Level Select & Test Stages

Making up for the lack of excitement in the past two level selects, Metal Slug 5 stomps in and lays down a bucket load of unused areas, and allows the fatties to go to more than two areas without shrinking to original shape.

The other test stages usually experiment with things, but are ultimately very boring. Metal Slug 5, on the other hand, has three test stages, but are actually useful by providing weapons and vehicles. However, you can't, say, pick up a Rocket Launcher from the first one and warp to the second one for the Spider Slug, as your status, ammo, and weapon reset to default upon warping to one of these areas.

Selecting an unnumbered option freezes the game.

FOR 08

The test stages all take place in the ruined subway from Mission 5, and this particular one has a bunch of hidden turkeys in the poster just in front of where you begin, enough to make your character become too big for their britches. Further along, some weapons drop from the ceiling, in this order, they are: Firebomb, Heavy Machinegun, Shotgun, Rocket Launcher, Flame Shot, Laser, Iron Lizard and Enemy Chaser. Once you drop onto the tracks, you’ll find some Slug vehicles, in this order: Slug Mariner (you can ride it in normal levels like a typical aerial vehicle), Slug Flyer, Metal Slug Type-R (but it changes to normal when taken to a different area from my experience), and the Slug Gunner. After that, it’s nothing but a mirrored version of the beginning of the area, minus the items.

FOR 09

The second stage is no different than the first, except everything is gone, sans the turkeys, and a Dual Machine Gun is there.

FOR 10

And the last of these stages starts you off at the tracks, leaving only vehicles for you to get. They are, in this order: Spider Slug (sadly, doesn’t work in many levels, if any), Slug Mariner, Slug Flyer, Metal Slug Type-R, and Slug Gunner.

Thanks to the sole weapon in the second stage and no weapons in the third, you can’t get the Super Grenade, Pulse Shot Gun or Pulse Rocket Launcher via these areas. Instead, you must find them in levels, which can be irritating.

Metal Slug 5 has a fair number of interesting unused areas, making up for the lack of excite in 3 and 4's innards.

1: 6 3_6

This is simply an empty tunnel with an upper floor you cannot stand on and occasional breaks in it. The end leads to the boss. (1: 9 3_9)

1: B 3_1

This area reminds me of the areas included in Metal Slug 2, X and 3, which are exactly the same as the levels in the game, except you start in the middle of the mission. This is simply the raft scene from Mission 1, at the small waterfall, but you immediately begin by falling into the lake, killing your poor character, and then you’re stranded on the raft with nowhere to go. If you wait for a while, an Enemy Chaser falls from the sky, just like the helicopter drops one in the real version of this area.

3: 3 1_2

You’re greeted by a Spider Slug, two boxes and several enemies and trucks in this unused tunnel area. Sadly, the rest isn’t very exciting, with the only enemies being trucks, missile shooting things, those hover bikes from Mission 2, officers, and robots. This leads to that area with the boxes, Slug Gunner and small appearance of the cult guy. (3: 6 1_5)

3: 8 1_7

Another tunnel type place, with a blue upper floor that gas mask soldiers drop down from. This leads to the final area before the boss. (3: 4 1_3)

3: 9 T_1

I dubbed this area the “SHIT FUCK CUNT," or "SFC" for short due to my outburst over the surprising amount of shit that popped up all of a sudden.

This is the same as the second area of Mission 3 (3: 2 1_1), but it’s been stripped of the normal items and pretty much every thing has been dumped in here. Thus, there’s a bunch of unused things lurking about here. This is by no means a complete list, but the unused things I’ve noticed were a cult guy in a hovering machine (used, but this one you can destroy, causing the cultist to jump off and flee), a teeny tiny speedboat (with teeny tiny driver), a hover jet thing from Mission 2 (also used, but this one shoots missiles at you, and you can destroy it), a Flame Shot, Glen Achilles (!!), and another hover jet (this one acts the way it does in Mission 2, but again you can destroy it).

