Metal Black

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Metal Black
System(s): Sega Saturn
Publisher: Ving
Developer: Ving
Licensor: Taito
Original system(s): Taito F2 System
Sound driver: SCSP/CD-DA (21 tracks)
Genre: Shooting
Number of players: 1-2
Release Date RRP Code JP 1996-05-24 ¥5,800 (5,974)5,800e T-19902G JP (Satakore) 1998-07-23 ¥2,8002,800 T-19909G
Non-Sega versions Arcade

Metal Black (メタルブラック) is a Sega Saturn horizontal shoot-'em-up developed and published by Ving. It is a port of the 1991 Taito arcade game Metal Black. It was released exclusively in Japan in May 1996, and it later received a Satakore budget label re-release in July 1998.

Story

In the future, Earth is attacked by aliens that possess the ability to harness the power of "Newalone," a strange, molecule-like structure. Earth counters by building its own fleet also based on Newalone technology, but it freezes the project on favour of peace with the aliens. The contract is very one-sided and Earth is dying. A single solider breaks into a military complex and manages to steal a "Black Fly," a space ship designed to use Newalone.

Gameplay

Metal Black is a side-scrolling shoot-'em-up wherein players pilot a "Black Fly" space fighter in a last-ditch effort to save humanity from hostile alien invaders. It can be played as one player or by two players simultaneously. The second player can enter the game at any point by pressing  START  on a second control pad. Rather than collecting special weapons or having bombs, the Black Fly has a single weapon that can be powered up by grabbing the Newalone molecules that float throughout the stages. Collecting Newalone molecules gradually increases the ship's beam meter and strengthens its attack. The Black Fly can expend its beam meter to unleash a large beam that obliterates enemies caught within its blast. Bosses have beam weapons as well and compete with the Black Fly to consume Newalone to power their own beams. If the player and the boss fire their beams simultaneously, one overpowers the other depending on which beam has a higher power level, starting a "beam duel."

The Black Fly moves in any direction using the D-Pad. It fires its primary weapon by pressing or , which can be held for rapid-fire. The strength of the weapon grows with the beam level, which increases as the ship collects Newalone particles. The beam level starts at 0 but can increase to level 5 and then to "max" level.

If the beam level is at least 2, the Black Fly can unleash its beam weapon by pressing . The beam covers a large area and can penetrate through multiple enemies and through terrain. The beam meter starts draining once the ship starts firing its beam and stops when the meter is fully drained (consequently reverting the main weapon to its base power). Players can prolong the duration by collecting more Newalone particles. Like the main weapon, the beam is larger and more powerful at higher levels. At max level, the beam spreads into rays of lightning that attack enemies and neutralizes enemy projectiles in all directions, but it can be focused into a beam by holding . It also reverts to a beam once the beam meter has drained to level 3.

The ship is destroyed if it is hit by an enemy or collides with terrain. It revives in place with the same beam level if the player has extra lives remaining. Extends are given at 70,000 points, then every 150,000 points after that. The game ends if the player runs out of lives but can be continued a limited number of times (with the score reset). There are four difficulty levels (Easy, Normal, Hard, and Very Hard), and players can set the starting number of lives (between 1 and 4).

Items

There is only one power-up, which appears plentifully.

	Newalone
	Collect to increase the ship's beam meter.

Rounds

	Down to Earth
	Cry for the Moon
	Dream Land
	Crystal Lize
	Nemesis Crisis
	A Mirage of Mind: Gaia
	An alternative ending can be viewed by dying and not continuing on this stage.

Bonus stages

After the first and third rounds, players play a bonus stage in which a group of enemies must be destroyed by locking on the moving targets using the D-Pad and launching cluster missiles with or . There is a time limit of 30 seconds for the first bonus stage and 60 seconds for the second bonus stage. Bonus points are awarded for the number of targets successfully destroyed. Sprite scaling is used to simulate a 3D space.

Over Ride

Black Out

History

Development

The game is also titled Project Gun Frontier 2 because it was made by many of the staff members as Gun Frontier, though there are no story or gameplay connections to that game. Allegedly, content from a canceled Darius sequel was also reused for this game, supported by the fish and crustacean enemies found in the game. The beam mechanic was also used in G-Darius, which was not released on Sega hardware.

The game was a major inspiration for Border Down; both that game and Metal Black share a composer.

Legacy

In 2023, the Saturn version of the game received a re-release by City Connection called Metal Black S-Tribute for the Xbox One and Steam. It was originally announced for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 as well, but these releases were canceled as the company Hamster had already re-released the arcade version for these platforms as part of their Arcade Archives series.

Versions

Aside from unavoidable load times introduced by the compact disc format, Metal Black is otherwise a perfect port of the original arcade release.

Production credits

Project Gun Frontier 2

• Producer: Senba Takatsuna, Hori Takamasa
• Game Design: Senba Takatsuna, Hori Takamasa, Kuroki Naoya, Ohno Tomohiro, Seguchi Takashi, Mizobe Kumi, Watanabe Yasuhisa, Sawaki Jun, Katsuhisa Ishikawa
• Thanks: Kimura Chiho, Taniyama Norihito, Miyazawa Takayuki
• Art Director: Senba Takatsuna, Ohno Wepokichi
• Programmer: Tarabar, Kuroki Naoya, Seguchi Takashi
• Hardware Engineer: Sawaki Jun, Takeda Tomio
• Decorator: Mizobe Kumi
• Sound Director: Yack. (Zuntata), Babio Ishikawa (Zuntata)
• Bit Pattern: Moriyama Yoshihiro, Tanaka Kuniaki, Yoshikatsu Nakahara, Tsuneoka Masatoshi, Vap-Awave
• Cast: Ho Lee Chan, Zuntata, John Neianik 6Th, Sakou Menme
• Special Thanks: 3D Master, Mar., Karu, Wiz. Master, Nomura Akio, Mihara Hiromitsu, Tajima Kazunari, Fujita Tsukasa$, Zak Munn, Kouno Yoshiaki, Ogata Masaki, Fujisue Ichirou, Fujiwara Hidehito, Sakou Hiroyuki, Yagi Chan, Yoshida Sayuri, Sekiguchi Satomi, Shirou Imaoka, Yuki Hisao, Shimizu Shigenobu, Ohishi Kenji, Shimizu Fumihiko, Shintaku Satoyuki, Naomitsu Abe, Ishii Hide, Ushiroda Tatsuya, Yasukouchi Daisuke, Kurabayashi Akira, Takaaki Tomita, Nakamura Taicho, Ootsuki Akira, Sugiyama Kazuhiko, Default Members

Saturn'S Staff

• Programmer: Takahiro Kuribayashi, Satoru Morikawa, Jun Takemoto
• Promotion & Manual Writer: Ryusei Baba
• Director: Takashi Noto
• President: Ryozo Sugawara
• Programmed by: Ving Sapporo
• Presented by: Ving

Source:

In-game credits

Magazine articles

Main article: Metal Black/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Flyer

Print advert in Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) #1996-05: "1996-05 (1996-03-22)" (1996-03-08)

Print advert in Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) #1996-06: "1996-06 (1996-04-12)" (1996-03-22)

Print advert in Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) #1996-07: "1996-07 (1996-04-26)" (1996-04-12)

Print advert in Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) #1996-08: "1996-08 (1996-05-10,24)" (1996-04-26)

Print advert in Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) #1996-09: "1996-09 (1996-06-14)" (1996-05-24)

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 50 Fun Generation (DE) NTSC-J 40 Intelligent Gamer (US) NTSC-J 83 Joypad (FR) NTSC-J 20 MAN!AC (DE) NTSC-J 47 Mega Force (FR) NTSC-J 77 neXt Level (DE) NTSC-J 65 Playmag (FR) NTSC-J 62 Saturn Fan (JP) NTSC-J 69 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 73 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 86

	61
Based on 11 reviews

Metal Black

Saturn, JP
Cover
Spinecard Disc

Saturn, JP (Satakore)
Cover

Technical information

Main article: Metal Black/Technical information.