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[[File:metalslug.gif|frame|''This'' slug leaves a trail of blood, not [[Metal Slime|slime]]]]
''Metal Slug'' is a series of games from [[SNK]]. Basically, it's a run-and-gun shoot 'em up (or "shmup") series. Shoot everything that takes damage, rescue prisoners and collect power-ups from their underwear, attempt to stay alive.
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Much of the game's appeal stems from its detailed, fluid graphics; it employs hand-drawn animation created by artists failing to understand the concepts of [[Motionless Chin|immovable chins]] or [[No Knees|kneeless legs]]. Nuanced touches abound, such as multiple melée and idle animations for both enemies and the player characters. The artists also went to the trouble of making reloading animations, though you don't actually ''need'' to reload at any point. Even the enemy grunts are quite varied; they eat, talk amongst themselves and occasionally run screaming in terror. Of course, they also have a nasty habit of jumping on your 'slug and humping the main cannon to stop you from firing. All in all, it's a great example of how to convey a huge amount of personality without any dialog or cutscenes.
Now with its own [[Metal Slug/Characters|Character Sheet]].
{{tropelist}}
* [[Abnormal Ammo]]: Seriously? Nobody finds anything abnormal about bouncing explosive blobs, robotic exploding mini-cars (THAT SMILE), Stones, a knife that creates a wave of energy, a mini thunder cloud that fires lightning bolts, a floating mini satellite, a gun that rips shit up Emperor Palpatine style with arc lightning, or a revolver that shoots spinning, exploding rifles? [[Rule of Cool|Nope.]]
* [[Action Bomb]]: A few enemies attack by exploding themselves near you, such as the big maggots, the crawling mutants in ''Metal Slug 2''/''X'', or the Rebel Army zombies in ''Metal Slug 3''.
* [[Advancing Boss of Doom]]:
** ''Metal Slug 2'' and ''Metal Slug X'' have the Aeshi Nero, a giant mecha snake trying to "devour" the pillar you're on. Later on, there were runaway trains in the subway level that you had to destroy before they pushed you to the side of the screen.
** ''Metal Slug 3'' has [[Giant Enemy Crab|Huge Hermit]].
** ''Metal Slug
* [[Affirmative Action Girl]]:
** Eri and Fio were added to the ''Metal Slug 2'' roster, and playable through the rest (except in ''Metal Slug 4'', where Nadia replaces Eri).
** ''Metal Slug XX'' added Leona,but you have to purchase her online to be available.
* [[Alien Invasion]]:
** In ''Metal Slug 2'' and ''Metal Slug 3'', the Mars People.
** In ''Metal Slug 6'', the Venusians
* [[All Your Powers Combined]]:
** The final boss of ''Metal Slug Advance'' has attacks borrowed from the final bosses of ''Metal Slug 2''/''X'', ''Metal Slug 3'' and ''Metal Slug 4''.
*** The drones and the [[Wave Motion Gun]] are very similar to the alien mothership's UFO spawn and laser.
*** The attack where it fires out blue shots that arc upwards is like Rootmars' green balls attack.
*** The [[Reflecting Laser]] spray is somewhat similar to the one used by Amadeus in ''Metal Slug 4''.
** Leona's abilities are an amalgamation of all the other characters' abilities.
* [[Announcer Chatter]]: *clickclick* '''HEAVYYYY MACHINE GUN!'''
** '''RAWKET LAWNCHAIR!'''
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** '''UH-OH BIG'''
*** '''MISHOWN COMEPLEET''' *ending theme*
* [[Armies Are Evil]]: General Morden's Rebel Army show up in just about every game, and their job is to cause [[For the Evulz|chaos and destruction as]] [[All There in the Manual|payback for the death of Morden's son]]. There are several other, less important armies as well, like the Arabian Infantry (found early on in ''Metal Slug 2'' and ''Metal Slug X''), the Ptolemaic Army (your main opponents in ''Metal Slug 5'')
* [[Awesome but Impractical]]:
** The
** Also, some of the weapons like the Drop Shot and the Iron Lizard look cool and explode, but the ammunition always drops, preventing you from hitting enemies above you, and aren't much more powerful than the Enemy Chaser or Rocket Launcher.
* [[Attack Its Weak Point]]: Required with some bosses, who are vulnerable only in some areas. Including Sol De Rocca (you must shoot the shining pearl in his face) and Scyther (the skull in his chest).
* [[Background Boss]]: Scyther, the [[Final Boss]] of the fifth game.