This area leads to the unused Spider Slug area. (3: 3 1_2) Before you even think of going in here, activate invincibility, unlimited ammunition and unlimited bombs in the Dipswitch menu first.

3: A T_2

This is simply another one of those tunnel areas, except this time, there’s absolutely no obstacles whatsoever! At least, that’s what I thought for about a year until DeathMetal informed me that if you shoot the ceiling, items drop down, including unused ones! Strangely, shooting some areas causes the game to crash and reset. At the end of the tunnel, there is no light, just a dead end.

3: B T_3

This appears to be the same as that Slug Gunner area (3: 6 1_5), until you reach where the Slug Gunner should be, and you find that the Black Hound you fought (optionally) in Mission 1 wants a rematch. It’s pretty much the same as the original fight, except sometimes it races off the left side of the screen, and comes back on the second floor! Once you defeat it, the music stops, and the tunnel leads nowhere.

3: C T_4

This area is very unexciting. You start off in that same tunnel again, with the accompanying objects being an SV.W box containing a Slug Gunner, some ruins from the raft part of Mission 1, and another hover jet, but it’s a regular type and therefore invincible. Again, you won’t find a light at the end of this tunnel.

3: D T_5

It’s the first sprite viewer! The game was rushed out so quickly they forgot to remove this, and all those unused levels and sprites. I mean, Metal Slug 4 had a bunch of unused sprites, but at least it didn’t let them get easily accessed via a simple debug menu.

This version displays sprites inanimate, and you have to manually scroll through each frame of animation. The controls are ...

PLAYER 1 A – Next frame.

PLAYER 1 B – Previous frame.

PLAYER 1 C – Next sprite.

PLAYER 1 D – Previous sprite.

PLAYER 2 A – Next palette.

PLAYER 2 B – Previous palette.

PLAYER 2 C – Toggles game speed.

PLAYER 2 D – No apparent purpose.

PLAYER 2 JOYSTICK – Moves sprite.

While this is more convenient to work with when sprite ripping, it doesn’t have all the sprites in the game. See the second sprite viewer for the rest. It’s worth noting that if you run forward, the game cycles through a number of colours; first green, then blue, red, black, white, and then cycles through the last two repeatedly. And also, the game plays the sounds for when you start a frame of animation; for example, if you get the first frame of a soldier dying, their death scream will play.

3: E T_6

The second sprite viewer! This has all the sprites in the game, and has them animated, which can be somewhat inconvenient when sprite ripping, but what the hey. Here are the controls.

PLAYER 1 A – Next animation.

PLAYER 1 B – Previous animation.

PLAYER 1 C – Next animation.

PLAYER 1 D – Replays animation.

PLAYER 2 A – Next palette.

PLAYER 2 B – Previous palette.

PLAYER 2 C – Shrinks sprite.

PLAYER 2 D – Expands sprite.

The things I noted for the previous sprite viewer also work here, with something else: If a sprite plays an animation that creates something (like a soldier throwing a grenade), that object actually appears! It still kills you, though, so keep invincibility on if you’re sprite ripping.

4: 5 2_4

This appears to be exactly the same as the normal boss. Strange.

5: 8 5_T

This is simply an empty area with burning and destroyed buildings in the background. It leads to the tower full of cultists and robots. (5: 5 5_5)

It’s worth noting that the level select name has the word “BOSS” in it. That may mean that you encountered a mini-boss here, like the Stone Turtle or flying pillar guy. Of course, it could just mean you’re close to the boss or something.

V-King hinted at me that this is actually the end of the area after the tunnel (5: 4 5_4). I say "hinted" because he didn't explicitly say that it was the very end of that area, and he said it was before the elephant face mini-boss, which it isn't, it's before the area before the elephant face mini-boss. GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT MON

5: 9 5_E

This is the same as the second last area, but instead of starting on that dinky little platform, you start on one of the pillars. Otherwise, exactly the same.