i spent so, so many hours of my life in high school playing the early Metal Slug games through the MAME emulator (because as a young kid the arcades were far, far too expensive) and I am utterly stunned at the verisimilitude of the recreation / homage here. the backgrounds, the subtleties of the pixel art animation, the music’s instrumentation/arrangement, even mechanics like the precise bounce of rocket projectiles… you have been METICULOUS. absolutely incredible work. this is the same level of rigour and real love for the source material as the Alien: Isolation team showed for Alien.
Thanks for recognising the effort and love that's been poured into this project! While I'll probably deviate in some ways from the MS formula to make it more unique, I do hope Aqua Ippan can continue to please people as a similar game to MS1!
Thanks a lot for playing the demo and enjoying the spritework! To be fair, the difficulty is set at 8 by default, so it's fair not to no-death run the stage on your first try haha
How dare you make a game that looks amazing like this? :D Metal Slug is one of my favorite games, and this game looks and feel just like that. Awesome work guys! ps.: your deviant art link takes me to your twitter page
All that's needed now is to get the "GET BONUS" voice from Blazing Star, to announce the weapons and Pickups like the Metal Slug Announcer Guy and I'm Sold!
I really liked the gameplay changes compared to the main MS games, like the existence of a 1UP item and how you only lose one Spray Gang per life, and the count only goes to zero per continue. It really feels like a fun and well balanced challange for both newcomers and more experienced MS players. I also felt the gameplay was a little more fast paced than the og Metal Slugs, but maybe it's just me. I'm glad I found out about this project. I'm very much looking forward to it.
Thanks for liking the gameplay so far! I'm glad you appreciate the overall balancing of the ally system, since it wasn't the easiest thing to design. The game is also really focused on player movement and speed compared to MS you're right, which explains why the players move more quickly and why the allies have been thoroughly programmed to follow the players as accurately as possible. Thanks again for liking the demo and recognising the unique side of the gameplay!
Played through the demo twice. The control and art felt spot on. My only small complaint is that the spear gun and oxygen tanks' sound/visual effects aren't as satisfying as their Metal Slug equivalent. Looking forward to seeing more of this in the future, especially once the heavy machine gun and metal slug vehicle equivalent are introduced :)
Thanks for playing the demo and enjoying it! The overall sound design is far from being finished (hence why a lot of sounds are taken from other MS titles at the moment), so that aspect is going to eventually have a big overhaul! We'll see what we'll do regarding introducing more gameplay elements, so stay tuned for that!
HOLY MOLY WE GOT A RETRO SHOOTER AND IT'S DAMN GOOD
And I made a video on Bilibili which is a No-hit-walk-through, I'll put my link below.
Story is fun to read, and make me wonder why these students are fiding relics, for research? Maybe has secrets?
The shooting part it's bit sticky when you try to turning around or ducking and shoot, but they're students come on, not a blonde hair guy shoot up everything with a heavy machine gun.
And I tried to translate your game title but I can't get over the "Ippan" meaning, so I translate the game title into Simplified Chinese as 《深海计划》, I used "Plan(计划)" to exchange "Ippan(一般)" because I think they got mission and they did something and coming back with the relic, that's like "Meaning Translation" I guess, if that's an incorrect translation meaning please tell me and I'll try my best to promote your game in China!
Thanks for playing the game and looking at the website's content! Also thanks for the comments on the gameplay, there's definitely small improvements that could be made while also staying true to the fact that our diving protagonists aren't well trained for this kind of situation haha About the name 'Ippan', it is Japanese meaning 'regular' or 'normal', to reflect the fact that the players are just simple diving students and not top-grade commandos. I kept it in Japanese just because it rolled off the tongue pretty well and is quick/easy to write! So if you want to translate the name of the game, you can say 'Aqua Regular'! Thanks again for the positive feedback and for spreading the word with others!
As a huge fan of the Metal Slug games, this absolutely nails the style to a tee, and I LOVE IT! It's amusing how the "grenade" equavilient are just oxygen tanks and bricks. Not as bombastic, but they sure get the job done against the bad guys! Just one level long, but definetely worth my time!
Loved the Game!
My wife has played metal slug her whole childhood on the arcade machines so she was really excited seeing a game with similar gameplay and art.
Felt a bit disappointed as we felt it was too short but we understand its the first demo.
Can’t wait to see more content added soon!
I love this spin on Metal Slug! Outright laughed out loud whenever they gave me bricks to break the shit out of the boss. Keep up the good work, and I can't wait for more!