* [[Badass Normal]]: The main characters are more than capable of taking on zombies, yetis, zombie yetis, aliens, giant robots, [[UFOs]]
** [[Badass Abnormal]]
* [[Bait and Switch Boss]]:
* [[Balloon Belly]]: Eating too much food will cause your character to become instantly obese (complete with mention from the Announcer). [[Power-Up Food|This also makes your shots bigger
* [[Battleship Raid]]: The final part of ''
* [[Big Creepy-Crawlies]]: ''Metal Slug 3'' in particular has a bunch of these, including locusts, crabs, snails
* [[Big Eater]]: Nadia is a supermodel who has joined the military to burn off all the food she eats because she can't control her appetite.
* [[Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti]]: ''Metal Slug 3'' had an ice cavern in Mission 2, filled with these. They had a homing ice breath that [[Harmless Freezing|would not kill the player]] (unless he was a zombie) but turn them into a snowman. If the player didn't escape from the snowman fast enough, the yeti would take out a bone club and whack the player to death.
* [[Bilingual Bonus]]: The Arabic writings in the first stages of ''Metal Slug 2'' and ''Metal Slug X''
* [[Bloody Murder]]: Turning into a zombie lets you vomit acidic blood. Huh.
* [[Boss Banter]]: "Come on, boy!" "Go home to mommy!"
* [[Bottomless Magazines]]: Nobody ever needs to reload - but the heroes will reload their pistols if you stop firing after about 5 or more consecutive shots and then stop, [[Rule of Cool|just because
* [[Bottomless Pits]]: Occasionally combined with [[Super Drowning Skills]].
* [[Bowdlerise]]: Some US home releases of the games replace Tarma's [[Precision F-Strike]] death scream with Marco's death scream. And then there's the white blood...
* [[Brain In a Jar]]: ''Metal Slug 3''{{'}}s Martian Guards are brains in jars attached to robot bodies. ''Metal Slug 6''{{'}}s Mission 3 boss is a [[Humongous Mecha]] with a brain sitting on top inside a jar to serve as the head. It also has a couple eyeballs in there.
* [[Clothing Damage]]: Happens to the female characters in several circumstances across the various games.
** In ''Metal Slug 3'', if a female character is killed by a snail's acid, she will fall to her knees while her clothes melt off her body, exposing her breasts, before she falls onto her side and dies. If she is killed while in mid-air, her body will land with her buttocks facing the screen. Her shorts and panties then dissolve, exposing her bare buttocks before her body melts away. The girls in ''Metal Slug'' ''Defense'' and ''Attack'' are also subject to this when they are killed by acid-type attacks.
** In ''Metal Slug Defense'', if Yuri is killed by an explosion, her gi will be torn off as her body falls to the ground, exposing her pink bra.
** In ''Metal Slug Attack'', female characters who are killed by critical hits will have their clothes torn off as their bodies fall to the ground, exposing their underwear, breasts and body parts as they die.
*** The latter happens for nearly all the Everlasting Summer girls, as they are all wearing bikinis or swimsuits, which are ripped off when they are killed by critical hits, causing them to die with their breasts and genitals visible.
* [[Compilation Rerelease]]: ''Metal Slug Anthology'' on [[PlayStation 2]], PSP and Wii collects the first seven games in the series (''Metal Slug 1''-''Metal Slug 6'' and ''Metal Slug X''). Though it misses the two [[Neo Geo]] Pocket games, as well as ''Metal Slug Advance'' and ''Metal Slug 3D'', and the games suffer from slowdown you don't get with emulating the original ROMs with MVSPSP.
* [[Concept Art Gallery]]: A whole bunch of it is available in the collection ''Metal Slug Anthology'', which runs the gamut from incredibly detailed drawings of tanks and aircraft to [[Fan Service|lots of pictures of the female characters]].
* [[Conservation of Ninjutsu]]: This game practically runs on this trope. One or two people versus entire regiments of both infantry and tanks, as well as alien motherships, zombies, yetis, so on and so forth? No problem. Grab your quarters.
* [[Cool Shades]]: Tarma never takes off his rather expressive sunglasses.
* [[Crossover]]: Aside from [[Ikari Warriors|Ralf and Clark]] and Fio (noted below), Mars People were mid-boss for ''[[Capcom vs. Whatever|SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos]]'' and playable in ''[[Mascot Fighter|Neo Geo Battle Coliseum]]'' alongside Marco Rossi. Not to mention the appearance of the ENTIRE cast on the ''Card Fighter'' games.
* [[Cursed with Awesome]]: Being turned into a zombie slows you down and restricts you to a pistol... But it gives you a ridiculously powerful attack in which you vomit blood which eradicates everything in front of you. Plus, most conventional weapons won't do much to you, leaving you vulnerable only to Yetis, other zombies, and bosses.
* [[Dating Sim]]: The Combat School extras on the home releases (
** Eventually, if your rank is especially high, you can chat with the instructor and get to know a little more about her. [[No Export for You|Good luck understanding Sophia in
* [[Death Is a Slap on The Wrist]]: It's an arcade [[Shmup]], so you respawn where you died within a couple of seconds. Certain console ports, however, make you restart the level if you use a continue, which becomes a problem in ''Metal Slug 3'''s last level on the [[Xbox]] port.
