Are you ready for a war? Ready or not, it's coming for you in Metal Slug Advance.

The enemy took your allies hostage and imprisoned them in the dungeons, ruins and caverns of the land. Armed with your slug vehicles, grenades and firearms, you set out to free the hostages and destroy the enemy in this side-scrolling combat adventure.

The eye-catching shooter series makes an explosive Game Boy Advance debut. You play as either Tyra or Walter, two new soldiers to the Metal Slug series. They must free the 100 hostages, blow up everything in sight and avoid getting blown up themselves.

You start with the standard-issue pistol and grenades, but weapons upgrades appear regularly in the heat of battle. The bullets and bombs fly at a fast pace. Throw in a few pieces of enemy heavy artillery, and it won't take you long to realize that this is one challenging game. (And that's on the easy level.)

Each stage has four levels. When you free a hostage, that hostage gives you a card. These cards, once you make it back to your Base Camp, give you increased power, life and weapons. The bad news is if you die in battle, the cards you accumulated disappear. You get to keep only the cards in your possession when you clear the stage. So here's a piece of advice on obtaining cards: Don't die

Six levels

Bonus missions

Collect more than 100 power-up cards

Save function