Metal Black (video game)

Metal Black (メタルブラック) is a 1991 arcade shoot 'em up released by Taito. The game was produced under the working title "Project Gun Frontier 2"; it was developed by the team behind Gun Frontier, including the game designer Takatsuna Senba, although its actual connection to Gun Frontier is very loose.

Players control the Black Fly on their mission to defeat the forces of Nemesis in hopes of saving the human race. Players collect many small power-ups to build their weapon's power; they can then unleash a large beam attack that drains said power level back to zero. Bosses can also collect these power-ups and use similar beam attacks. When a player's beam collides with a boss's, it culminates in a spectacular reaction, the more powerful attack pushing the weaker one aside.

Gameplay
The gameplay to Metal Black is unique in that there are no alternate weapons or bombs: the player's only weapon power-ups are the innumerable Newalone molecules scattered by Nemesis. Collecting Newalone increases the player's beam level, which serves as the player's only defense. The more Newalone the player picks up, the stronger their standard beam becomes.

When reaching mid-level or maximum level on the ship's Beam Level gauge, the player can then unleash a large beam capable of destroying various enemies as well as causing a lightning effect that briefly shocks the screen and consequentially destroys enemies behind and around the Black Fly.

However, certain enemies also have beam gauges of their own, most notably the end-level bosses who in turn collect as much Newalone as they can to unleash their own beam weapon. When the player and the boss' beam weapons fire simultaneously, one beam overpowers the other depending on how high each gauge is, initiating a 'Beam Duel.' The player must mash the beam button rapidly in order to keep the opposing beam blast at bay, which accumulates into a large ball of destructive matter. The blast changes in color depending on which wielder's beam is stronger.

The game has six levels. After the first and fourth, a Bonus Stage occurs to indicate the player's advancement into space (the first bonus stage occurs when the player leaves Earth's atmosphere and the second occurs as they enter a worm hole as a shortcut to Jupiter). Each Bonus stage has the player encircle a group of crustacean shaped enemies. The player has to lock on to the moving targets in order to launch cluster missiles at them for extra points. Each bonus stage is timed so as to challenge the player in seeking and destroying before the timer runs out.

Story
The year is 2042: A companion star of the planet Jupiter appears a few Astronomical Units away from the planet and propels the asteroids along Jupiter's orbit towards the Earth, creating a wave of meteorites. As the Earthlings struggle to survive, extraterrestrial cybernetic invaders from beyond the distant star use the meteorites as cover to invade Earth with little resistance, intending to plunder Earth for inorganic materials needed to sustain their forms. Both the aliens and the star they came from are quickly named 'Nemesis.'

What resistance the aliens face from Earth's combined international defense forces is quickly obliterated by the aliens' powerful beam weapons. Earth's scientists study the molecules that power the alien weaponry, which have started to litter the Earth, and the molecule is given the name 'Newalone.' With Newalone in their hands, scientists quickly begin Project Metal Black, focused on developing at least twenty-thousand human space craft capable of wielding the same beam-weaponry as the aliens. The space craft is known as the CF-345 Black Fly, named for its method of Newalone energy use.

However, ten years after the invasion, Earth's remaining diplomats pass a treaty with the Nemesis forces outlining a peaceful surrender, which promises to keep all of Earth's remaining forces from attacking: This applies to Project Metal Black, preventing the Black Fly spacecraft's use. With the planet's population thinning and natural resources depleting, a rogue pilot commandeers one of the Black Fly craft in violation of the treaty, intending to strike back against Nemesis and save what remains of humanity.

The events within the game itself unfold over six stages as the Black Fly pilot travels to Jupiter, confronting powerful Nemesis ships along the way. In the final two stages, the pilot breaches Nemesis itself, earning a crucial chance to defeat the invading forces once and for all. From this point, there are two possible endings: If the player gets a Game Over on the final stage, the pilot's death incites a military coup d'état of the global government, and 20,000 Black Fly craft are dispatched to Nemesis's apparent origin point. Otherwise, the pilot confronts the leader of Nemesis in a rapidly-shifting dimension, the battle apparently culminating with the Earth being split in two; it is left unclear as to whether the Earth's destruction and the events of the game as a whole ever actually occurred.

Development
Metal Black was developed under the working title "Project Gun Frontier 2", and shares many of the staff behind Gun Frontier, including its game designer Takatsuna Senba. However, its actual connection to Gun Frontier is faint at best.

The game has ties to the other Taito shoot-em-up Darius series, as it features a select few marine-themed enemies from it (e.g. sunfish-shaped ships, Feeder's similarity to a giant rattail, diatom-like enemies in the fourth stage, the giant Opabinia that supports and powers Daio-to-Gishiin at the end of the third stage, and the aircraft carrier-bearing hermit crab in the middle of the first stage).

Release
Metal Black was released in arcades in September 1991. It was initially ported in 1996 to the Sega Saturn by VING under the budget line "Arcade Gears". In 2006, it was included in the compilation Taito Legends 2 for Windows, Xbox, and PlayStation 2.

Legacy
A similar "beam duel" system combat was featured in Taito's G-Darius. The game Border Down (made by G.rev, which includes many former Taito employees) also featured such a system, and the game itself references Metal Black in other ways.

The Black Fly appears as a downloadable ship for Taito's Dariusburst: Chronicle Saviours for PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and PC.