* [[Death of a Thousand Cuts]]: Even the most badass tank will go down if you shoot it enough with your pistol.
* [[Denial of Diagonal Attack]]:
* [[Divergent Character Evolution]]:
** The fourth game: Trevor's melee attack earns extra points but immobilizes him when he uses it. He's kicking the enemy hard enough to shred them apart. Nadia, on the other hand, whips out a taser.
** The sixth game introduced differences between the characters. Marco's normal handgun does more damage. Eri gets more grenades from pick-ups and can throw them at any angle. Tarma gets more hit points when piloting a vehicle, and can lock the vehicle's gun in one position while moving. Fio receives more ammunition from special gun pick-ups. Ralf can take two hits before dying, and has a special melee move called the "Vulcan Punch
** In ''Metal Slug XX'', Leona has an amalgamation of the main team's skillset (stronger pistol, 20% more ammo and grenades, Slugs can take an extra hit, and her special melee acts like a short-range Zantetsu Sword). Marco also got the Burst Fire, which lets him use auto-fire, but has to stand still, and Tarma [[Percussive Maintenance|can kick Slugs, which can recover some health]] ([[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|however, it can also damage them on occasion
* [[The Dragon]]: Allen O'Neal. However, during the Joint Strike on the Martian ship, he helps the player a few times.
* [[Dummied Out]]: A large number of things, most notably in ''Metal Slug 5''. You can check a more detailed observation of said elements [http://randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com/MetalSlug-MissingInAction/MSAction-Main.htm here].
* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: [[Sinister Scythe|Scyther]] in ''Metal Slug 5''. Also the Venusian Queen in ''Metal Slug 6''.
* [[Elevator Action Sequence]]: Happen in ''Metal Slug 4'' and done in reverse in ''Metal Slug 5''.
* [[Elite Mook]]:
** The Sergeants are an uncommon Rebel footsoldier, and they wear yellow. They are just as weak as the normal soldiers, but they always drop a pickup when killed.
** The Amadeus Infantry in ''Metal Slug 5'' are among the most dangerous Rebel foot-soldiers, and they wear blue. Some of them are armed with the 7.62mm AR-10 Autorifle, which is one of the weapons you can use.
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** Ptolemaic Shamans can take more than one attack and can fire green, homing projectiles.
* [[Emergency Weapon]]: The pistol and the knife. Depending on the circumstances, other emergency attacks include kicks, nightsticks, hand-axes, tridents, sporks, using your belt to [[Whip It Good]] while fat (or stabbing them with a giant fork), and [[The Oldest Ones in the Book|the old]] [[Improbable Weapon User|telescopic-boxing-glove gag.]]
* [[Enemy Mine]]: Statistically speaking, the Rebel Army is the king of this trope. They only truly appear in the first, second, third
** In ''Metal Slug 2'', their Martian allies betray them and kidnap their leader, causing the mooks to join forces with the heroes.
** In ''Metal Slug 3'', their leader was kidnapped and replaced by a disguised Martian, and after they figure this out, they join the heroes in their [[Battleship Raid]] of the Martian's Mothership.
** Played with in ''Metal Slug 6''
*** The second alien army is referred to as being from Venus in some [[All There in the Manual|supplemental material]]. And if ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' taught us anything, Martians and Venusians are classic rivals in their attempts to conquer Earth ("Will the Real Alien Please Stand Up?").
* [[Everything's Better with Monkeys]]
* [[Everything's Worse with Bears]]:
** Subverted: the only bear to be found in the entire series is on a secret alternate path in Mission 3 of ''Metal Slug 4'' (a snowy mountain)... and ''he helps you'', attacking the intruding Yeti-like monsters that infest this route. If you shoot him a few times, he'll stop helping and leave though.
** And played straight in that if you stand in the attack hitbox of his claw swipes, you die (with the same animation as though you were knifed).
* [[Evil Knockoff]]:
** The Ptolemic Army from ''Metal Slug 5'' stole the blueprints of the titular tanks which allowed them to create their own bastardized Metal Slugs. In fact, the first boss is a titanic Metal Slug dubbed [[Metal Gear Solid|Metal Rear.]]
** ''Metal Slug Advance'' for the Gameboy Advance had Formor, a larger version (3 times) of the Metal Slug.
* [[Evil Overlooker]]: In an unlockable background in ''Metal Slug Anthology''.
* [[Expressive Mask]]: Tarma in ''Metal Slug
* [[Family-Unfriendly Death]]:
** For a game with a cartoony art style, people die in surprisingly disturbing ways. And there's blood ''everywhere''.
** Though in certain versions of the games, you can change the color of the blood to white, which depending on how childish you are will either look like milk or semen.