Thanks a lot for checking it out! Glad you liked the tagger kids hastily giving you bricks as a way to help haha About netplay, I can't really say for now since I don't know a whole lot about setting an online mode, but I'll keep the idea in mind for later!
Real great start, the jump's a bit floaty but otherwise handles great! Hitboxes also feel very nice so far.
The lack of any sort of weapon options is very disappointing. Throwing oxygen tanks and bricks feels really lame compared to grenades; maybe if the tanks could hit multiple enemies on the bounce it would feel better? Also, the follower ally never seems to actually do much.
If you aren't going to increase weapon variety, you'd better go real hard on enemy variety. The boss and sub bosses were real nice, and the soldiers are fine so far, but you'll need a lot more to keep people engaged over a full 5-8 levels or however many you're planning.
I can already tell I'll probably be buying the finished version, so keep up the good work!
Also, how does the scoring system work? Even taking a potential no-miss bonus into account I still can't figure out where all those points on the demo chart's top score come from.
Thanks for playing the demo! Also appreciate the constructive comments on the game, with this being the 1st stage that means that there's not a lot for players to play with yet, so more things are gonna be introduced later on! Same for the allies, it's very likely they'll get rebalanced as the game gets further developed About the score, if you can maintain a couple of good combos and get a good amount of items/Spray Kids, you should be able to get on the scoreboard
Awesome and promising demo! I love the art-style and animation, it’s very faithful to Metal Slug. Gameplay-wise, controls felt tight and there was a good challenge in difficulty! Overall, I’m looking forward to more! Great work and good luck with development!
I really love this game! It looks awesome and playing it was a ton of fun. The sprites and backgrounds couldn't be more perfect. Looking forward to playing the final version!
One thing i'd like to see change if possible would be the Oxytanks trajectory since it's a bit difficult to hit enemies specially while jumping. Making it into an arch might help.
Hello there! Very promising demo, I think I can safely say that this is the best Metal slug-inspired game I've ever played. The pixel art and spritework is on point, the music is amazing and the gameplay super addictive. Reminded me a lot of these awesome arcade classics we used to get. Keep up the good work, I'll be waiting for the full version with anticipation. :)
I can't say for sure, if you want to verify I'd recommend searching if Gamemaker Studio 2 games are compatible for that architecture, since Aqua Ippan uses the same engine
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I wish I could donate, but I'm beyond poor. Looks great, and I really like how the artwork resembles the first two Metal Slug games.
No worries! Having people like you sharing their positive thoughts about the game mean just as much to me as a donation haha
Are you perhaps an average starset enjoyer?
Can't say I am, sorry haha
wait is this classic remake of game kinda looks like emtal slug
This isn't a remake of Metal Slug nor is it related to it; Aqua Ippan is its own thing but with direct inspirations from Metal Slug 1!
i spent so, so many hours of my life in high school playing the early Metal Slug games through the MAME emulator (because as a young kid the arcades were far, far too expensive) and I am utterly stunned at the verisimilitude of the recreation / homage here. the backgrounds, the subtleties of the pixel art animation, the music’s instrumentation/arrangement, even mechanics like the precise bounce of rocket projectiles… you have been METICULOUS. absolutely incredible work. this is the same level of rigour and real love for the source material as the Alien: Isolation team showed for Alien.
Thanks for recognising the effort and love that's been poured into this project! While I'll probably deviate in some ways from the MS formula to make it more unique, I do hope Aqua Ippan can continue to please people as a similar game to MS1!
This looks so good! Def reminds me of Metal Slug. Would love to play a Mac version
Thanks for saying so! I'll definitely look more into making a Mac port in the future
great to hear
this remind me of metal slug
大佬6666啊！
Thanks a lot for saying so!
this is so good, cant wait for full version :) nice work
Thanks for looking forward to it!
Fun demo! The sprites and scenery all look great!
I died too many times... I am clearly out of practice. Gotta get my Metal Slug groove back for when the game is finally completed.
Thanks a lot for playing the demo and enjoying the spritework!
To be fair, the difficulty is set at 8 by default, so it's fair not to no-death run the stage on your first try haha
AMAZING WORK! I cannot wait to see the final version. best of luck with development!
I'll definitely be showing this off to my Twitch audience and sharing the link to this page.
Thanks for the nice comments and wishes!
This is just fantastic.
Thank you!
