"What on Earth is this Metal Slug that you speak of?"
- "Twenty lightyears away from Earth, the peaceful denizens of Planet Anders, a highly-advanced world, are invaded by the forces of evil from neighbouring galaxies. Unpreppared for the outbreak of war, her inhabitants forced from their homes or brutally assimilated, as the vile forces of alien conquerors ruled with tyranny. But not all hope is lost, as a brave group of resistance heroes took a stand..."The game's opening Info Dump
Demon Front is a 2002 side-scrolling Run-and-Gun arcade shooter made by Taiwan's International Games System, and a Metal Slug clone sharing similarities in gameplay, animation, power-ups, and the like, although it's in a sci-fi setting.
As elaborated in the backstory, the game is set in the aftermath of an invasion on a distant planet, and the protagonists — part of a La Résistance unit — are opposing an entire army of invaders. Consisting of the following heroes:
- Jake, the closest this game has to The Hero, a young rebel soldier, with his trusty fire-breathing salamander pet Rage,
- Sara, the only female playable hero, backed by her alien rabbit Bunny,
- Dr. J, a scientist who can kick as much ass as any soldier, with his robotic familiar Chip, and
- Maya, an ape-alien from deep in the jungles, with a powerful flying lizard protector Flip.
And as always, that's pretty much all there is to the game — time to go kick some ass and destroy stuff!
Demon Front contains examples of:
- Anchors Away: Iron Tooth, a massive battleship used by the invaders, has an attack where it drops anchors on the players.
- Animal Mecha: One of the four forms of the true Final Boss is a giant rabbit mecha who can spam projectiles and breathe poisonous bubbles.
- Advancing Boss of Doom:
- The tunnel's boss, Big Claw, a giant mechanical bug monster who pursues the player down a tunnel. It's somewhat slower than other examples of this trope, however.
- One form the Final Boss can take, Frozen, also counts.
- Airborne Mooks: Some of the enemy mooks, being Winged Humanoid opponents, who attacks by dropping bombs or launching projectiles from above. Also the floating eye enemies in the tunnels and winged lizards who backs up the usual mooks.
- Alien Invasion: According to the game's backstory, at least.
- And the Adventure Continues: Even after defeating the Final Boss, the players have yet to reclaim Planet Anders. The game ends with a short clip of the heroes fleeing from enemy reinforcements, and preparing to fight another day, then cue credits.
- Assist Character: The four playable character's "pets", which provides backup attacks by pressing the "C" button on the arcade pad. Each comes with their own unique attacks:
- Jake's salamander, Rage, breathes a fiery blast covering several meters, setting enemies in the way on fire.
- Sara's alien rabbit pet, Bunny, fires fluffy bubble projectiles in the same manner, with explosive effects.
- Dr. J's familiar, Chip, creates an electric forcefield around its master, that deals damage upon enemies who get in the way.
- Maya's winged lizard, Flip, sics entire waves of curved blades across the entire other half of the screen.
- Attack Animal: All four of the players' pets, who can back up their master with their own attacks. What's even better is that they're invincible.
- Attack of the Monster Appendage: The jungle level, when players are on a plateau, will occasionally throw gigantic tentacles of some unseen monster below. Shooting these tentacles will make them dissolve into nothing, and players never get to see what kind of horrifying creature would spawn these type of appendages.
- Charged Attack: Players can launch a powered blast from their firearms by holding the firing button, although that consumes their power meter. It's very useful for taking down armoured vehicles or large quantities of mooks.
- Difficult, but Awesome: For players choosing Maya, the alien gorilla. Maya can't fly, but his speed compensates for his lack of wings, and his lizard's range of projectiles covers a far wider area compared to the other heroes.
- Earthy Barefoot Character: Maya is the only playable character who forgoes shoes, befitting his nature as an ape-like alien.
- Excuse Plot: The backstory about some alien invasion is cliché as hell, but obviously all those took a backseat when 95% of the gameplay consists of mowing down various enemy mooks. note
- Expy:
- Most of the enemies should look very familiar to fans of the Metal Slug series. The common mooks even have a "panic" animation copied directly from the rebels.