* [[Fan Service Pack]]: Poor Fio just won't stop [[Breast Expansion|gaining weight]] from one game to the next.
* [[Flash of Pain]]: For an example, an orange variety is found in ''Metal Slug 1''.
* [[Gas Mask Mooks]]: The Ptolemaic Army soldiers.
* [[Gatling Good]]: See image at top of page. Some enemy soldiers wield them, for what good it does.
* [[Giant Enemy Crab]]: ''Metal Slug 3'''s first mission is full of giant crabs, with a truly enormous one serving as the boss. Take the right alternate route in the fourth level and you'll find some more.
* [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere]]:
** Scyther, the final boss of the fifth game. After facing hordes of terrorists, robots and cultists you're greeted by a giant demon on the top of a tower. Only thing remotely connected is a single cutscene at the very beging of the game, and that's it.
** ''Metal Slug 3'' has no mentions of Mars people before they reveal themselves, however, they are [[Foreshadowing|not a complete surprise to the watchful eye.]] Morden has his eyepatch on the wrong eye, [[Funny Background Event|and a few Martians appear in the background of the first level.]] They were also an important part of the story in the second game.
** [http://metalslug.wikia.com/wiki/Sol_Dae_Rokker Sol Dae Rokker] from ''Metal Slug 3'' plays this straight.
* [[Gone Horribly Wrong]]: Those weird mutants in ''Metal Slug 2'' and ''Metal Slug X''? [[All There in the Manual|Turns out they're the leftovers]] from a [[Super Soldier]] project.
* [[Good-Looking Privates]]: Eri, Fio, Nadia ''and'' Leona.
* [[Goofy Print Underwear]]: The POWs dispense [[Power-Up|Power Ups]] from giant pairs of blue-and-white-striped boxer shorts when they are rescued.
* [[Gross Up Close-Up]]: The character selection portraits in ''Metal Slug 2''/''X'' and ''Metal Slug 3''. For bonus points, if you choose Tarma, a drop of snot will come down from his nose.
* [[Guest Fighter]]:
** [[The King of Fighters|Ralf and Clark]] are playable in ''Metal Slug 6''. Returning the favor, Fio is unlockable in ''[[The King of Fighters]]: Maximum Impact 2''.
***
** Marco Rossi also appeared in ''[[Neo Geo Battle Coliseum]]'' as a playable character.
** ''Metal Slug XX'' (
* [[High-Pressure Blood]]: Mooks leave a quite respectable trail of blood upon being shot or cut. Shooting down a Mook with the Shotgun results in them literally ''exploding'' into a burst of blood that is roughly twice the size of their regular sprite.
* [[Hijacked by Ganon]]:
* [[Hyperspace Arsenal]]: One miniboss from ''Metal Slug X'' is a superheavy assault plane that carries those huge tanks that drop themeselves on you when they run out of ammo. It carries an infinite supply.
* [[Identical Stranger]]: The NPC lawyer ([[All There in the Manual|called Walker]]) encountered in ''Metal Slug 2'''s first mission has an uncanny resemblance to {{spoiler|Amadeus, mentioned above}}.
* [[I Have a Family]]:
** Although
** General Morden [[All There in the Manual|had a son who unfortunately died in a terrorist attack at Central Park]]. When he found out the attack could have easily been prevented if not for the high amount of corruption in the military and government, [[Start of Darkness|he betrayed the Regular Army]].
* [[Implacable Man]]: Allen O'Neal, Morden's bodyguard who soaks more damage than most tanks, and manages to [[Back from the Dead|come back from the dead]] an unnerving amount of times. In ''Metal Slug 2'', he actually gets eaten by a killer whale which even spits out his bones afterward... and yet, in ''Metal Slug 3'', he's there again, [[Gatling Good|gatling]] and idiotic taunts and all, and he amazes us ''even more'' by {{spoiler|[[Back from the Dead|coming back from the dead ]] ''again'' and helping us}} in the endgame.
** Although he took a vacation after ''Metal Slug 3'', not appearing for a few games. {{spoiler|The one in ''Metal Slug 4'' is actually a robot}}, he returns in ''Metal Slug 7''.
* [[Improbable Weapon User]]: When in fat mode, your melee weapon (a combat knife or hatchet) is replaced with a really big spork. Or have a seat and whip out your plus-sized belt.
* [[Large Ham]]: The announcers (except for the first one). '''"HEAVYYYY MACHINEGUN!"''' [[Super Soldier|Allen]] as well: "AHAHAHAHAHA!! [[Good Bad Translation|GO HOME TO MOMMY!]]".
* [[Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me]]: Some Mooks get a riot shield. They will hide behind it, slipping out every so often to take a potshot. When you shoot the thing out of their hands, they waste their [[Mercy Invincibility]] by panicking.
* [[Made of Iron]]: In a series where most characters die from a single shot, Allen and Morden both absorb several hundred rounds of machine gun fire and/or dozens of direct hits from missiles and grenades every time they appear. Allen eventually dies only to [[Unexplained Recovery|show up alive in the next game]], but Morden is just knocked into submission by it. Morden also has been known to survive a gigantic metal plate crushing him and being strapped to a spaceship ''as it launches into space
* [[The Many Deaths of You]]: Besides getting shot or stabbed, there are countless sprite animations for death, ranging from (while in fat mode) bursting like a balloon to getting sucked up by flying tentacle aliens to the various deaths turned into zombies or mummies! Lots of these can result in some pretty severe [[Nightmare Fuel]].
* [[Marathon Level]]: Many final stages are quite lengthy, but ''Metal Slug 3'''s final stage deserves a special mention. It is literally about half the game's length, taking as long as '''half an hour''' to finish.
* [[Mascot Mook]]: The hapless Rebel Grunts. Many fans were saddened by their absence in the fifth game, and they even got to be playable once.
* [[Mecha-Mooks]]: The Martian Mechas (Ring Laser, Hopper and Walker), Amadeus Robots, Ptolemaic Units and the Rebel Walker.
* [[Mechanical Monster]]: Many people wouldn't know what it was when they first encountered it in ''Metal Slug 2''/''X'', but the [http://metalslug.wikia.com/wiki/Aeshi_Nero Aeshi Nero] is a [[Snakes Are Evil|giant robot snake]] that's trying to "swallow" the pillar you're on!
* [[Meganekko]]: Fio.
* [[Military Mashup Machine]]: Almost every boss you encounter - especially in the later games - is a great hulking mishmash of military vehicles. The classic Land Battleship (by which we mean, "A battleship with giant treads bolted on") makes an appearance in ''Metal Slug 2'', and the very first boss in ''Metal Slug 3'' is a giant lobster with an artillery cannon fitted on top of it.
* [[Mind Control]]: In ''Metal Slug 3'', the character that you are controlling is abducted and then turned into clones and then clone zombies. In ''Metal Slug 6'', players have their character's counterpart become controlled by the flying parasite things.
* [[Mirror Boss]]:
** Allen O'Neal, being a sole person with a gun and grenades, just like you.
** You also fight one of your fellow playable characters in ''Metal Slug 6'', controlled by an alien. He/she has access to several of your special weapons, like the grenades and the Heavy Machine Gun.
* [[Mondegreen]]: The Rocket Launcher is better known as the "ROCKET LAWN CHAIR!!" thanks to the way the [[Large Ham Announcer]] introduced in ''Metal Slug X'' says it when you pick up the relevant item.
* [[Mook Horror Show]]: Human enemies panic when you respawn in front of them. Except for bosses, but everyone from the lowest infantry to blue-suited doom troops loose their shit.
* [[Mooks]]: With various animations and behavior, I might add.
* [[More Dakka]]: The ''Metal Slug'' franchise is heavily based off of awesome firepower, with heavy machine guns, BIG heavy machine guns, two machine guns, and other powerful weapons. This is then taken even further by the fact that players can become fat, increasing the power of their weapons (think of a heavy machine gun that is BIG and while fat). The vehicles with a huge vulcan machine gun (or two) are also based off of this.
** Taken even further in ''Metal Slug 6'' and ''Metal Slug 7'', where playing as Fio immediately gives the player the (Big) Heavy Machine Gun. She also gets 50% more ammunition upon picking up other weapons.
** In ''Metal Slug 2'', there is much more dakka than [[Up to Eleven|the game engine can handle.]] One thing about ''Metal Slug X'' being an [[Updated Rerelease]] is that the engine doesn't drop frames ''quite'' so much.
* [[Night of the Living Mooks]]: ''Metal Slug 2'' has an egyptian tomb populated by Mummies. ''Metal Slug 3'' and ''Metal Slug 4'' have zombie themed levels.
* [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot]]: [[Little Green Men|Green]] [[Alien Invaders|alien]] [[Everything's Deader with Zombies|zombie]] [[Cloning Blues|clones]] [[Beaming Grin|that puke streams]] [[Bloody Murder|of blood]] in ''Metal Slug 3''.
* [[Nintendo Hard]]: Not surprising, since arcade games need to be able to get your quarters. There is a rule among fans: "When fighting a boss, use all your grenades immediately. You'll die and get a new set in a few seconds." ''Metal Slug 1'' was hard, yet still the easiest of the games with each additional entry generally becoming harder, and one could say the purchase of any one of the games for a home console will pay for itself in saved quarters ''very'' quickly.
** Mike Uyama, [[Speed Run|speedrunning]] legend, explicitly states [http://speeddemosarchive.com/MetalSlug3.html here] it's harder than ''[[Contra]] III''. And he beat ''that'' game in 15 minutes.
*** -->''From Uyama himself: "''Metal Slug 3'' is longer, has more randomness, bosses don't die as quickly, and the hardest difficulty is considered impossible (or nearly impossible) to beat on one life. Whereas in ''Contra III'', the game moves quickly, but there isn't much randomness. If that doesn't convince you, ''Contra III'' took me 10 days (this includes both practice and recording), ''Metal Slug 3'' took me over a year."''
** The developers ''know'' that a very tiny fraction of clears will be proper clears done on one credit, because the ending result screen shows how many continues you used up. It's not uncommon to see, for instance, a continue count of 50 or more (in other words, over 150 lives lost) on ''Metal Slug 3'', especially given that it's longer than the other ones.
* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]:
** The [[Big Bad]] Morden bears an uncanny resemblance to Saddam Hussein. According to the game's [[Backstory]], he's actually from the province of New Brunswick in Canada.
* [[No Swastikas]]:
** Mercilessly parodied via the enemy army, who aren't actually Nazis -- even in the Japanese version -- but wear Nazi uniforms, and have insignia strongly resembling poorly-censored Nazi insignia: Swastikas are plain black X-es and eagles become Phoenixes.
*** It could be a [[Shout-Out]] to [[Charlie Chaplin|Charlie Chaplin's]] [[The Great Dictator]], since the former symbol appears in the movie.
** See also the insignia on the enemy tanks -that, by the way, resemble [[World War II]] German ones-. It looks like a [[wikipedia:Balkenkreuz|Balkenkreuz]] rotated 45 degrees.
* [[Obligatory Swearing]]: Tarma F Bombs upon defeat.
* [[One Bullet At a Time]]: Well, more like Two Grenades At A Time. Getting in close and [[Spam Attack|lobbing grenades like a maniac]] isn't just the key to speedruns
* [[One-Hit-Point Wonder]]: It's a [[Shmup]], so no surprises here. If you're in a Slug, it will take 3 hits for you.
** Ralf in ''Metal Slug 6'' and ''Metal Slug 7'' can take two hits. He's just that tough!
*** It's probably a reference to his ''[[King of Fighters]] '99'' victory quote "I can survive anything - even nukes!". Which makes it sort of a gameplay-influenced [[Shout-Out]].
*** More like a necessary element, considering how close Ralf needs to get to tanks in order to use his anti-tank Vulcan Punch.
*** From game ''Metal Slug 6'' onward, putting Tarma in a Vehicle doubles its defense, letting you take twice as many hits. Interestingly enough, ''Metal Slug Advance'' gave you a lifebar (refillable through eating food), but you could invoke this trope through activation of the "Paper Thin" card
* [[One-Man Army]]: Sometimes the [[Mooks]] actually scream and run for their lives if you approach them. They know. This is usually after they've killed you, only for you to accept the Continue screen and come back again. For some fun, find two soldiers chatting with each other. Kill one and watch his friend [[Oh Crap|freak out and run.]]
* [[Painfully-Slow Projectile]]: The Nop 03 Sarubia (tall grey tanks) specializes in shooting slow rolling bombs to force the players to dodge and jump, making them easy targets for its allies.
* [[
** Beatriz from ''Metal Slug Attack'' is particularly notable due to her short skirt: when she is killed, she rolls over and dies with her buttocks in the air, her skirt sliding down to expose her white (pale blue in her Halloween version, and yellow in her Summer version) panties. Killing her with a critical hit causes her to sprawl backward violently and die with her legs spread apart, her crotch and panties visible.
* [[People Jars]]: Mission 5 in ''Metal Slug 6'' sees you rescuing {{spoiler|Mars People}} from these sort of jars.
* [[Precision F-Strike]]: Tarma lets one out upon player miss.
** This can quickly turn into [[Cluster F-Bomb]]. [[Nintendo Hard|You know why.]]
** I don't hear him swearing. What does he say?
* [[Qurac]]: First level of ''Metal Slug 2'' (and therefore ''Metal Slug X''). One would assume that's why the next level has [[Mummy|mummies]]
* [[Recycled in Space]]: ''[[Contra]]'' <small>AS AN SNK GAME</small>!
* [[Recycled Title]]: The 3D ''Metal Slug'' game for the PS2 is simply titled ''Metal Slug''.
* [[Redshirt Army]]: The final mission of ''Metal Slug 6'' starts out with you
* [[Rewarding Vandalism]]: If you destroy any objects in the background, chances are it'll drop a useful item.
** Interestingly enough, in one of the levels of ''Metal Slug 2'', vandalism gets punished
*** However, in
* [[Ring Menu]]:
* [[Robotic Reveal]]:
* [[Sand Worm]]: A giant flying worm is the fourth boss in ''Metal Slug 6''. However, you face him in a bay.
* [[See You in Hell]]: Allen O'Neal's death cry, and practically his [[Catch Phrase]].
* [[Sequel Difficulty Spike]]: ''Metal Slug 3''. Good lord, ''Metal Slug 3''. Take how many continues you took to complete ''Metal Slug 2'' and double it. That's about how much you'll be spending in ''Metal Slug 3''.
* [[Shock and Awe]]: Several enemies use electrical attacks.
* [[Short-Range Shotgun]]: Taken literally and [[Up to Eleven]]. The Shotgun is basically a directed explosion
* [[Shout-Out]]: To ''[[Independence Day]]'' in ''
** See the part about Ralf above.
** In ''
** Also in ''
** And the meat eating plants from ''
** The final level of ''
*** This appears to be an ongoing theme with Japanese-designed Martians. Google around.
*** The final boss of ''Metal Slug 3'' looks similar to [[E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial|E.T.]], though appearance is about where the likeness stops.
** Also in ''
** The BGM for the first level of
** The boss of the fifth mission of ''Metal Slug 7''/''Metal Slug XX'', "[[Meaningful Name|The Union]]", bears a HUGE resemblance to the
*** Not surprising, as the founders of
** The submarine paths in
*** The Slug Mariner's color scheme is one to ''[[In the Hunt]]''.
*** Also, the Slug Mariner looks suspiciously (and ironically) based on a little HELICOPTER (complete with vulcan cannon, but not placed the same way as the aforementioned Slug) from ''Battle Chopper'', another game by Irem.
* [[Sink the Life Boats]]: If you destroy one of Morden's boats, the soldiers will bail out and the ship will break apart... but when the smoke clears, you'll see the boat, now tilted upward dangerously and obviously crippled, with a lone weaponless soldier desperately trying to bail it out.
* [[Soundtrack Dissonance]]: The triumphant, heroic theme playing over the credits of the first game can come across as very jarring as the camera slowly pans over fields full of corpses and wreckages of tanks. Which you caused.
* [[Spin to Deflect Stuff]]:
** The Venusians in ''Metal Slug 6'' use this one quite often. The even roll on the floor and spin-jump around like a [[Sonic the Hedgehog|certain blue hedgehog]]... Oh, and they kill you if you touch them while they're spinning.
*** Semi-subversion: the bullets do deflect off (while not harming you, thankfully), but the Venusians will still take damage.
** The trooper clones in ''Metal Slug 3'''s final level (spaceship section) deflect HMG and Vulcan bullets while jumping.
* [[Spiritual Successor]]: ''Metal Slug'' shares a lot of graphical and gameplay similarities with the earlier shooters ''[[In the Hunt]]'' and ''[[Gunforce]] 2'', both of which were made by the same team. It also shares a lot of visual design and trope usage with ''[[Undercover Cops]]'', a [[Beat'Em Up]] also developed by said team. The [[Neo Geo]] run & gunner ''Cyber-Lip'' was also apparently done by said team, though the connections aren't as obvious.
* [[Super Drowning Skills]]: Unless you have the appropriate equipment.
** Justified in ''Metal Slug 3'''s Mission 1. The water is infested with man-eating fish that will strip a character down to their skeleton should they fall in.
*** Incomparably frustrating if this happens while missing the jump to the Marine Slug (and associated level path).
** Also justified in ''Metal Slug 2''/''X'''s final mission. The water is ICY COLD and a drop in it will make your character frozen in an ice block.
** And justified in ''Metal Slug 6'''s
* [[Surprisingly Good English]]: Though made in Japan, the ''
* [[Survivor Guilt]]: At the ending of the first game, in the London level, you find what is usually presumed the daughter of a dead enemy soldier. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukBzGrsA1Ds Jump at 2:44.]
** She only appears if you finish in one player mode, where the credits scroll over the destruction you left behind (graves, devastated buildings, wrecked tanks, etc). Complete a co-operative game, and all the enemy forces are seen having a party instead. The outro music also changes appropriately (or inappropriately, depending on your point of view).
* [[Suspicious Videogame Generosity]]: Right at the end of ''Metal Slug 6''. No enemies, no music
* [[Stock Scream]]: If the mooks get set on fire or blown up, they'll often let rip one of these. Also, if you die... they laugh and shrug as if to say "what was the big deal?"... and freak out when you come back thanks to the magic of extra lives.
* [[Strong Flesh, Weak Steel]]: The special ability of one of the Ikari Warriors in ''Metal Slug 6'' is to punch right through tank armor.
