Metal Slug/Characters

Despite the fact that the plots of the games usually appear barebone, Metal Slug has its fair share of characters, all of whom have a great deal of backstory to them. The backstory to each character is where the real plot points stand out.

Marco (Marchrius Dennis Rossi)
Marco joined the military's vocational school following technical high school, and after graduating, joined the Peregrine Falcons Squadron, soon becoming its leader. Though generally a good-natured guy, he tends to flip his shit whenever Morden is mentioned, given the fact that Morden was responsible for the deaths of many of his good friends.

Marco Rossi's Tropes

 * The Ace
 * Berserk Button: Anything involving General Morden.
 * Handguns: His attack power is doubled while firing a handgun.
 * Nice Guy
 * Playful Hacker: During his spare time.
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: With Tarma.

Tarma (Tarmacle Roving the Third)
Son of a military man, he entered the Special Forces Training School after finishing junior high. At age 20, he joined the Peregrine Falcons on a mission to rescue the president, at which point he met Marco, the two becoming fast friends. When he found out Marco had been selected to take part in the counteroffensive against Morden, Tarma was quick to volunteer. Though he often pokes fun at Marco, he holds his friend in the highest regard.

Tarma Roving Tropes

 * Ace Pilot: His specialty on the team starting in 6. He's the best at handling vehicles, and it translates to gameplay as tougher vehicles, stronger weapons in them, and new abilities.
 * Everything's Better with Motorcycles: His hobby in his spare time.
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: With Marco.

Eri Kasimoto
Eri was found abandoned on the steps of a church. When she became wise to the ways of the world, she eventually ran off and became the leader of a gang of street kids. The Intelligence Department of the Regular Army noticed her leadership skills, and thus recruited her. She went on to receive spy training, and took part in a number of missions requiring assassination. She found these types of missions distasteful, and requested a transfer to the SPARROWS division. Given her impressive track record, it was approved. Once transferred to the SPARROWS division, she was assigned the role of team demolitions expert.

Eri Kasimoto Tropes

 * Action Girl: Kicks as much ass as any of the men.
 * Bare Your Midriff: Setting a trend, her military "uniform" exposes her belly.
 * Dark and Troubled Past: We need to reiterate that her old career as an espionage agency assassin was somehow so "distasteful" that she compared it unfavorably to blowing people up with grenades and flamethrowers.
 * Stuff Blowing Up: Starting in 6, her specialty is grenades.
 * Tomboy and Girly Girl: Eri's the Tomboy.

Fiolina "Fio" Germi
Daughter of the massively wealthy Germi Family, hailing from Italy. The Germi family has historically been a military family, sending their oldest into service, so naturally her father wished for a healthy son to carry on the name. However, following Fio's difficult childbirth, her mother was unable to bear anymore children, making it the first time the Germi heir was female.

Fio Germi Tropes

 * Action Girl: No less a capable fighter than any of the men.
 * Badass Adorable: Best exemplified by her victory animation of her falling down coquettishly. Mind you, this is after wiping out hundreds of enemy troops.
 * Bare Your Midriff: As is the norm with female fighters in the Metal Slug universe.
 * Guest Fighter: She is playable in King of Fighters: Maximum Impact 2.
 * Meganekko: An archetypical example in video games. She's got the cute look, modest personality, and is overall moe because of it.
 * More Dakka: Her Specialty from Metal Slug 6 onwards.
 * The Ojou
 * Tomboy and Girly Girl: Fio's the Girly Girl.

Nadia Cassel
Initially, Nadia wanted to go into the modeling business, but she couldn't stop eating, which meant she kept gaining weight, so she enlisted into the Regular Army for the exercise. Here, she discovered her skills as a soldier, and was chosen to help in stopping the Amadeus Syndicate from releasing its supervirus. Here, Nadia was a stand-in for Eri, who had been assigned to other duties. The one thing putting her apart from Eri is that her alternate melee weapon is a souped-up taser, capable of shredding the enemy. Unfortunately, due to some in-game bugs, she doesn't get as many points for using her melee.

Nadia Cassel Tropes

 * Action Girl: Runs and guns with the best of them.
 * Bare Your Midriff
 * Big Eater: The reason she joined the military is to lose weight.
 * Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Eri.
 * Stun Guns: She uses a taser as her melee attack.

