Originally a Taito F2 system arcade game, Metal Black is touted as the sequel to Taito's obscure vertical shooter Gun Frontier, but is a very different style of shooter to that game. A horizontal scrolling beast, it at first appears to hold many similarities to Taito's classic Darius series, although the weapon power-up system is quite unique- there are no specific power-up icons, but a multitude of floating isotopes called 'Newalone' throughout each level which can be nabbed in order to increase your guns' destructive capabilities, and at higher level release a devastating 'beam' weapon which can counter the enemy alien weaponry in a spectacular fashion (this idea was recently seen in the 'Alpha-beam' weapon system of G-Darius..) Also of note are the unusual 'Galaxy Force' style pseudo-3D bonus stages. The bosses, as in the Darius series, are a particularly nasty lot. And boy.. is this game tough.. ;)