This game is awesome, and when it made the voting cut for GameSpite Quarterly 6, I had no recourse butto write about why that is the case.
Metal Storm is a game I bought back in the day, and loved, and played repeatedly (since it was one of those “hard” games that my idiot savant younger self mastered in about an afternoon, and which stumps my fumble-fingered adult self). Weirdly enough, I bought my copy of the game at a Putt-Putt golf course, of all places. They briefly flirted with adding pay-per-play console games to their arcades, and when they bombed out they sold their barely-used software for cheap. And then, I swooped in and discovered the joys of dancin’ on the ceiling. Lionel Richie would have been proud.
This is one of the NES games I’m always sad that I never discovered back in the day. I’m pretty sure my platform-era self would’ve eaten it up. The whole thing is pretty ingenious.
Also, the in-game mech sprite totally matches the classic Toastyfrog site color scheme.
I remember seeing this in Nintendo Power, and wanting it badly, simply on the premise and the absolutely awesome mech design. I never did find it in my area. In fact, I didn’t actually obtain the game until last year. It’s a great game, with a very slick hook to it.
Anyway, remembering NP also brought something else to mind: I didn’t think the game was contemporaneous with Mega Man 5, at least not here in the States. Metal Storm came out really early in February ’91 (and that was probably the issue of NP that covered it), and MM5 was like December of ’92 or something.
Actually, it’s kind of sad that I internally date everything to when I read the coverage in NP, which usually works, except for with Vice: Project Doom, which got delayed a bit from when it got covered. And despite what anyone says, the 1990-1992 period of NP was awesome. :)
Whoops, don’t know why this popped in as a reply. Oh well.
Great article! … So many memories of this game. The last time I played it was so long ago, but I have an NES again and will be purchasing it ASAP. It’s funny how you can remember the sound effects of some games so vividly. For this game I remember the sound when you reverse gravity, the high pitch “clang” of my mech getting destroyed, and the sound of my controller crashing into the wall.
The Famicom version has better colors, pretty sure it uses a different mapper. Dunno if there’s any other differences.
I loved this game when it first came out, and I never stopped loving it. However, I only played it sparingly, due to the fact that I found it too easy back then. It was one of the few NES games I could sit down with, completely confident that I would beat it. Granted, looking back at my NES library, this is probably just another testament to its great design.
always wanted to play this game, especially after its article in Nintendo Power. never could find a copy. and i am one of those dorks that has to play it on it’s original platform, other wise emulation would do, so if anyone has an extra copy, you have an interested party here.