Update #3 [Fri 20th Sep, 2024 11:30 BST]: KOHACHI STUDIO Co., Ltd has announced that the Tenchu and the Way of the Samurai developer Acquire will co-develop the Metal Slug spiritual successor Black Finger Jet, helping to bring the game's mix of 2D-pixel art and 3D backgrounds to audiences.
Acquire has previous experience developing games that contain a mixture of 2D and 3D assets having previously worked on the Octopath Traveler series along with Square Enix Business Division 11, so this seems like a smart decision for the small team giving them some additional help to realize their aspirations for the project.
The game's director Shinano Ishiguro made the above announcement on Twitter earlier today in a short statement that also revealed that a new trailer will be released later this month at the Tokyo Game Show, which is taking place at the Makuhari Messe Convention Center between September 26th to 29th.
Update #2 [Mon 2nd Oct, 2023 09:00 BST]: A new trailer has been released for Black Finger Jet, which you can view below.
Update #1 [Fri 18th Aug, 2023 10:45 BST]: Another former Irem/Nazca/SNK veteran has joined the Black Finger JET team.
Kuichin worked on Metal Slug 2, Metal Slug X and Metal Slug 3, as well as In the Hunt and Neo Turf Masters.
Furthermore, Shinichi Hamada – programmer for Metal Slug under the pseudonym "Hamachan" – has revealed he has joined the team, too.
Original Story [Mon 15th May, 2023 11:35 BST]: Several former Irem and Nazca team members have just announced a new run-and-gun game by the title of Black Finger JET.
Designer Akio, composer Hiya! and planner Meeher – all of whom worked on Metal Slug during their time at Irem breakaway studio Nazca – are confirmed to be working on the new title.
The newly-formed company is called KOHACHI STUDIO Co., Ltd, and Black Finger JET is currently confirmed as coming to Steam. We've got a teaser trailer and some concept art, but no final screenshots as yet.
Here's some more detail from the game's Steam page:
Black Finger JET is a Run&Gun game.
This is a completely new game from a team that has released many action shooting games.
【Concept】
An old-fashioned, easy-to-understand story. The feel of an old-fashioned game.
A simple and exhilarating action shooter again!
That is "Black Finger JET"!*The following information is currently under development and is subject to change without notice.
[Gameplay]
"Black Finger JET" is a Run&Gun game based on the good old 8-way aiming gun action.
Depending on the situation, use various guns such as handguns, machine guns, shotguns, and sometimes ride the proud vehicle "JET car" and defeat the enemies that rush!A versatile and perfect vehicle, the JET car transforms into an airplane, sometimes a submarine, as well as ground battles!
A great adventure on a variety of stages created by it is waiting for you!
[source twitter.com]
Comments 13
I'm not sure about 3D being mentioned in the trailer, I would prefer they do everything as pixel art like in Metal Slug. That said, as a small team having to do all the frames of animation would be very hard. Maybe they're going to use 3D models with a filter to create pixel art-like graphics?
Either way, I'm really keen to see what they come up with!
@BulkSlash To be honesto, the game's mix of 2D and 3D reminded me of Dolphin Blue, which which is currently the last game made by the Metal Slug team after the original SNK imploded in 2001-2002. So, it has been more or less 21 years since we have seen any Nazca member make a Metal Slug successor.
Hopefully they find a publisher to invest.
This looks awesome! Hopefully gets picked up and on Nintendo Switch/Switch 2 ASAP
It's Metal Slug 8!
@KGRAMR Ah, ya, was thinking it reminded me of something.
I think I like the idea of this. Not pure pixels, not pure 3d, rather an interesting balance. Can't tell if this is going to be Contra hard, or where it should land on the spectrum. This doesn't look too over the top hard. Hopefully there are some other features, combos maybe(?), that we haven't seen yet. Either way, I like the art direction here.
Looks good, it's a bit slow but I hope they can fix that when the game launch
Looks great very metal slug like but that’s a good thing hope it gets a release on switch
It looks interesting so far. The Metal Slug DNA is there, and some might think it's too much, but I like it. The 3D backgrounds look good so far and don't look as mismatched with the sprites as is the case sometimes. I did have a couple of concerns, however. One is that the lighting effects already look to be a bit too much. The other thing is something I talk about a lot, which is the screen shake. I find that really unpleasant and I will skip over games because of it. But many games make that optional, so hopefully that do that here.
I'm torn with this one. I've always liked the Metal Slug aesthetic since the first game and the 3D here looks decent enough, but the mixing of 2D-3D doesn't seem to blend that well, at least the way I see it.
Maybe the final product will be different though, so I reserve my judgment until then.
Hype for this.
I like the look of this - a little rough around some edges, but it is early doors.
Only thing I wasn't bowled over by was the sound. I thought the voice over work sounded very amateur, the soundtrack is off the mark and the sfx a bit washed out.
BUT... sound is easily changed, and I suspect it was rushed through for the alpha footage and will be much better further down the road.
Yes looks promising, no mention of platforms.
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