Metal Slader Glory

Metal Slader Glory
File:Metal Slader Glory.jpg Japanese Famicom box art
Developer(s)	HAL Laboratory
Publisher(s)	HAL Laboratory (Family Computer) Nintendo (Super Famicom, Wii Virtual Console)
Designer(s)	Yoshimiru Hoshi
Platforms	Family Computer, Super Famicom, Wii Virtual Console
Release date(s)	Family Computer JP August 30, 1991 Super Famicom JP November 29, 2000 Wii Virtual Console Family Computer JP December 18, 2007 Wii U Virtual Console Family Computer JP July 1, 2015 Super Famicom JP December 9, 2015
Genre(s)	Graphic adventure, Visual novel
Mode(s)	Single-player

Metal Slader Glory (メタルスレイダーグローリー, Metaru Sureidā Gurōrī) is a science-fiction-themed graphic adventure game developed by HAL Laboratory that was released for the Family Computer exclusively in Japan on August 30, 1991. It was the final game released by HAL Laboratory as an independent third-party developer before their buy-out by Nintendo. The game's story and character designs were done by manga artist Yoshimiru Hoshi, who loosely based the game on his 1984 manga Akûtensô Fixallia (亜空転騒フィクサリア, Akūtensō Fikusaria).

The game's development took more than four years to complete, with graphics and sounds that pushed the Family Computer's hardware to its limit, requiring the need for an 8-megabit cartridge (the largest for any Family Computer game) and the use of a specialized chip known as the MMC5 to render its graphics. However, by the time the game was released, the Super Famicom was already on the market and sales for the game were not enough to cover its advertising budget, which ended Hal Laboratory's business as an independent game publisher. It has since become a sought-after collector's item in the secondhand market due to its quality and its rarity. The game was remade for the Super Famicom on November 29, 2000 under the title of Metal Slader Glory: Director's Cut, which featured improved graphics and sounds, as well as new scenes. The original Family Computer version was released for the Virtual Console in Japan on December 18, 2007 and again for the Wii U Virtual Console on July 1, 2015 along with the Super Famicom version on December 9, 2015.

Gameplay

Metal Slader Glory is a graphic adventure game where the player interacts with the protagonist's surrounding via a menu-based commands. The commands the player can choose varies between context, which usually ranges from talking to supporting characters to investigating the surrounding. The player must explore every possible option in order for new choices to appear. However, if the player makes a wrong selection, the game will end and the player must restart the game from where they left off. The player can quit at any point of the game and continue later via a password feature.

Plot

The game takes place eight years after a great war was waged between colonies in outer space, and peace has finally settled back onto the Earth. The main character, a 17-year-old war orphan named Tadashi Himukai, purchases a used worker-mech in order to start a construction business with his girlfriend, Elina Furfa. However, when he first activates it, the worker-mech disguise falls away, revealing a combat model Metal Slader, which were all supposedly dismantled after the war, and an enigmatic message is displayed in the cockpit: "EARTH IN PERIL... SEEK THE CREATOR". Prompted by this warning, Tadashi, his sister Azusa, and Elina head out into space to find the answers behind it.

Tadashi Himukai (日向 忠, Himukai Tadashi)

Age 17. The protagonist. He manages his own manufacturing facility, specializing as an operator for heavy manufacturing equipment such as "Gearm" (a portmanteau of "gear" and "arm") that cannot be handle by most average people. He is overprotective and nervous of his younger sister Azusa, his only living relative since the deaths of their parents, having developed a so-called "sister complex". He is also a bit of a womanizer.

Director's Cut

A remake of the game was released for the Super Famicom that was titled Metal Slader Glory: Director's Cut, which was released via the Nintendo Power downloadable service.

This game was also the final official Super Famicom release by Nintendo. After that, the Super Famicom was retired as a viable gaming platform. The Super Famicom release features improved graphics and audio over the original Family Computer release, including redrawn graphics by Yoshimiru Hoshi himself, additional scenes that were excluded from the original Family Computer release due to the lack of cartridge space, different background music (due to copyrights issues), and new artwork added to the ending. Players who pre-ordered the Super Famicom version from Lawson convenience stores were given a set of five post-cards drawn by Yoshimiru.

Related media

Manga

Akûtensô Fixallia, a sci-fi manga by Yoshimiru Hoshi that served as the predecessor to Metal Slader Glory, was serialized in the Tokuma Shoten magazine Hobby Boy from January throughout October 1984. The collected edition was released nine years later in 1993 by Tatsumi Publishing. The manga centers around a young man named Shin, a mechanic from the space colony Moonface, who is transported to an alien world along with his two friends, Luna and Ai, after receiving the remains of a strange robot.

In 1995, a manga spin-off was published by MediaWorks on Dengeki Comic Gao! titled Metal Slader Glory: Traces of Amia (最終機攻兵メタルスレイダーグローリー　エイミアの面影, Saishū Kikōhei Metaru Sureida Gurōrī: Eimia no Omokage), which was also authored by Yoshimiru Hoshi. The manga is set after the events of the game and further expands upon its back-story.

Drama CD

To coincide with the Virtual Console release of the original Famicom game, a Drama CD adaptation of Metal Slader Glory　was released by Frontier Works on July 24, 2008. It featured the following voice cast.

• Tadashi Himukai - Mamoru Miyano
• Azusa Himukai - Yukari Tamura
• Erina Furfa - Ryōka Yuzuki
• Catty Vitlay -Fumiko Orikasa
• Yayoi Kizaragi - Asami Imai
• Gi Enkai - Tsubasa Yonaga
• Gen Lunkle - Minoru Shiraishi
• Charmy Glint - Yoshino Nanjō
• Silkiene Marceau - Atsuko Tanaka
• Sayoko - Shizuka Itō

External links

• Metal Slader Glory Virtual Console page (Japanese)
• Metal Slader Glory: Director's Cut website (Japanese)
• Nintendo Online Magazine No. 27 (Japanese)