Trevor Spacey
Trevor received his first computer at age three. By the time he was seven, not only could he perform complex coding, he also worked on creating antivirus progams during summer break, many of which are still in use at the school he attended. When he ended up joining the Peregrine Falcons, he found a great deal of respect for Marco, whose own computer skills surpassed his own. Here, he acted as Tarma's stand-in. His melee involves kicking the enemy so hard, it shreds them apart; he gains double points for this, but he has to hold still.

Trevor Spacey Tropes

 * Armed Legs: His melee is a powerful kick called Knife Boots.
 * Asian and Nerdy: Korean and a Playful Hacker.
 * Playful Hacker: A point which causes him to get along with Marco, another playful hacker.
 * Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Tarma.
 * White-Haired Pretty Boy

Crossover Appearances
Ralf and Clark, the Ikari Warriors, inbetween their appearances in the King of Fighters series, appeared alongside the core team for Metal Slug 6, and are back for Metal Slug 7/XX. Joining them in XX is Leona. A better amount of information about these three can be found on their respective series' page.

Ralf Jones
Aside from his participation in various fighting tournaments, little to nothing else is known about him or Clark. There's rumors flying around, but he tends to ignore them.

Though carrying half as much ammo and grenades as anyone else, Ralf makes up for this with his Vulcan Punch, capable of destroying tanks, and his melee speed is much faster than anyone else's (and his normal melee can also damage things that others cannot). He's also the only character capable of taking two hits. He's just that tough.

Clark Still
Clark and Ralf have been longtime friends, even in the unit the two of them are assigned to.

Clark's unique ability is his Super Argentine Backbreaker, a special melee move capable of earning him a lot of points in a short time frame. He also gains a small window of invulnerability with each enemy he tosses with this. However, it only works on certain human-sized enemies.

Leona Heidern
Leona was adopted by Commander Heidern following her involuntary transformation and slaughter of her hometown, and Clark and Ralf helped to oversee her training.

Leona joins the team for XX, but has to be unlocked via DLC (she's only 99 cents, well worth it). She carries an almagation of everyone else's skills. (Stronger pistol fire, 20% more ammo and grenades, Slugs can take an extra hit, and she retains her weapons after losing a life. Interestingly, her special melee, Moon Slasher, can destroy bullets.) According to her profile, Clark, Fio and Leona finished a mission that also further bonded the three as being good friends.

Leona Heidern's tropes

 * Badass Abnormal

Donald Morden
Morden was formerly a Vice Admiral in the Regular Army Marine Corps. Though a tough and efficient commander, he was also something of A Father to His Men, which greatly earned him their respect.

Things went well for Morden, up until the Central Park bombing, which not only took away his right eye (hence the eyepatch he wears), but it also killed his young son. To twist the knife even further, he later found out that Regular Army Intelligence knew about the bomb threat and pushed for the high command to stop it, but due to rampant corruption in the system at the time, the higher-ups dismissed the threat as being a mere prank or so (later blaming the bombing on a lack of intel), which, when combined with his emotional instability and rampant alcoholism following afterwards, ended in Morden's resignation.

Morden's Tropes

 * Butt Monkey: Appearing on screen is usually a sign that he'll suffer a Humiliation Conga.
 * Eyepatch of Power: The man certainly looks imposing thanks to his eyepatch.
 * Made of Plasticine: Applies to his troops.

Allen O'Neal
Morden's right hand man and bodyguard. When Morden resigned from the Regular Army, Allen, alongside all of Morden's supporters, followed him out. He's most remembered for taking insane amounts of punishment and supposedly being killed each game (he's eaten by an Orca in Metal Slug 2), only to return later. In Metal Slug 3, he not only died, but came back in the same level. Aside from being nigh unkillable, he also has a wife and son to return home to at the end of the day.

Allen O'Neal tropes

 * Annoying Laugh/Evil Laugh: When he's not taunting the player, he usually can be heard going "AHAHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHAHAHA!".
 * Boss Banter:
 * "C'MON, BOY!"
 * "YOU'RE MINCEMEAT!"
 * Engrish: "GO HOME TO MOMMY!"
 * Implacable Man: He cannot be stopped. Just shooting him alone is barely going to phase him.
 * Large Ham
 * See You in Hell: His death cry.
 * Shows Damage: His skin turns red as he takes more damage.

