Metal Black

Metal Black is a 2D side-scrolling shooter set in a sci-fi future where Earth has been invaded by aliens known as the Nemesis. Players pilot the CF-345 Black Fly spaceship through six levels and two bonus stages, battling waves of enemies with a single weapon that can be upgraded through special pickups. The game is known for its intense gameplay, unique plot, and an amazing soundtrack, though its localization is notably poor.

Metal Black: Review

Introduction

In the pantheon of shoot ’em ups, few titles possess the singular, haunting atmosphere and narrative ambition of Taito’s Metal Black (1991). Released amidst the golden age of arcade gaming, it was a title that dared to be different, weaving a bleak, post-apocalyptic sci-fi saga into the visceral thrills of horizontal scrolling shooter action. While initially overshadowed by the explosive popularity of Street Fighter II, Metal Black has since ascended as a cult classic, revered for its audacious storytelling, oppressive atmosphere, and innovative mechanics. This review delves into the game’s rich history, dissecting its development, narrative depth, groundbreaking systems, and enduring legacy to argue why Metal Black remains a masterpiece of experimental design and emotional resonance in a genre often defined by pure spectacle.

Development History & Context

Metal Black emerged from the creative crucible of Taito’s F1 System arcade hardware in 1991, a period defined by technical leaps and artistic experimentation. The game was spearheaded by director and producer Takatsuna Senba, who had previously helmed the quirky vertical shooter Gun Frontier (1990). Initially conceived under the working title “Project Gun Frontier 2,” the project soon diverged sharply from its predecessor’s “cosmic wild west” theme, evolving into a standalone entity with a far darker vision. Senba and his team, including composer Yasuhisa Watanabe (Zuntata) and programmer Takamasa “Tarabar” Hori, had originally pitched it internally as “Darius Part 22,” aiming for a two-screen cabinet like Darius II. However, Taito executives deemed the atmosphere too bleak and dystopian for the established Darius brand, leading to its transformation into an original title under the banner “Metal Black.”

The development occurred under significant constraints. While the F1 System was powerful, supporting expansion chips for advanced scaling and parallax effects, the team operated on a tighter budget and timeline compared to Taito’s flagship titles. This pressure, coupled with Senba’s desire to explore mature themes, resulted in a unique blend of technical prowess and thematic weight. The game was showcased at the 1991 Amusement Machine Show, where its stark visuals and trippy sequences garnered attention, yet its November release coincided with the cultural phenomenon of Street Fighter II, which dominated arcade cabinets and press coverage, relegating Metal Black to niche status. An ultra-rare internal prototype, the “Tarabar Edition,” featured only three stages, altered enemy patterns, and exclusive music, highlighting the team’s experimentation before settling on the final version. The Saturn port (1996) by Ving preserved the arcade experience but remained a Japan-only release, cementing its cult status in the West until compilations like Taito Legends 2 (2006) brought it to a wider audience.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

Metal Black distinguishes itself with a narrative complexity rare for the genre, unfolding across supplementary materials—a mini-manga distributed to arcade operators, an official soundtrack album, and the game’s attract mode. Set in a dystopian 2052, Earth lies ravaged by an alien race called Nemesis, who arrived in 2042 via a mysterious companion star near Jupiter. Using meteor showers as cover, they plundered Earth for inorganic materials, deploying devastating beam weapons powered by exotic molecules named “Newalone” (a Taito-coinage for “neurons”). Humanity responded with Project Metal Black, developing the CF-345 Black Fly fighter craft harnessing Newalone energy. However, a decade later, a cowardly peace treaty forbids Earth from using these ships, ensuring the planet’s slow demise. Into this void steps rogue pilot John Ford, who commandeers a Black Fly, defying the treaty to strike back at Nemesis and salvage what remains of humanity.

