlds' governments. (Wikipedia)
Reception
Reception Upon their initial appearance, both Metal Slug 2 and Metal Slug X received generally positive reviews. Many of the subsequent ports and re-releases have received mixed reviews. For example, the iOS version of Metal Slug 2 holds an aggregate score of 77% on GameRankings , based on 5 reviews, and 76 out of 100 on Metacritic , based on 6 reviews. (Wikipedia)
- 2014
METAL SLUG 3
7.5“METAL SLUG 3”, the masterpiece in SNK’s emblematic 2D run & gun action shooting game series, still continues to fascinate millions of fans worldwide to this day for its intricate dot-pixel graphics, and simple and intuitive game controls, heads out to the Steam gaming platform! (Steam)
- 2015
“METAL SLUG”, the pinnacle of 2D action-shooting on NEOGEO returns in a brand new strategy game on Steam! (Steam)
Metal Slug, head to head
Two entries side by side on score, price, specs and reception:
Metal Slug vs other series
How Metal Slug stacks up against other series in the same genre, as a whole:
Common questions
How many Metal Slug games are there?
We hold 4 Metal Slug games in the catalogue, released between 1996 and 2015. 4 of them carry enough Steam data to rank; the rest are listed in release order below, including console-only entries with no Steam listing.
Which Metal Slug game is best?
By the GamingPickz Score, METAL SLUG 3 rates highest at 7.5. That is a composite of player sentiment, the critic aggregate and popularity, computed the same way for every game, not our opinion. The full ranking is above.
What order should I play the Metal Slug games in?
Release order is listed below, from 1996 to 2015. For most series that is also story order, but we list dates rather than telling you a canon; the timeline is read from Wikidata.
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