Take every single part of one of those games, and make it worse, and less reliable, and sloppy, and unfinished. GunForce, on the other hand, is what would happen if I figured out how to code in hex, and tried to make my own 16-bit Metal Slug. It's probably the best thing SNK has ever done. The controls, the graphics (those sprites are to die for), the animation, the humor, everything. Because almost every single part of what makes up an MS game is sublime. I don't know if I would say the Metal Slug series is the preeminent run n gun shooter franchise on the planet (that would probably be Contra), but it's close. As in, you can think of this as Metal Slug 0.1 or something. Which means - you guessed it - GunForce, released in the arcades and then shoddily ported over to the Super Nintendo, is something of a Metal Slug predecessor. Look familiar? Like, really familiar? Because anyone who knows their video games should recognize a Metal Slug whens theys sees it (people talk like that, right?). So why do I keep playing it? Well, before I go any further, let me show you a screenshot of GunForce II, an arcade exclusive: The control scheme is horrid, the framerate is abysmal, the sound is a total mess, the level design is weak, there's no balance whatsoever to the difficulty curve, and the entire playthrough lasts all of ten minutes. Okay, let me just go right out and say it. But it's the perfect cartridge to bust out for game night, when it's more important to have everyone laughing and having a good time. Anyone looking for balanced gameplay is playing the wrong game. The actual football is very basic and there's not enough meat to its bones to really make you want to keep coming back. Now of course there isn't much going on here other than all of that ridiculousness. Even the player animations are (purposely?) stilted in the weirdest way. It's 90s 'tude to the max, mixed with a gloriously silly and over-the-top presentation, and wickedly fast gameplay that makes little sense in motion, but always provides plenty of hilarity. The screenshots (and the photograph of my CRT at the end there) tell most of the story. So why is this thing being honored (perhaps dubiously) with a "guilty pleasure" tag? I guess because of how ridiculous it is. No seasons, tournaments, playoffs, create-a-team, nothing. Now, I do have to admit that the game is painfully limited in scope - no doubt a carryover from its arcade roots - because all it offers are a small handful of teams to choose between (all of whom appear to play exactly the same), and the sole option to play single games. Both titles also originated in the arcades, where simple controls and fast-paced gameplay are the rule. As in, lots of ridiculous action, bone-jarring hits, cartoony characters and nothing resembling a real football game to be found anywhere. Super High Impact is basically a proto- NFL Blitz of sorts. Why the constant changes? I guess you can blame the growing number of games I enjoy on the Super Nintendo, which has caused me to keep shifting everything "upwards." If you follow what I'm saying. I've shuffled them from an original set of spots at the #250 mark, moved them down to #300, and finally, landed here at #350. Actually, the only other thing that has really changed in all that time was their placement. You have no idea how long I've been wanting to get to these 10 9 10 games, because I've worked on curating this little selection of titles since well before the first few write-ups were posted a couple of years ago. At last, we have reached the "guilty pleasures" section of this project.
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