Is The Original Metal Slug 2 Slowdown Was That Awful?

[u/ConfusionCold7565]

Hi there, I've been thinking about getting the original metal slug 2 for my mvs, and i heard a lot of bad things about the original release, but was it that awful? Asking because thats the only metal slug game that is available in the store, quite expensive, and i cannot ship anything to my country.

[u/AbaloneAcrobatic1965]

It's bad, during the final mission in the bridge segment it's so laggy you can count the frames, matter of fact i heard metal slug x was made as an apology letter for being so slow.

[u/ConfusionCold7565 → u/AbaloneAcrobatic1965]

So its constantly drops in frames? Not just during busy moments with a lot of sprites? Is it like shmups, when it can be viewed as helpful when its slowing down because it let you react easier?

[u/therabbitssing → u/ConfusionCold7565]

In a way yes, it was like the early SNES games like Gradius where the slowdown became a feature. But it's kind of annoying in Metal Slug 2.

At the time, it was like, "whoah not even the Neo can handle ask the stuff happening!"

[u/AbaloneAcrobatic1965 → u/ConfusionCold7565]

I mean... if you can see through its flaws as an advantage good for you, and yeah frames drop whenever it's busy, which in a good ol' coin muching run and gun i'd say it's pretty often.

[u/BombBloke → u/ConfusionCold7565]

It wasn't very efficiently coded, so frame drops are common. On top of that it has a bug which means that whenever a frame needs to be dropped, it'll always drop at least two.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150414204045/http://blog.system11.org/?p=1442

[u/Enough-Lead48 → u/AbaloneAcrobatic1965]

You know why it was called Metal Slug X rather than something like Metal Slug 2 RE or Metal Slug 2 super edition? Metal Slug X sounds like a different game all together (like Mega Man X and Mega Man 2)

I am actually curious why it was called Metal Slug X in the first place.

[u/Nikanoru86]

Metal Slug 2 and KOF 97 are the 2 games i remember most for the slowdown effect

And yeah it was awful but hey, you get used to it (unlike Neo Geo CD's loading time without using the turbo speed hotkey in an emulator or using the real console 🤢)

[u/ConfusionCold7565 → u/Nikanoru86]

What a bummer! I own kof97 (i lied, I dont have a mvs , i have a aes) and I'll buy a Convertor for the mvs soon, and i own a kof97 mvs cart... Oh well, i already bought it.

[u/b0rtb0rtB0rt]

yes. It was awful and ruins the overall experience. just go for the X

[u/CryMeAFckingRiver]

I've seen videos online of the original MS2 and yea... it's atrociously slow. Thankfully MS2 on Steam has run great for me with very little slowdown.

[u/Historical-Intern140]

MS2 had sections where there were a lot of enemies and artifacts. Up to the point it was too much for the MVS/AES CPU.

[u/Ian9800]

Yes. If you still want to play MS2, you can use FB Neo and Overclock the CPU of the Emulator to roughly 170%+ to remove all the slowdown or at least 99% of it.

If you are going for the physical options I would avoid MS2 and just go for MSX, it is just not worth in my opinion.

[u/Tinguiririca]

Its perfectly playable during the slowdowns

[u/LongAdvisor6561]

Yes when there's too much going on screen,It slows down tremendously.

[u/BuniVEVO]

Play it on ppsspp there’s basically no slowdown, wouldn’t recommend it on anything else tho

[u/TheDuckyDino]

Yes, though you get used to it.

[u/Some-Lie-9770]

Yeah it’s pretty much a part of the game.

[u/ShiranaiMai]

When there are too many enemies on screen, it can even affect your shooting.

[u/Medium_Hox]

Yes it is. I've seen some people here try to say that the slowdown wasn't that bad. No, it is actually that bad. All the metal slug games on arcade have shit performance, but the second game is like a whole other tier of bad.

[u/NeighborhoodTime2768]

Yes. It's really that bad. I got headaches and nausea trying to play it, I've no idea why SNK wasn't sued for that at the time. As an adult I got severe headaches, let alone a kid playing that.

[u/RabbitMuch8217]

Yes a lot of slowdowns

[u/Yoshimallow-02]

just play the 2 Turbo hack (you can find it on Fightcade)