The narrative is a searing critique of futility, political betrayal, and existential despair. Earth’s surrender isn’t peace but a death sentence, highlighting the fragility of civilization and the hollowness of diplomacy. Ford’s mission is less a heroic quest and more a desperate, suicidal act against overwhelming odds. The plot subverts genre tropes: there are no grand alliances or triumphant victories, only a lone pilot against a faceless, cosmic horror. The ending amplifies this ambiguity. If Ford fails, his death triggers a military coup, unleashing a fleet of Black Flies against Nemesis—a glimmer of defiance amidst ruin. If he succeeds, he confronts the Nemesis leader in a shifting, surreal dimension, culminating in an apocalyptic vision of Earth being split in two. The final revelation that this entire odyssey might have been a “fetus’s dream” injects a layer of surrealism, questioning the nature of reality and the cyclical nature of destruction. Themes of environmental collapse (the dried oceans, ruined cities), the corruption of power (the treaty that dooms Earth), and the isolating burden of heroism permeate the story, elevated by its presentation in the attract mode—a stark, scrolling text narrative that, despite broken English localization (“THE EARTH DIED, AND IT WAS ABOUT TO ENTER UPON SILENCE TIMES…”), conveys a palpable sense of doom and desperation.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

Metal Black revolutionizes the shoot ’em up formula through its radical, resource-focused gameplay. Abandoning traditional power-ups (speed, lasers, bombs), the game centers on a single, elegant mechanic: collecting Newalone molecules to power the player’s beam. The CF-345 Black Fly starts with a weak forward-firing shot. As players gather the vibrant, floating Newalone clusters, the beam’s firepower increases, visually scaling from a thin peashooter to a devastating laser capable of obliterating weaker enemies and even tanking some bullets. The core innovation lies in the “Beam System.” At mid-level power, players can unleash a sustained, piercing beam that passes through obstacles. At maximum power, holding the beam button fires a screen-clearing lightning attack, while releasing it triggers a wider, multi-directional energy burst. However, using this powerful depletes the beam gauge, reverting the ship to its weak base state, creating a high-stakes risk/reward dynamic.

The most profound mechanic is the “Beam Duel.” Bosses and select enemies also consume Newalone to charge their own beams, creating tense, cinematic standoffs. When both player and boss fire simultaneously, a beam duel erupts—a tug-of-war where rapid tapping determines dominance. A swirling energy vortex forms, changing color based on the stronger beam, culminating in a massive explosion if the player wins. This transforms boss fights from pattern memorization into visceral, interactive spectacles, demanding resource management over reflexes. The game eschews traditional lives for a credit-based system, but its difficulty curve is punishing. Early stages (e.g., “Down to Earth”) are relatively gentle, but Stage 4 (“Crystal Lize”) infamously spikes with spammy enemy waves, narrow corridors, and scarce Newalone, forcing players to master “scraping” (using the ship’s hitbox to graze enemies) and judicious beam usage. Two bonus stages—first-person missile lock-ons—break the action, serving as both score opportunities and narrative transitions (journeying into space or breaching Nemesis). This singular focus on beam energy creates a unique, tense rhythm where survival hinges on balancing aggression, conservation, and dueling, making every Newalone molecule feel precious.

World-Building, Art & Sound

Metal Black‘s world-building is a masterclass in environmental storytelling, realized through its distinct art direction and sound design. The game traverses a dying Earth and the alien stronghold of Nemesis, each stage meticulously crafted to evoke desolation and cosmic dread. Stage 1, “Down to Earth,” is a haunting flyover of a ruined coastal city—dried seabeds, skeletal skyscrapers, and a beached aircraft carrier that reveals the Darius II-inspired hermit crab boss, Apartheid. Stage 2, “Cry for the Moon,” transitions to space against a backdrop of Earth and twin moons, one an alien weapon, while Stage 3, “Dream Land,” orbits derelict satellites and colonies. The wormhole to Stage 4, “Crystal Lize,” plunges players into a psychedelic alternate dimension with organic, crystalline structures, followed by Stage 5’s (“Nemesis Crisis”) descent into Jupiter’s alien realm, complete with trippy, non-Euclidean interiors. This journey culminates in Stage 6’s (“A Mirage of Mind: Gaia”) final boss battle against the Omega Zone, a grotesque, web-like entity firing beams from its core, set to a slideshow of haunting digitized images (primitive humans, a menacing cat), blending sci-fi with body horror.