I love this game!
(video in Spanish)
Thanks for playing it and making a video about it!
How dare you make a game that looks amazing like this? :D Metal Slug is one of my favorite games, and this game looks and feel just like that. Awesome work guys!
ps.: your deviant art link takes me to your twitter page
Thanks for liking the graphics and game so far!
About the links, they should all work without problem now
All that's needed now is to get the "GET BONUS" voice from Blazing Star, to announce the weapons and Pickups like the Metal Slug Announcer Guy and I'm Sold!
Thanks! We'll look into having a better sound design later on haha
thats some really cool art lols
Thanks!
I really liked the gameplay changes compared to the main MS games, like the existence of a 1UP item and how you only lose one Spray Gang per life, and the count only goes to zero per continue. It really feels like a fun and well balanced challange for both newcomers and more experienced MS players. I also felt the gameplay was a little more fast paced than the og Metal Slugs, but maybe it's just me. I'm glad I found out about this project. I'm very much looking forward to it.
Thanks for liking the gameplay so far! I'm glad you appreciate the overall balancing of the ally system, since it wasn't the easiest thing to design. The game is also really focused on player movement and speed compared to MS you're right, which explains why the players move more quickly and why the allies have been thoroughly programmed to follow the players as accurately as possible.
Thanks again for liking the demo and recognising the unique side of the gameplay!
No problem. It's really cool to hear this info. Thank you and the rest of the team for this demo and once again, very much looking forward to it!
cool pfp
Thanks!
where is it from?
From the first Metal Slug Tactics trailer.
thank u
Beautiful gameplay you made Division 六. Have you planned to add more players in the future?
Thanks for saying so!
Maybe not brand new ones, but we'll see!
I was crying with happiness while playing it, Thank you
Thanks for liking the demo so much!
this looks a lot like Metal Slug! really like the pixel art!
Thanks for saying so!
such interesting pixelart, love it, so pretty!
Thanks for liking the visuals!
Played through the demo twice. The control and art felt spot on. My only small complaint is that the spear gun and oxygen tanks' sound/visual effects aren't as satisfying as their Metal Slug equivalent. Looking forward to seeing more of this in the future, especially once the heavy machine gun and metal slug vehicle equivalent are introduced :)
Thanks for playing the demo and enjoying it!
The overall sound design is far from being finished (hence why a lot of sounds are taken from other MS titles at the moment), so that aspect is going to eventually have a big overhaul!
We'll see what we'll do regarding introducing more gameplay elements, so stay tuned for that!
HOLY MOLY WE GOT A RETRO SHOOTER AND IT'S DAMN GOOD
And I made a video on Bilibili which is a No-hit-walk-through, I'll put my link below.
Story is fun to read, and make me wonder why these students are fiding relics, for research? Maybe has secrets?
The shooting part it's bit sticky when you try to turning around or ducking and shoot, but they're students come on, not a blonde hair guy shoot up everything with a heavy machine gun.
And I tried to translate your game title but I can't get over the "Ippan" meaning, so I translate the game title into Simplified Chinese as 《深海计划》, I used "Plan(计划)" to exchange "Ippan(一般)" because I think they got mission and they did something and coming back with the relic, that's like "Meaning Translation" I guess, if that's an incorrect translation meaning please tell me and I'll try my best to promote your game in China!
Walk-through with no hit
Thanks for playing the game and looking at the website's content!
Also thanks for the comments on the gameplay, there's definitely small improvements that could be made while also staying true to the fact that our diving protagonists aren't well trained for this kind of situation haha
About the name 'Ippan', it is Japanese meaning 'regular' or 'normal', to reflect the fact that the players are just simple diving students and not top-grade commandos. I kept it in Japanese just because it rolled off the tongue pretty well and is quick/easy to write!
So if you want to translate the name of the game, you can say 'Aqua Regular'!
Thanks again for the positive feedback and for spreading the word with others!
Mi e piaciuto tanto e spero che lo finiate al più presto e penso che abbia delle buone potenzialità
Da patito e amante dei metal slug dico di si
Yeah thanks a lot for believing in the project!
As a huge fan of the Metal Slug games, this absolutely nails the style to a tee, and I LOVE IT! It's amusing how the "grenade" equavilient are just oxygen tanks and bricks. Not as bombastic, but they sure get the job done against the bad guys! Just one level long, but definetely worth my time!
