Taito shmup Metal Black gets the S-Tribute treatment in February

And then two come along at once…

Japanese publisher City Connection, fresh off of the back of yesterday’s Puzzle Bobble announcement, has revealed another classic title is joining its S-Tribute range: Taito’s space blaster Metal Black, which will launch on PC and consoles on February 2.

The S-Tribute release will be an adaptation not of Metal Black‘s 1991 arcade release, which ironically hit Hamster’s Arcade Archives just two months ago, but is instead a rerelease of Ving’s 1996 Sega Saturn port. This new S-Tribute release, in keeping with other titles in the range, will include a selection of new quality-of-life features, including save states, a rewind function, slow-motion mode, various dip-switch settings, online leaderboards, and arcade-style scanline filters.

Check out a playthrough of the Sega Saturn edition below, via YouTuber NintendoComplete.

Metal Black is a horizontally scrolling sci-fi shmup set within the timeline of a devasted Earth, recovering from the damage caused by a horrendous meteor attack. Following this catastrophic event, an alien force attempts to enslave the planet, leading to the surrender of humanity. One lone pilot, however, is not quite ready to kneel, and absconds with the hi-tech “CF-345 Black Fly” vessel, in a one-man, do-or-die effort to turn the conquering alien force into space dust.

As previously noted, Metal Black is not one of the shmup genre’s prettiest efforts, having launched during Taito’s early ’90s “ugly-ass-visuals” period. But it does contain a solid soundtrack, some cool boss characters, and two differing conclusions and is worth checking out for shmup completionists.

Metal Black S-Tribute launches February 2 on PS4, PC, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch