Metal Slug/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Cancellation: Metal Slug Wars was an RTS released for iOS around early 2013 and removed from the store within the same year. Most of its assets and music were transferred to Metal Slug Defense.
  • Franchise Zombie: After SNK's bankruptcy, after Metal Slug 3 that is. Fans generally believe that with SNK Playmore taking the series back for Metal Slug 6 on, the zombie has recovered.
  • Milestone Celebration: 3D and Attack are dedicated for the 10th and 20th anniversary of the franchise respectively.
  • No Export for You: The 3D installment for PlayStation 2 has not been released in North America.
    • The sixth game's Combat School is the only version who never came out West. Their school instructors eventually made cameos in Metal Slug Defense.
  • Port Overdosed: SNK just loooooooooves re-releasing the original game. It's hard to find a single compilation by them that doesn't include it.
  • Prop Recycling: Present to varying extents in all the sequels, but 4 is especially egregious in that almost everything is a recycled asset; even the bosses are reused sprites cobbled together and recolored. This is a criticism of 5 to, although it's not as noticeable (outside of a room where the mechs in the background have the wrong faction markings) since the bosses are new and the sprite edits are generally more creative than simple recolors.
  • Troubled Production: Metal Slug 5, originally being developed by Noise Factory, was almost nearing completion. SNK took over late in development and revamped the game completely, but were forced to rush the overhauled game out prematurely in order to begin development of Metal Slug 6 for the new Atomiswave arcade board.
  • What Could Have Been:
    • Early on, Sophia was considered to play the role of Player 2.
    • Many ideas and models were scrapped from the final product, especially in 5. Including a giant turtle-like mecha and the native zapped by the lightning at the beginning as the final boss on a levitating, laser-spitting pillar. See this page for all the stuff that people have found from the game files.