Mars People
Aliens from Mars, if that wasn't obvious enough (though they do resemble squids, according to some). Possessing spaceships straight out of a 50's B-movie, they allied themselves with Morden, but were really using him to weaken Earth's defenses so they could take over with little to no opposition. Though defeated at the end of 2/X, they kidnapped Morden before the events of 3, sending a Mars Person to impersonate him, and eventually capturing one of the player's characters and creating clones of him/her.

Mars People Tropes

 * Everything's Squishier with Cephalopods: Resemble giant squid or octopi.

Rootmars
The leader of the Mars People, he was the one who orchestrated the events of 2/X and 3. Though originally looking like a larger Mars Person (just wearing a see-through helmet), his real form was revealed after his spaceship was destroyed (and he looked an awful lot like E.T.) He was defeated at the end of 3, his brain being blown out, and sank into the ocean, presumedly dead...

...But he wasn't. At the beginning of Metal Slug 6, Morden and the Mars People were looking for his body, and just as they located it, the Venusians came in. It turns out that while he was on the ocean floor, Rootmars had apparently recovered from his freefall beating at the hands of the team, and learned his lesson as well. During Stage 4, if you take the alternate route, Rootmars will swoop down and grab your player, taking him or her to the next destination whilst also being outfitted with two gatling guns, helping take down the Venusians. Taking this route also means Rootmars saves you at the end of the game.

Rootmars' tropes

 * Large and In Charge: The normal Mars People are human-sized, he takes up most of the screen you fight him on.
 * Psychic Powers: Fitting for an alien with a giant brain, it has psychic powers.
 * Super Intelligence: Part of the reason he's the leader of the Mars People.

Amadeus Syndicate
A mysterious organization whose threat to the world was the release of the "White Baby Virus", a supervirus powerful enough to penetrate any mainframe's defenses. It also appeared as though Morden was supporting their efforts, though they had made a robotics plant at their base, creating several Morden bots, possibly including the one seen in the opening sequence.

Ptolemaic Army
This army group attacked a Regular Army base and ended up stealing a disc containing blueprint data on both Metal Slugs and Rebellion Tech, which lead to them creating their own bastardized and upgraded versions. Due to the confusing nature of the game (and the fact that so much went unused), it was hard to tell who was really in charge. It appeared as though they had gained the trust of the natives by the Corridor of Fire, and was using them to keep intruders away.

Venusians
Obviously, aliens from Venus. The Mars People's nemesis, they not only appear to be physically stronger and more diverse than the Mars People, they also seemed to have better technology on their side as well. They formed the second half of Metal Slug 6's plot, especially after their first appearance was snatching up two martians and eating them.

Their queen came to Earth via an asteroid, and was quick to set up an underground shelter for her brood. After one hell of a fight against the team, she fell to her death, releasing an explosion that apparently killed the protagonists as well. Depending on which route you took in Stage 4, either Morden or Rootmars will save the player.

Venusians Tropes

 * Horde of Alien Locusts
 * Zerg Rush

Allen Junior
That's right, Allen's own son is here. He posed as a training instructor, which allowed him access to the island where the Peregrine Falcon trainees were undergoing the test. From here, he was able to lead some of Morden's forces to launch a surprise attack on the trainees, capturing the most of them and allowing Morden's troops to set up a base.

Unlike his father, though, Junior tends to act more strategically in direct confrontation against the player. However, once injured past a certain point, he eventually loses his temper and starts acting more like his father in battle. However, finding and defeating him is easier said than done.

Rumi Aikawa
Rumi originally joined the Regular Army to make use of their medicinal facilities to help her ailing mother, who had a weak heart, and her twin sister Madoka, who was physically ill. Due to a paperwork SNAFU, she was shipped to the front lines, and despite having never completed her training, she made it back unscathed, a miracle in and of itself.

Hyakutaro Ichimonji
A Second Lieutenant of the Regular Army, he's a living legend among the soldiers. Pretending to be a captured POW, once he's "rescued" by the player, he helps out by firing homing Hadokens at the enemies and spin-kicking anyone else who gets too close. He will flee if you die though.

Hyakutaro Ichimonji tropes

 * Ki Attacks

Metal Slug Defense / Attack
Characters that have been introduced in the mobile games Metal Slug Defense and Metal Slug Attack, broken down by faction.

