Aqua Ippan is a 2D side-scrolling shooter heavily inspired by the Metal Slug games, which follows a couple of young divers who are being hunted because of an artefact that they found.
Currently in development by Division 六, a long term Metal Slug fan and custom sprite creator, Aqua Ippan is essentially a Metal Slug game in all but name, but with a few significant differences. Rather than taking control of soldiers, you control a couple of young student divers who are trying to bring an artefact they found back to their school. Unfortunately there’s a heavily armed group of soldiers who are after that treasure too, so you’ll need to fight your way through them!
Aqua Ippan draws inspiration from the lost prototype of the Metal Slug: SV-001 by implementing some of the features that were in it. The main one being that when you rescue hostages they tag along with you and hurl spray cans at the enemy.
The current build of Aqua Ippan features one level and really impresses with its pixel art animation and classic Metal Slug style gameplay. It could do with some more weapons and better impact animations for the throwable weapons (and a tank of some sort to jump into would be nice), but it’s off to one hell of a start and it feels very much like it could be an official Metal Slug spin-off.
Check Out a Gameplay Video Here
Download The Aqua Ippan Prototype Here (Windows)