GDC08: Hands on with Nintendo DS-exclusive Metal Slug 7

Blood, guts and gore don't usually find a home on Nintendo DS, but this autumn the console will exclusively be home to the military mayhem of Metal Slug 7.

The side-scrolling action game is getting gussied up for a brand new instalment and we were the first outside of SNK Playmore to test it out Wednesday morning during the Game Developers Conference.

In Metal Slug 7 story doesn't matter as much as slaughter. You play as one of six characters – Ralf, Tarma, Marco, Eri, Fio and Clark – across seven missions, with the latter broken down into shorter, bite-sized stages that take around five minutes to complete. During those, you can view a map of your current stage on the touchscreen and then use a slider to zoom in and out on it.

All of the action itself occurs on the DS top screen. Each of the seven missions, of which we played two, have you traipsing through sepia-toned military complexes and munitions depots, blasting back enemy soldiers, vehicles and aircraft. The game still closely follows the same formula as its predecessors, with a constant stream of bullets whizzing across the screen at pretty much all times. Staying alive means shooting first and asking questions later. Or, indeed, not even caring enough to bother asking the questions.

Blame the Metal Slug environment – it's just not conducive to social etiquette. Take the beginning of the second stage in mission two, where we were faced with numerous foot soldiers and a helicopter simultaneously, forcing us to spray fire as quickly as possible in two different directions.

Other situations included a series of lift-based battles set deep within an underground base that had dozens of soldiers streaming in from both sides as we descended into the heart of the complex. You're constantly shooting foes, which naturally makes it a thrill-laden, action-packed affair.

Every character comes equipped with the same two weapons: an assault rifle fired via the Y button and bombs lobbed off with A. But special weapon pick-ups from broken crates and fallen enemies provide access to experimental arms for a limited time, of course. For example, you can wield a Tesla Coil rifle that electrocutes opponents on contact or a laser that beams foes to ashes.

Along with obliterating baddies, your mission involves freeing prisoners hidden throughout each of the stages. A Prisoner's List located on the main menu tells you how many you've found in each mission as well as those that are still missing. As ever, finding prisoners is optional, but it's intended to add replay value to the game given that seven missions isn't a lot of play time.

Helping to further boost the replayability is a Combat Training Mode that divvies up a handful of the stages and makes it possible to play through them for a letter grade.

We can't obviously leave without mentioning the graphics. Visually, then, Metal Slug 7 retains the look of previous instalments with a brown-heavy style that goes well with its portrayal of side-scrolling cartoon military combat. As far as 2D goes it isn't the best we've seen on Nintendo's handheld, but it should hold up fine when it ships later this year.