MS-Alice
An A.I. made sentient due to a programming error from Marco. Alice controls and inhabits an SV-001 and is able to produce a mass hologram of herself.


 * Action Duo: Eventually became one with Marco in the form of Equippable Ally, who's able to utilise Alice's full potential.
 * Become a Real Boy: During the Halloween Another Story, she chose to work with Aswang for the possibility of gaining a flesh-and-blood body, for the purpose of being able to interact with her creator on a physical plane.
 * Cute Monster Girl: Her "Halloween Alice" variant. Operating a new timed firing program changes her appearance into a more fanservice-y, midriff-bearing Horny Devil. Said to be a prank by the creator of said firing program.
 * Marilyn Maneuver: When using a special attack, she and her slug will jump into the air. As she descends, she holds her skirt down with her hand to prevent it from flying up.
 * Military Salute: When her slug is destroyed, she'll make a tearful salute before her hologram fades away.
 * Undying Loyalty: Towards her creator, Marco. Even as far as to hurl herself at an attack that was meant to kill him.

Midori Schumann
A female weapons engineer of the Regular Army, also part of the Sparrows division.


 * All There in the Manual: Her last name is revealed in her concept art.
 * Bare Your Midriff: A standard for the Regular Army.
 * Child Soldiers: Her age isn't given, but she's certainly young enough that both Marco and Eri are very uncomfortable with actually sending her into a battle, even though circumstances necessitated it.
 * Extendo Boxing Glove: One of her close range attacks is a glove coming from her bag of tools.
 * Rose-Haired Sweetie: Takes the battlefield in a far less serious matter than any other soldier.

Rita Lewinsky
A female PF squad recruit who joined the Regular Army around same time as Roberto Nicola.


 * Berserk Button: Hates to be referred as a country girl, given as she lived there without public utilities for 18 years.
 * Cute Bruiser: Gives off this vibe as well as Adorkable tendencies.
 * Dodge the Bullet: Roberto says she's able to dodge bullets during training. Becomes Gameplay and Story Integration where Rita actually has a skill that allows her to dodge projectiles from enemy units.
 * The Fashionista: Unlike her fellow teammates who wear standard military attire, she dresses in latest girly fashion trends, with a US-themed tank top and denim short-shorts.
 * Kick Chick: Rita is apparently useless with a firearm but she excels in her physical training. According to Tyra, she could destroy a tank's cannon just by kicking, and that's before she was given special leg armor made by Midori. Not to mention she only uses her left leg in combat.
 * Remember the New Girl: She joined the Regular Army around the same time as Roberto, even though Roberto's debut dates back to Metal Slug Mobile 4 in 2008.
 * Took a Level in Badass: Before joining the Peregrine Falcons, Rita was from a rural area of Japan.

Nikita
A female officer with strong leadership skills, takes command of a modified Di-Cokka tank with enhanced firepower.


 * Calling Your Attacks: Does this with a swing of her baton before firing. Her special attack even has a beat before she does this.
 * The Enemy Weapons Are Better: A Regular Army officer who commands a modified Di-Cokka tank that's usually a Rebel Army vehicle.
 * Expy: Her appearance and being in a tank may give the impression of Anchovy from Girls und Panzer.
 * Just a Kid: Sort of a Berserk Button as she dislikes being treated as such. Practically her motivation to rise up the ranks so she can treated seriously.
 * Law of Inverse Recoil: Nikita is often rocked back and forth every time her tank fires a shot.
 * Non-Idle Rich: It's noted that she comes from a famous family and has many connections but refuses to rely on them, preferring to put in the effort herself.
 * Panty Shot: During her victory animation, Nikita will do a quick flip out of her tank, and her skirt flaps up briefly to expose her white panties as she does so, before she lands on the ground and poses.
 * Screw This, I'm Outta Here!: When her tank is destroyed, she calls in a helicopter to save her before the tank explodes. If she was defeated by a critical hit, the tank will instead explode almost immediately, killing her and hurling her body to the ground.
 * Small Girl, Big Gun: Downplayed. Her stature is small but her Di-Cokka tank is the size of a Metal Slug, that is equipped with a Wave Motion Gun.
 * Wave Motion Gun: Her Solenoid Cannon special attack, that can be described as a smaller and faster version of Tani Oh's Andro Cannon.