Artistically, Metal Black pushes the F1 System’s capabilities to their limit. Senba and artist Ohno Wepokichi employ a dark, painterly aesthetic with detailed, expressive sprites—especially the grotesque bosses like Apartheid and Feeder. The backgrounds are a symphony of parallax and scaling, creating depth in ruined cityscapes and cosmic voids. Explosions are globe-shattering, and the beam effects, particularly during duels, are spectacularly animated. The overall palette is muted and desaturated, punctuated by the vivid glow of Newalone molecules and beam energy, amplifying the sense of decay and hope. Complementing this is Yasuhisa Watanabe’s (Zuntata) ethereal, haunting soundtrack. “Born to Be Free,” the Stage 1 theme, is an iconic, melancholic synth anthem, while later tracks shift from the eerie tranquility of “Dual Moon” to the oppressive dread of “Black Out.” The sound design is equally potent—from Apartheid’s guttural roar to the crackle of beam duels and the thunderous stage-clearing explosions. Together, the art and sound forge an oppressive, immersive atmosphere where the bleak narrative is not just told but felt, making Metal Black a sensory experience as much as a game.

Reception & Legacy

Upon its 1991 release, Metal Black received a mixed reception, largely overshadowed by Street Fighter II‘s cultural dominance. Japanese arcade trade publication Game Machine listed it as the 13th most popular game in early 1992, indicating solid, if not spectacular, performance. Critics praised its atmosphere and music but found fault in its punishing difficulty and lack of traditional power-up variety. Gamest scored it 32/50, acknowledging its ambition but criticizing its “spammy” late-game enemies. Western reviews were harsher; Fun Generation (Saturn) lamented its “unpolished” weapons system and “unfair” difficulty, awarding it a low 4/10. All Game Guide dismissed it as “not a shooter you will want to play more than two or three times,” citing “unpolished” mechanics. The Saturn port (1996) sold a modest 7,839 copies in its first week per Famitsu, which rated it a middling 20/40.

Over time, however, Metal Black‘s reputation has undergone a remarkable reevaluation. Modern critics and players laud it as a visionary work. A 2023 player review on MobyGames calls it “one of the best, trippiest plots to ever grace a shooter,” praising its “10/10 music” and “solid shmup gameplay,” despite noting “enemy waves get really spammy by the end” and “extremely poor localization.” Hardcore Gaming 101 hails it as a “deep, dark atmosphere” masterpiece with “mind-blowing” graphics for 1991. Its legacy lies in its influence on subsequent titles. G.rev’s Border Down (2003) directly emulates its beam-level system and “beam dueling” mechanic, with Hiroyuki Maruyama citing it as a “heavy inspiration.” The beam duels also appeared in G-Darius. The CF-345 Black Fly itself became a playable ship in Dariusburst: Chronicle Saviours and Space Invaders Infinity Gene, where its game-breaking Newalone Laser serves as a tribute. Merchandise—soundtrack albums, a detailed metal figurine (2008), and the rare Tarabar Edition prototype—further cement its cult status. Today, it’s recognized not just as a shoot ’em up, but as a pioneering fusion of narrative ambition and interactive design, a flawed but unforgettable artifact of 90s arcade innovation.

Conclusion

Metal Black stands as a testament to the bold, experimental spirit of early 90s arcade gaming. From its inception as a rejected Darius sequel to its final form as a post-apocalyptic odyssey, it defied genre conventions to deliver an experience unlike anything before or since. Its strengths lie in an unparalleled atmosphere—forged through Senba’s dark vision, Wepokichi’s haunting art, and Zuntata’s evocative score—and a gameplay system centered on elegant, high-stakes resource management. The beam duels remain a benchmark for interactive boss design, while the narrative’s bleak ambiguity and environmental themes elevate it beyond mere spectacle. Its flaws—punishing difficulty, sparse power-ups, and clunky localization—are undeniable, but they are overshadowed by its ambition. Initially misunderstood and overshadowed, Metal Black has rightfully earned its place as a cult classic. It is a game that lingers in the mind, not for its perfection, but for its daring, its emotional weight, and its unflinching portrayal of a world teetering on the edge of oblivion. In the crowded pantheon of shoot ’em ups, Metal Black is a singular, haunting masterpiece—a dark star whose influence continues to shine brightly decades after its release.