Thanks a lot for playing it! While the divers would probably find grenades way more useful, oxytanks and bricks are the best they could find haha
Made a video
Thanks for playing it you two!
Loved playing it and looking forward to more
Loved the Game! My wife has played metal slug her whole childhood on the arcade machines so she was really excited seeing a game with similar gameplay and art. Felt a bit disappointed as we felt it was too short but we understand its the first demo. Can’t wait to see more content added soon!
Thank you for both playing it! It's indeed on the shorter side, but the idea is to extend the length of the later stages just like Metal Slug
Though thanks again for looking forward to the rest of the development!
I love this spin on Metal Slug! Outright laughed out loud whenever they gave me bricks to break the shit out of the boss. Keep up the good work, and I can't wait for more!
Oh! Question, will you be adding netplay in the future?
Thanks a lot for checking it out! Glad you liked the tagger kids hastily giving you bricks as a way to help haha
About netplay, I can't really say for now since I don't know a whole lot about setting an online mode, but I'll keep the idea in mind for later!
Real great start, the jump's a bit floaty but otherwise handles great! Hitboxes also feel very nice so far.
The lack of any sort of weapon options is very disappointing. Throwing oxygen tanks and bricks feels really lame compared to grenades; maybe if the tanks could hit multiple enemies on the bounce it would feel better? Also, the follower ally never seems to actually do much.
If you aren't going to increase weapon variety, you'd better go real hard on enemy variety. The boss and sub bosses were real nice, and the soldiers are fine so far, but you'll need a lot more to keep people engaged over a full 5-8 levels or however many you're planning.
I can already tell I'll probably be buying the finished version, so keep up the good work!
Also, how does the scoring system work? Even taking a potential no-miss bonus into account I still can't figure out where all those points on the demo chart's top score come from.
Thanks for playing the demo!
Also appreciate the constructive comments on the game, with this being the 1st stage that means that there's not a lot for players to play with yet, so more things are gonna be introduced later on! Same for the allies, it's very likely they'll get rebalanced as the game gets further developed
About the score, if you can maintain a couple of good combos and get a good amount of items/Spray Kids, you should be able to get on the scoreboard
Thanks a lot for playing!
Oh. My. God.
OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!
I can't express enough how much I love this demo. Like LOVE, love. I can't wait for further development, the potential this thing has is ENORMOUS.
Its a Metal Slug fangame by someone who knows their Metal Slug. You like Metal Slug, you like Aqua Ippan, simple.
Haha, thanks for playing! I did try my best to do a faithful spinoff kind of game to MS, so I'm glad you appreciate it!
Good
good
Thank you for playing!
Awesome and promising demo! I love the art-style and animation, it’s very faithful to Metal Slug. Gameplay-wise, controls felt tight and there was a good challenge in difficulty! Overall, I’m looking forward to more! Great work and good luck with development!
Thanks a lot for playing! And glad that you loved the demo haha
I really love this game! It looks awesome and playing it was a ton of fun. The sprites and backgrounds couldn't be more perfect. Looking forward to playing the final version!
One thing i'd like to see change if possible would be the Oxytanks trajectory since it's a bit difficult to hit enemies specially while jumping. Making it into an arch might help.
Alright, thanks for playing it! I'll probably continue to tweak some aspects of the gameplay later on, so thanks for the notice!
Hello there! Very promising demo, I think I can safely say that this is the best Metal slug-inspired game I've ever played. The pixel art and spritework is on point, the music is amazing and the gameplay super addictive. Reminded me a lot of these awesome arcade classics we used to get. Keep up the good work, I'll be waiting for the full version with anticipation. :)
Heyy thanks a lot for playing the game and doing a video on it!
Hi, will AquaIppan be available for ARM CPU architecture?
I can't say for sure, if you want to verify I'd recommend searching if Gamemaker Studio 2 games are compatible for that architecture, since Aqua Ippan uses the same engine
Looks like ARM64 architecture is an option within GameMaker, look ...
https://www.reddit.com/r/gamemaker/comments/jrmi1u/gamemaker_studio_231_will_all...
Are there chances you can create a build for ARM64 architecture of the demo?
For the demo no, but I'll see what I can do for the final release, thanks for link!
Good to know!
Amazing game. I'd like to help with Russian translation for it if you will be implementing that
Thank you! I'm not sure if I'll make localizations of the game later, but thanks for the offer!
As someone who loves Metal Slug I'm 100% playing this!
Thank you for saying this!
cool
Eyy thanks for playing it!