- Dr. J's familiar, a robotic Mechanical Lifeform with a single central eye, who backs up its master by creating an electromagnetic barrier. Sounds like an alien Magnemite...
- Evil Knockoff: The True Final Boss takes the form of an evil, mechanical version of the player character's pet after copying their essence.
- Fiery Salamander: Jake's pet is an alien salamander-like creature who floats around its master, and can cover half the screen with fire when pressing the "C" button.
- Flechette Storm: Maya's familiar, an alien lizard who spams wave after wave of curved blades. Its massive attack range seems to be compensating for Maya's lack of flight.
- Freeze Ray: One of the possible pickups, which fires homing ice mists turning enemies into Human Popsicle(s).
- Giant Spider: An enemy in the jungle level, which has been weaponized by the invaders to have cannons on their backs. They serve as among the tougher Giant Mook variety enemies.
- Harmless Enemy: While everything can be killed on sight for points, not all enemies are capable of harming the players. The underground temple has those lamprey-lizard hybrids that can't fight back, don't do damage even after touching the player, and simply run around until they either get killed or run away.
- Human Aliens: With the exception of Maya, all the playable characters, with the only alien features being that Jake has orange skin and they have wings.
- Killer Rabbit
- Sara's backup is an alien rabbit creature named Bunny who can float around its master, and backs up Sara by shooting fluffy — but deadly — bubble projectiles.
- One of the possible forms of the game's Final Boss is a giant bio-mechanical rabbit named Frozen.
- Killer Space Monkey: Maya the Gorilla-man, the sole playable character who is an ape-alien.
- Living Gasbag: One of the rarer enemy types, who attacks by stabbing with their spines or by dropping bombs.
- Mayincatec: The underground temple, despite being set on an alien world, resembles Mayan carvings, including Olmec heads which could launch energy boltss from the eyes.
- More Dakka: Machine guns in this game function pretty much like the HMG from Metal Slug, and they're abundant in supply too.
- Oculothorax:
- Dr. J's familiar, Flip, looking a lot like Magnemite from Pokémon.
- One of the enemy varieties of the game is a floating eye with tentacles, who can sting the player when in vicinity.
- One-Man Army: The players get to wipe out entire armies throughout the game, just like every good arcade shooter.
- Recycled In Space: Metal Slug, but in outer space and no POWs to rescue.
- Rock Monster: Stone golems occasionally shows up in cave and underground levels, firstly appearing as motionless boulders, before suddenly unfolding themselves to attack when players approach.
- Route Boss: The True Final Boss depends on which character you're playing as, as they will copy the essence of the character's pet and take the form of a grotesque, mechanical version of them. Jake fights Flame, Sara fights Frozen, Dr. J fights Thunder, and Maya fights Storm.
- Short-Range Shotgun: The game practically lifted the shotgun from Metal Slug into it's arsenal, which functions the same way — good enough to cover a few meters in front of the player with devastating effects, but unable to reach over half a screen.
- Snowball Fight: The winter level has Golems who attack by throwing snowballs, larger than the player themselves.
- Theme Naming: The first five bosses are named after body parts, as the objects possessing them are actually the assimilative body parts of the final boss.
- This Was Their True Form: When the first five bosses are beaten, their mechanical parts fall off and the demonic object possessing them leaves them, showing what they were before possession.
- Traintop Battle: The underground tunnel battle has the players on a moving train full of enemies, and blow up pursuing enemies on minecarts until they reach the exit.
- Whack-a-Monster: In the underground level, there are serpentine enemies who will periodically leap from under the ground to attack, before dissappearing. They can be quite unpredictable, but players can avoid taking damage by constantly jumping.
- When Trees Attack: Devil Heart, one of the last few bosses (and a Stationary Boss since it's, well, a tree) who drops projectiles all over the place. It can also summon Man-Eating Plant enemies when it Turns Red.
- Winged Humanoid: Some of the mooks have wings, as do the two main heroes, Jake and Sarah, although their wings only work for short periods — by pressing jump twice they can hover around the game's area for a while, until their power level runs out, then drop back to the ground. They can also fold their wings back by pressing jump again.
