A Sega PS2 exclusive game is officially returning next year in a new collection release. The game in question hails from 2006, a hallmark year for the gaming industry with releases like The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Gears of War, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, New Super Mario Bros, Final Fantasy XII, Guitar Hero II, and Call of Duty 3. In a year like 2006, many releases fly under the radar, and this game is one of those games, despite being a Sega game.
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In 2006, in Japan, the now-defunct Noise Factory, SNK Playmore, and Sega all combined to release a run-and-gun game and the sixth installment in the Metal Slug series, aka Metal Slug 6. A year later, the game came west, which is why many remember it as a 2007 game. In 2009, it then came to PC. It never came to another console, though, making it a PS2 console exclusive. Now, 20 years later it’s being re-released for the first time as part of a 10-game collection that features 1996’s Metal Slug for NEOGEO MVS, 1998’s Metal Slug 2 for NEOGEO MVS, 1999’s Metal Slug X for NEOGEO MVS, 2000’s Metal Slug 3 for NEOGEO MVS, 2002’S Metal Slug 4 for NEOGEO MVS, 2003’s Metal Slug 5 for NEGEO MVS, 2004’s Metal Slug Advance for Game Boy Advance, 2007’s Metal Slug 7 for Nintendo DS, and the never released Metal Slug Location Test Version. This collection is called the Metal Slug Ultimate Collection, and it is releasing sometime in 2027 via Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X.
For those unfamiliar with Metal Slug 6, it was notably the first game in the series not to run on NEOGEO hardware, and as a result, an introduction to the series for many PlayStation fans. It was also the final game in the series to be released for arcades.
Back in 2006, the reception to it was decent, but it certainly didn’t light the world on fire. It did well enough critically and commerically to earn a sequel, though.
As for the game itself, it takes place specifically after the events of Metal Slug 3, bringing back the series’ antagonist, General Morden, but also injecting a new threat into the mix as well: an alien threat. Initially, this alien threat and Morden join forces, but the alien threat is so great that Morden and his army switch sides and play the good guys for a game in a desperate attempt to save Earth.
Does Metal Slug 6 hold up in 2026? Not really. It’s not a great standalone game, predominantly because the twist it has isn’t a twist without series context. So, it really can’t be played as a standalone experience, and obviously it’s a 20-year-old PS2 game on top of that.
