Metal Slug

Article by: Paul Watkins (watkinzez)
Pictured from: Metal Slug: Super Vehicle-001
Created by: SNK
First appearance: 1996

Bio

The year is 2028. Conflict has flared up between two of the world's largest forces in an era of modern day terrorism — the Regular Army and the Rebellion. An alliance of many nations to protect their people from outside threats, the Army is large but crumbling under the corrupt nature of the suits in control. The Rebellion, led by small but organized militant groups, had nearly annihilated their adversaries two years before in a worldwide assault. Their superior numbers and rapidly developing technologies had assured them victory.

A secret weapon was in development by the Regular Army for use in a counterattack against the Rebellion. Code name 'Super Vehicle-001' was to be known as the first Metal Slug tank. Designed as a tactical machine, its light weight allowed it to be lifted to many locations by helicopter, with hydraulics for it to traverse uneven terrain. The primary weapon — a three-barreled Vulcan cannon — was an offensive weapon. Its main weakness was the defense of its chassis, which was improved in later versions.

This development was not however without fault — Rebels had caught wind of this weapon and successfully hijacked the assembly line worth of Metal Slugs. Seeing this incident as a cause of intelligence failure, 1st Lieutenant Marco Rossi of the Army takes it upon himself to retrieve the stolen weapons, or have them destroyed in the process. Rounding up the remains of the crippled Army, Marco is helped by 2nd Lieutenant Tarma Roving in a commando mission to save the Metal Slugs.

There have been many iterations of the Metal Slug design, manufactured by the Army or other outside factions — the 'Black Hound' model was made by the Ptolemaic Army, who had stolen blueprints and customized it for maximum offensive power. Since the prototype stage, official variants have also been made.

The Metal Slug franchise is known for its fluid hand-drawn animation and fast-paced action. Despite a deeper story than most would realize, SNK took it upon themselves to inject a humourous style into the games, with unconventional bonus powers and cartoonish animation.

Selected game appearances

Neo Geo

• Metal Slug: Super Vehicle-001 (1996)
• Metal Slug 2: Super Vehicle-001/II (1998)
• Metal Slug X: Super Vehicle-001 (1999)
• Metal Slug 4 (2002)
• Metal Slug 5 (2003)

Arcade

• Metal Slug 3 (2000)

References

• Wikipedia - "Metal Slug"
• Metal Slug Official Web Site