Metal Slug is a 90s cult-classic run and gun game developed by Nazca and published by SNK, originally as an arcade game, with later releases for consoles. Despite the popularity of fighting games being on the rise during the era, Metal Era managed to stand out with its frantic gameplay and intricate pixel graphics and 2D animation – and the art team that made it all possible. However, according to one of the game’s artists Akio Oyabu (who goes by “Akio” on social media), the idea of having long, detailed animation in the game wasn’t so appealing for the programming team, to the extent that they tried to convince him to stop drawing them.
In a recent post on X, Akio shared a behind-the-scenes story from the time he was working on the original Metal Slug. He reminisces about the times one of his programmer colleagues nagged him about making animations that were “just too long.” Akio suggests that, unlike the artists, the programmers were concerned about performance. Implementing longer and more complicated animations naturally made the game slow down, which meant that the programmers had to put way more work into optimizing it. However, Akio, and presumably the whole art team, were intent on making the graphics stand out. While he understood the burden it put on the programmers, he says he wanted to draw animations that would help Metal Slug become a widely appreciated and unique game.
“While the original Metal Slug was in development, a young programmer and a fishing buddy of mine always scolded me, saying, “Stop drawing lengthy animations, it will cause the performance to drop.” Even if I explained to him that I wanted to create a stir in the era dominated by fighting games, he never really seemed to understand. It sounds like he tried to nag me about it since he felt sorry for the head programmer Andy (Kenji Ando), who was tearing his hair out because of the performance drops.“
Programmer: Akio, cut it out with those animations that never end! Andy is pulling his hair out because of the performance drops! You’re being too selfish! This ain’t a college club, we’re doing a job here.
Akio: [Redacted], you don’t understand. I’m doing it so METAL SLUG can be more highly appreciated. I’m sure it will all turn out fine, Andy is a genius, he’ll find a way to deal with the performance drops.
According to Akio, the young programmer loved fishing so much he ended up quitting the company to pursue his dream of becoming a fishing lure tester for a major Japanese fishing equipment company. Around 24 years later, Akio got an email from his old friend, telling him he was working in the game industry again and praising him for his work on METAL SLUG. “You need to realize how big of an impact you’ve left on the whole industry,” the programmer said.
Akio half-jokingly expressed his relief that his hard work was finally appreciated after 24 years. In a separate comment, he notes that he drew all of the movements believing someone out there would notice and appreciate them, and that paying attention to the details is, ultimately, a way to show love and respect to the players. The game is now considered a timeless series, not just because of its beautiful artwork, but because of the whole team that made it come true – Akio says he owes all of the praise and acclaim to head programmer Andy, who, despite everything, helped tie in all of the intricate animation into gameplay.
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