What colors are the other fingers?
Kohachi Studio has given us a teaser look at Black Finger Jet, a new run-and-gun title from former prominent Nazca developers. Nazca is the original developer behind Metal Slug, and a number of the attached names were directly involved in the development of some of the early titles in that series.
No real gameplay is shown in the trailer, as the game looks to be very early in development. There’s a page for it live on Steam, but even there, it just shows concept art and says that the game is still subject to change. However, both the teaser and the store page seem to heavily imply that Black Finger Jet will be lifting heavily from the team’s work on the Metal Slug series. It will include 8-directional aiming, and the eponymous Jet vehicle transforms into various configurations.
Among the staff, Akio is covering art, and Meeher is the producer. Sound design is once again in the hands of Hiya! This probably all sounds unhinged, but all of those pseudonyms helped make the original Metal Slug run the games they are. Hopefully, they can pull of similar magic with Black Finger Jet.
Hea-vy Machine Gun
If you’re unfamiliar with Metal Slug, I pity you. Starting in 1996 on the Neo Geo MVS arcade, they set the highwater mark for both pixel art and run-and-gun shooters. Nazca (and the staff listed above) worked on Metal Slug 1-3, before SNK went bust and development moved to another team. That team made a valiant effort to continue the series for three more titles, and they didn’t do a bad job. However, for my money, Metal Slug 1 and X are where it’s at. Others hold Metal Slug 3 in the highest regard. However you shake them; they are legendary.
Black Finger Jet is currently only announced for PC. There is no given release window, but since it seems like they’re still recruiting staff, we might be waiting a while.
