When you think of Metal Slug, a port to the Sega Genesis doesn’t exactly jump to mind, does it? Do not tell that to the developer behind this port of Metal Slug to the Sega Genesis.
Not as easy as it may look
The Neo Geo was only marginally more powerful than the Sega Genesis as far as processing power. Where Neo Geo shined was the memory allocated for each game. Being so massive, it was easy to push the graphics and sound to levels that the competition could not match.
Metal Slug was a title that took advantage of this memory to provide a unique, but familiar, gaming experience. Graphically, Metal Slug was impressive for the time, still is in so many aspects.
Coming to the Sega Genesis requires some compromise though. As is with many ports of this nature, there are compromises to be made.The goal seems to be 8 megs for this port. The original on Neo Geo was 193 megs. Keep in mind, consoles measure in megabits, computers were measured in megabytes (gotta love marketing).
New adventure and physical release
This version of Metal Slug is not really a port. Sure, it will use assets from the original game, but there will be a new adventure created. Specifically, 6 new levels to run and gun through here.
There is even a Dreamcast version being researched for potential development. I figure this would end up being a copy of the Sega Genesis ROM packaged with an emulator and offered in a CDI or NRG file for burning.
There is also a version of Metal Slug being developed for the Atari ST computer simultaneously with the Sega Genesis version.
You can grab a download of the Sega Genesis or Atari ST version from the Itch.io page.