{"id":49900,"date":"2025-07-10T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=49900"},"modified":"2025-07-09T17:58:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T08:58:13","slug":"metal-slug-artist-akio-says-his-elaborate-pixel-animations-made-his-programmers-want-to-rip-their-hair-out-but-it-was-so-worth-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/metal-slug-artist-akio-says-his-elaborate-pixel-animations-made-his-programmers-want-to-rip-their-hair-out-but-it-was-so-worth-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Metal Slug artist Akio says his elaborate pixel animations made his programmers want to rip their hair out, but it was so worth it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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 \u2013 and the art team that made it all possible. However, according to one of the game\u2019s artists Akio Oyabu (who goes by \u201cAkio\u201d on social media), the idea of having long, detailed animation in the game wasn\u2019t so appealing for the programming team, to the extent that they tried to convince him to stop drawing them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In a recent post on X<\/a>, 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 \u201cjust too long.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile the original Metal Slug was in development, a young programmer and a fishing buddy of mine always scolded me, saying, \u201cStop drawing lengthy animations, it will cause the performance to drop.\u201d 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.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u521d\u4ee3\u300eMETAL SLUG\u300f\u3092\u958b\u767a\u4e2d\u3001\u91e3\u53cb\u306e\u82e5\u3044\u30d7\u30ed\u30b0\u30e9\u30de\u30fc\u306b\u3001\u300c\u51e6\u7406\u843d\u3061\u3059\u308b\u304b\u3089\u9577\u5c3a\u30a2\u30cb\u30e1\u30fc\u30b7\u30e7\u30f3\u3092\u63cf\u304b\u306a\u3044\u3067\u304f\u308c\u300d\u3068\u5e38\u3005\u6012\u3089\u308c\u3066\u3044\u307e\u3057\u305f\u3002
\u683c\u95d8\u30b2\u30fc\u30e0\u4e00\u8272\u306e\u6642\u4ee3\u306b\u3001\u3069\u3046\u306b\u304b\u3057\u3066\u4e00\u77f3\u6295\u3058\u305f\u3044\u3068\u8aac\u660e\u3057\u3066\u3082\u3001\u306a\u304b\u306a\u304b\u7406\u89e3\u3057\u3066\u3082\u3089\u3048\u307e\u305b\u3093\u3067\u3057\u305f\u3002\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/ZaA1UQNGAn<\/a><\/p>— akio (@akio_1963) July 7, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote>