is a
1991
File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...
scrolling shooter
In computer displays, filmmaking, television production, and other kinetic displays, scrolling is sliding text, images or video across a monitor or display, vertically or horizontally. "Scrolling," as such, does not change the layout of the text ...
arcade
Arcade most often refers to:
* Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine
** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware
** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board
* Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games
* ...
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
originally developed and published by
Taito
is a Japanese company that specializes in video games, toys, arcade cabinets and game centers, based in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The company was founded by Michael Kogan in 1953 as the importing vodka, vending machines and jukeboxes into Japan. It b ...
.
Set in the dystopian future of 2052, players assume the role of rogue pilot John Ford taking command of the CF-345 Black Fly space fighter craft to defeat the Nemesis alien race and save humanity.
Created under the working title "''Project Gun Frontier 2''", ''Metal Black'' was made by most of the same staff behind ''
Gun Frontier
is a 1972 manga by Leiji Matsumoto.In Matsumoto's works, there have been planets with towns modelled somewhat after the Wild West. In ''Galaxy Express 999'', one of them is called Gun Frontier. Another such planet appears in ''Cosmo Warrio ...
'' and ran on the
Taito F1 System hardware, although its actual connection with the latter title is very loose. Under the initial internal name "''Darius Part 22''", development began as the third entry in the ''
Darius'' series before being reworked into an original game, as its atmosphere was deemed to be very dark by Taito during production phase. Though first launched in arcades, it was later
ported
In software engineering, porting is the process of adapting software for the purpose of achieving some form of execution in a computing environment that is different from the one that a given program (meant for such execution) was originally desi ...
to the
Sega Saturn
The is a home video game console developed by Sega and released on November 22, 1994, in Japan, May 11, 1995, in North America, and July 8, 1995, in Europe. Part of the fifth generation of video game consoles, it was the successor to the succ ...
and has since been re-released through
compilation
Compilation may refer to:
*In computer programming, the translation of source code into object code by a compiler
**Compilation error
**Compilation unit
*Product bundling, a marketing strategy used to sell multiple products
*Compilation thesis
M ...
s.
''Metal Black'' was met with mixed reception from critics since its initial arcade release and later on the Saturn as an
import title. The game later served as an inspiration for
G.rev
, short for G.revolution, is a Japanese video game developer. The company was founded by former employees of Taito's arcade division who had worked on '' G-Darius'' and ''RayStorm'', and is known primarily for their arcade shoot 'em up games.
H ...
's ''
Border Down
''Border Down'' is a horizontally scrolling shooter developed and published by G.rev. It was released in Japanese arcades in April 2003 on Sega NAOMI hardware, and was ported to the Dreamcast later that year. The story takes place in the fut ...
'', including its "beam level" system.
Gameplay
''Metal Black'' is a scrolling shooter game where players assume the role of rogue pilot John Ford taking control of the CF-345 Black Fly space fighter craft across six increasingly difficult rounds to combat against the Nemesis alien race and save humanity.
The gameplay is unique in that there are no alternative weapons or bombs;
the only power-up players grab through rounds are the Newalone molecules scattered by Nemesis. Collecting it increases the ship's beam level, serving as the only defense mechanism. The more Newalone molecules players collect, the stronger the ship's firepower becomes.
When reaching a mid or max beam level, players can unleash a large beam to obliterate enemies caught within range and cause a lightning that briefly shocks the screen, destroying enemies around the ship.
Enemies also have beam levels of their own, most notably the bosses, who in turn eat as much Newalone as they can to unleash their own beam.
If the players and boss' large beams are fired simultaneously, one overpowers the other depending on how high each level is, starting a "beam duel".
When "beam dueling", players must quickly tap the fire button to keep the opposing beam at bay, accumulating into a destructive energy matter that changes color based on which wielder's beam is stronger.
After the first and third rounds, a bonus round occurs to indicate players' advancement into space.
Each bonus round has players encircle a group of enemies that must be destroyed by locking on the moving targets and launch cluster missiles under a time limit to gain extra points.