* [[
* [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien]]: Tuatha De Duncan.
* [[Tank Goodness]]: An incredibly cute example, with a strong resemblance to the mini-tank from ''[[Dominion Tank Police]]''.
* [[This Is a Drill]]: In one path of ''Metal Slug 3'', you get a Drill Slug, which can drill right through those nasty big creepy crawlies. Ichor spews EVERYWHERE.
* [[Trick Boss]]:
** The [[Final Boss]] of ''Metal Slug 6'' is a yellowish alien core thingy. It [[Stationary Boss|doesn't even move]], and is aided by only a [[Flunky Boss|few mooks that come at moderate intervals]]. After defeating it, the Morden soldiers come in and celebrate your victory over the enemy... when the alien in the destroyed core fires out a destructive wave, killing all of them. Time for the REAL final boss battle.
** Done again in ''Metal Slug 3D'', though the first "battle" is against an actual challenging enemy.
* [[Trouser Space]]: The POWs take this a step further by keeping powerups in their underwear.
* [[Turns Red]]: Allen O'Neil turns red gradually as you hurt him more. He might change his pattern a little bit, but the major point to him turning red is to assure you that yes, you are in fact making progress.
* [[Uncommon Time]]
* [[Unexpected Gameplay Change]]: Occasionally, ''Metal Slug'' games will shift from a run-and-gun to a [[Shoot'Em Up]]. Okay, so they're not all that different as genres (some people class the former under the latter, even), but the way you play changes a bit.
* [[Ungrateful Bastard]]:
** Despite saving his ass (and organization!) in both ''Metal Slug 2''/''X'' and ''Metal Slug 3'', Morden still tries to kill the protagonists in ''Metal Slug 6'' and ''Metal Slug 7''/''XX''. Although he ''is'' leader of world wide rebellion which player opposes.
** For what it's worth though, {{spoiler|either Morden or Rootmars will save the player at the end of ''Metal Slug 6'', depending on what route you took in stage 4}}.
* [[Updated Rerelease]]:
**
** ''Metal Slug XX'' is an updated version of ''Metal Slug 7'' from the DS, for the PSP.
* [["Wake-Up Call" Boss|Wake Up Call Level]]: The last mission of ''Metal Slug 3''. It's just as long, if not longer than the rest of the missions combined, throwing in twist after twist at you along with very hard sequences and bosses.
* [[War Has Never Been So Much Fun]]: ''Boy howdy''.
* [[Wave Motion Gun]]: The Lasergun from ''Metal Slug 2'' onwards. Shown LITERALLY in-game if the player fires a Lasergun or BIG Lasergun while fat.
* [[Weaponized Animal]]: The Camel Slug, Elephant Slug, Ostrich Slug and Donkey Slug, animals with a rapid-fire gun attached to them. On the Rebel Army's side, we have [[Giant Enemy Crab|Huge Hermit]], a huge hermit crab with a tank for its shell.
* [[The Worf Effect]]: The first game sets up Morden as an influential, well-armed, and [[Made of Iron|nearly indestructible]] general. The second and third games allow the Mars People to humiliatingly defeat him to show how much more dangerous they are. The sixth game demonstrates the Venus People as an even greater threat by showing them obliterating Morden ''and'' the Mars People.
* [[Victory Pose]]: Every character from the main
* [[You Gotta Have Blue Hair]]: Leona.
* [[Zeerust]]: Most of the "High-Tech" devices in the series are intentionally Zeerusty, from the aforementioned land battleship, to pulp robots, to
* [[Zerg Rush]]: There are a few sequences like this in the series, but the best one might be the ridiculous Venusian onslaught in Mission 3 of ''Metal Slug 6''. They just keep coming in from the right and coming in from the right...
* [[Zombie Apocalypse]]:
** The second ''Metal Slug 3'' level pits you against zombies. You can be turned into a zombie, which kills your movement and weapon, but gives you an obscenely powerful blood vomit attack instead of grenades and makes you immune to normal mooks' attacks. Later in the game, evil duplicates of the player get turned into zombies... and unfortunately also have the blood vomit attack.
** On the bright side, if they zombify you, you can use the blood vomit on ''them'', and if you thought grenades were good for clearing the screen... then you haven't seen the blood vomit attack.
*** Unfortunately, the [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|alien zombie clones]] can't zombify you with their blood vomit
*** Better yet, occasionally during this sequence you can find an evil, non-zombie duplicate during this section. In previous sections, they died with a single bullet, but in this section, ''they have as much health as a zombie''. This means you need to use a few grenades, several bullets, or a powerful weapon to kill them while they jump around and melee/shoot you. Meanwhile, more evil duplicate zombies are coming from the left using their vomit attack. Have fun!
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