Metal Slug 3 is a run and gun, 2 dimensional platform game. There are 4 characters to choose from who all have the same statistical game play, the choice is solely for looks. At the start of the game, and eventually each level, the character parachutes down onto the map with an infinite ammo pistol and 10 gernades to begin a nonstop bullet rampage of carnage on a constant flow of enemies until the end of the level where a boss fight occurs. There are only three buttons and a joystick. the buttons are shoot jump and throw grenade. The player dies by getting shot by an enemy bullet, (or from some creatures bubbles) or hit by an enemy melee attack (not by touching enemies). There a weapon upgrades you can receive from freeing tied up Prisoners of War who give their savior either a weapon power up or health or points. The POWs tied up throughout the map are the archetype for the wise old man. The wise old man gives gifts or healing powers. Although the wise old man usually appears as a king, medicine man, or savior he is being saved by the hero. in addition he has a grey beard and appears to have been in enemy clutches for awhile. The weapons vary from a rocket launcher, machine gun, flamethrower, or even some obscure weapons for instance there's one that drops cars that drive towards enemies and explode, these power up weapons do have a specific amount of ammo tho. The point of the game is to kill your way through countless enemies, take down the boss at the end of the level, then progressing to the next stage which is generally a new map with new types of enemies. throughout each level, or mission as there called, there are different paths you can take, ill get back to this later as I shoot my way through the narration of game play. MISSION 1: Starts with the character parachuting onto a beach with a pistol. this is symbolic of how people kind of drop into dreams without really any buildup and are suddenly thrust into situations they don't fully understand or can even grasp much context of. the first enemy encountered are giant green crabs that claw pinch at short range and shoot these streams of floating bubbles from a distance. These After killing several hubs you reach an old beached ship with vines coming off it and "R724" painted in white uniform writing. In the background you can see a giant space capsule or missile or something, a foreshadowing of one of the final missions that takes place in space. There's a POW on top of the ship along with a bunch of the green crabs. Upon shooting at the ship a drawbridge-esc door drops down and 10 or so green crabs bum rush you with pitchers pinching. This surprise bum rush is symbolic of how rapidly situations can change in either a dream or reality and without quick thinking and good reactions you could lose a life so to speak. after killing the inhabitants of the ship you walk a few more paces and have a choice to jump up some blocks to a jungle type setting with more green crabs and lots of giant man eating bugs, or you can crawl under a step and jump into a one man submarine that is kind of like a tank for the water. Depending on which way you choose to go you will face different enemies on a different style map, one being underwater and moving mostly vertically while the other is the jungle and continues in a right to left game play, however eventually the paths reconnect sending you to the boss fight. This choice between the high ground and underwater is symbolic of how we choose to live our life. When taking the high ground the character has to fight giant man-eating mosquitoes. Mosquitoes in dreams are said to be symbolic of somebody draining your energy or resources. This interpretation provided by dreammoods.com is fitting for the game as the alternative to going up towards the jungles is to go down into the water where you get extra health from the submarine and personally i think an easier path to the boss. Since its a harder path up you get more lives taken and thus are ill prepared for the boss fight at the end of the mission. Additionally mosquitoes are symbolic of a vain attempt to resist attack from others. This is also concurrent with the game play as more crabs are constantly coming while the man eating mosquitoes swoop down to try and grab you. I say that choosing the high road is symbolic of how we live life because the moral high ground is the one we should ideally take however it is harder due to tougher enemies and less firepower making it a noble feat of strength and courage to make it through alive. If one decides to go down into the depths it is not done honorable as the submarine has an insane amount of firepower in addition to acting like a shield to protect the character from damage until the submarine itself takes to much damage and is destroyed. However i feel that taking the water path is more fun because you get to be in a submarine with lots of firepower and more movement control than just the character as you can move freely throughout the water instead of having to constantly jump around to avoid incoming bullets and bubbles and other equally fatal things. This more fun aspect falls in line with my opinion of the more high and low ground. While it is less honorable so to speak to go under the water in the submarine because it is slightly easier it is more fun to be in a submarine than not. Just like it is often more fun to do morally bad or sketchy things than it is to do the right thing. According to Wendy Gould dreams involving water is often significant of purification, change, or renewal of life, however i think she is referring to dreams of calm pure water as opposed to the stagnant swampy look of the surface near the surface submarine. In any case it still fits because the renewal of life comes from the extra health given to the character by being in the submarine as well as the change to have a new type of firepower coming from the sub. Also the change into the underwater is a lot different strategically because suddenly you can move freely throughout basically the entire scene baring some rocks and land formations in the way instead of having to deal with gravity and constantly jumping around to different platforms. Following the top path the character very quickly, if he makes it through the bugs, is faced with another choice, to continue climbing up the sloped path or to jump down onto a broken down boat waiting with a POW on board. Again this moral dilemma of high vs low ground comes up as the POW will almost certainly give you a beast ass weapon. According to Astrology.com power boats are often scene as a sense of power or control. However the the boat is broken and you can only find out after jumping onto the boat and causing black smoke to spew out.This immediately changes the symbol to one of danger or not being in control. Just as the ship breaks and spews smoke a beasty ship pulls up and unloads 15 or so soldiers who open fire. Ideally when jumping on the boat the character immediately frees the POW and in turn receives some form of heavy firepower weapon. Otherwise the hopelessness of the broken ship coupled with an overwhelming amount of enemy soldiers coming out of seemingly nowhere is a recipe for death. However if your a quick witted gamer like myself and are able to free the POW and pick up a some sort of elaborate death machine you can gun down the soldiers in about a second because they have little health. This quick thinking in critical situations to save a life is similar to when a situation surprises you and you must act quickly to avoid negative consequences either by a well timed comment or by discreetly removing yourself from the room, or even on rare occasions pulling a ray gun out of your ass and gunning down a horde of Nazi Zombies. After killing everyone on the ship you commandeer it a ride through a swamp while enemy soldiers drop down from vines onto the boat and flying piranha come out of the water at you. Piranhas being flesh eaters reflect that something is eating away at your subconscious. This is probably symbolic of how your brain is being eaten away by the repeated lulling act of gunning down enemy after enemy. Vines according to dreammoods.com are symbolic of a clingy relationship or a feeling of being trapped. This makes sense because this portion of the game play is kind of repetitive as guys keep jumping on the boat and piranhas keep coming out in waves as you are met with the same graphically designed ship after ship. this part is quite repetitive until you come to a pier blocking your ships path with a giant armored truck full of explosives on it. This literally traps you while a gang of bad guys come and continue to come until you blow up the truck which is difficult to put any ammo into as the constant bad guys require most of your ammo attention. The giant military truck blocking the path of the righteous hero is symbolic of the governments constantly flexing its military muscles to get oil from the middle east. This military might is additionally symbolized by the massive stock pile of weapons and bombs in the back of the truck before its blown to smithereens. This military flexing of power is hindering the righteous idealistic soul inside us from using love and not war to spread good fortune and peace across the globe the way a good moraled person would.