Getting hit by enemy fire or colliding against solid stage obstacles will result in losing a live and once all lives are lost, the
game is over unless the players insert more credits into the arcade machine to
continue playing.
Synopsis
The plot summary of ''Metal Black'' is explained further through supplementary materials.
In the year 2042, a
companion star
A binary star is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved using a telescope as separate stars, in wh ...
of the planet
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...
appears a few
astronomical unit
The astronomical unit (symbol: au, or or AU) is a unit of length, roughly the distance from Earth to the Sun and approximately equal to or 8.3 light-minutes. The actual distance from Earth to the Sun varies by about 3% as Earth orbits t ...
s away from the planet and propels the asteroids along Jupiter's orbit towards the Earth, creating a wave of meteorites. As Earth struggles to survive, extraterrestrial cybernetic invaders from beyond the distant star use the meteorites as cover to invade with little resistance, intending to plunder Earth for inorganic materials needed to sustain their forms. Both the aliens and the star they came from are quickly named 'Nemesis'.
What resistance the aliens face from Earth's combined international defense forces is quickly obliterated by the aliens' powerful beam weapons. Earth's scientists study the molecules that power the alien weaponry, which have started to litter the Earth, and the molecule is given the name 'Newalone'. With Newalone in their hands, scientists quickly begin Project Metal Black, focused on developing at least twenty-thousand human spacecraft capable of wielding the same beam weaponry as the aliens. The spacecraft is known as the CF-345 Black Fly, named for its method of Newalone energy use.
However, ten years after the invasion, Earth's remaining diplomats pass a treaty with the Nemesis forces outlining a peaceful surrender, which promises to keep all of Earth's remaining forces from attacking: This applies to Project Metal Black, preventing the Black Fly spacecraft's use. With the planet's population thinning and natural resources dwindling, a rogue pilot named John Ford commandeers one of the Black Fly craft in violation of the treaty, intending to strike back against Nemesis and save what remains of humanity.
The events within the game itself unfold over six stages as Ford pilots the Black Fly and travels to Jupiter, confronting powerful Nemesis ships along the way. In the final two stages, Ford breaches Nemesis itself, earning a crucial chance to defeat the invading forces once and for all. From this point, there are two possible endings: If the player gets a Game Over on the final stage, Ford's death incites a military coup d'état of the global government, and 20,000 Black Fly craft are dispatched to Nemesis's apparent origin point. Otherwise, Ford confronts the leader of Nemesis in a rapidly-shifting dimension, the battle apparently culminating with the Earth being split in two; it is left unclear as to whether the Earth's destruction and the events of the game as a whole ever actually occurred.
Development
''Metal Black'' was developed under the working title "''Project Gun Frontier 2''" by most of the same staff behind ''Gun Frontier'', including its
designer
A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans.
In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...
Takatsuna Senba and
producer
Producer or producers may refer to:
Occupations
*Producer (agriculture), a farm operator
*A stakeholder of economic production
*Film producer, supervises the making of films
**Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...
Takamasa "Tarabar" Hori but its actual connection to the latter is faint at best.
According to Senba, development began as ''Darius 3'' under the initial internal name "''Darius Part 22''" and the original plan was to announce it in a two-screen cabinet similar to ''
Darius II
Darius II ( peo, 𐎭𐎠𐎼𐎹𐎺𐎢𐏁 ; grc-gre, Δαρεῖος ), also known by his given name Ochus ( ), was King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire from 423 BC to 405 or 404 BC.
Artaxerxes I, who died in 424 BC, was followed by h ...
''.
Translation
by Shmuplations. ).
Release
''Metal Black'' was released in arcades in November 1991. Prior to launch, it was showcased in a playable state to attendees at the 1991
Amusement Machine Show
The Japan Amusement Expo (JAEPO) is an annual trade fair for amusement arcade products, such as arcade games, redemption games, amusement rides, vending machines, and change machines. The event is hosted one weekend per year in the Greater Tok ...
. The game ran on Taito's F1 System hardware, using expansion chips that allowed special graphical effects.
A version named after Hori titled ''Metal Black: Tarabar Edition'' was created for internal use at Tatio and not released for arcades, featuring only three stages and different music, as well as a new "extra stage" and more difficult enemy patterns.
An album containing music from the game was co-published exclusively in Japan by
Scitron
is a Japanese record label that publishes video game music albums.
List of video game albums released
A -
B - C -
D - E -
F - G -
H -
I -
J - K -
L - M -
N - O -
P - Q -
R - S -
T - U -
V - W -
X - Y -
Z
...
and
Pony Canyon
, also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese mass media publishing company founded on October 1, 1966. The company publishes mainly physical home media on compact discs, including music, films and TV shows and video games. It is affiliate ...
in January 21, 1992. The title was later ported to the Sega Saturn by Ving and published only in Japan on May 24, 1996 under the "''Arcade Gears''" budget line.
It has since been included as part of the ''
Taito Legends 2
''Taito Legends 2'' is the sequel to ''Taito Legends'' and is a follow-up collection of 39 (or 43, see below) Taito arcade games for Xbox, PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Windows. As the former collection, it has been derived from the Japan exclu ...
'' compilation for
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
,
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...
and
Xbox
Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the na ...
in 2006.
The original arcade version is planned to be included as part of the Taito Egret II mini console.
In 2012, a compilation album containing its soundtrack, as well as the music from ''Gun Frontier'' and ''
Dino Rex
is a Fighting game, fighting Arcade game, arcade video game developed and originally released by Taito in Japan in November 1992. Set during the 25th century BC on a Prehistory, prehistoric South America, players assume the role of a warrior com ...
'' was released by SuperSweep in Japan.
Reception
In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''Metal Black'' on their February 1, 1992 issue as being the thirteenth most-popular arcade game at the time. According to ''
Famitsu
formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...
'', the Saturn version sold over 7,839 copies in its first week on the market. Four reviewers of ''Famitsu'' gave the Sega Saturn version a score of 20 out of 40.
Legacy
A similar "beam duel" system was featured in ''
G-Darius {{Infobox video game
, title = G-Darius
, image = G-Darius arcade flyer.jpg
, caption = Promotional flyer
, developer = Taito
, publisher = Taito
, released = Arcade{{vgrelease, JP, June 1997
PlayStation{{vgrelease, JP, April 9, 1998
{{vgrel ...
''.
Hiroyuki Maruyama of G.rev stated that ''Metal Black'' was a heavy inspiration during development of ''Border Down'', including its "beam level" system and also features references to the former in other ways. The CF-345 Black Fly appears as a downloadable ship in ''
Dariusburst: Chronicle Saviours'' for
PC,
PlayStation 4
The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...
and
PlayStation Vita
The PlayStation Vita (PS Vita, or Vita) is a handheld video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 17, 2011, and in North America, Europe, and other international territo ...
.
Notes
References
External links
''Metal Black''at
GameFAQs
GameFAQs is a website that hosts FAQs and walkthroughs for video games. It was created in November 1995 by Jeff Veasey and was bought by CNET Networks in May 2003. It is currently owned by Fandom, Inc. since October 2022. The site has a databa ...
''Metal Black''at
Giant Bomb
''Giant Bomb'' is an American video game website and wiki that includes personality-driven gaming videos, commentary, news, and reviews, created by former ''GameSpot'' editors Jeff Gerstmann and Ryan Davis. The website was voted by ''Time'' mag ...
''Metal Black''at
Killer List of Videogames
Killer List of Videogames (KLOV) is a website featuring an online encyclopedia devoted to cataloging arcade games past and present. It is the video game department of the International Arcade Museum, and has been referred to as "the IMDb for pla ...
''Metal Black''at
MobyGames
MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Metal Black (video game)
1991 video games
Arcade video games
Cooperative video games
Horizontally scrolling shooters
Nintendo Switch games
PlayStation 4 games
Post-apocalyptic video games
Sega Saturn games
Taito games
Taito arcade games
Video games developed in Japan
Video games with alternate endings
Video games scored by Yasuhisa Watanabe
Video games set in the 2050s
Hamster Corporation games
Multiplayer and single-player video games