Metal Slug (series)

Metal Slug is a series of run and gun video games first released on Neo Geo arcade machines and game consoles originally created by Nazca and later by SNK. It has also been ported to various consoles, such as the Sega Saturn, PlayStation, Neo Geo Pocket Color, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2, Xbox and Xbox 360 and more. There is also an anthology of the first 7 games in the main series (including Metal Slug X) available for the Wii, PlayStation Portable, and PlayStation 2.

SNK staff state that Metal Slug is one of their best international hits, the other being The King of Fighters series, and they are always willing to expand the series.

Story
The first game's story involved the Peregrine Falcon (PF) Squad, a small but skilled team of soldiers serving under the Regular Army's special operations division, who fight against the army of General Donald Morden in order to prevent a massive coup d'etat and the creation of a New World Order under General Morden. Later games featured characters from the Sparrows Unit, which is under the control of the Regular Army's intelligence division. In the games following the first, the PF Squad also battles an alien threat to Earth (the Mars People), as well as several other supernatural threats including yetis, zombies, ambulatory Venus flytraps, giant crabs and mummies. Outlandish elements were removed from the fourth game to return to the feel of the original title, which resulted in poor critical and commercial reception. The fifth moved to the motif of modern guerrilla warfare, leaving only traces of the series signature quirky humor and paranormal enemies (except for the final boss). Metal Slug 6 returned to the plot of the first three installments, bringing back Morden's Rebel Army and the Mars People.

Gameplay
The mechanics of the series is characteristic of run and guns: The enemies come in hordes, the weapons have high fire rates. All of these characteristics come from the Contra series, which the game's mechanics is based on. Metal Slug however takes the concepts introduced in Contra and expands upon them. First and foremost is the ability to perform melee attacks. In most run and guns, contact with an enemy leads to immediate death. In this series, contact only results in either party's death if an attack is performed. This leads to the ability for the player to run in and use melee attacks to take down a number of troops.

Main series

 * Metal Slug: Super Vehicle-001
 * Metal Slug 2
 * Metal Slug 3
 * Metal Slug 4
 * Metal Slug 5
 * Metal Slug 6
 * Metal Slug 7

Remakes/Updated Games

 * Metal Slug X
 * Metal Slug XX

Spin-Offs

 * Metal Slug 1st Mission
 * Metal Slug 2nd Mission
 * Metal Slug Advance
 * Metal Slug 3D
 * Metal Slug Tactics

Mobile Games

 * Metal Slug Mobile
 * Metal Slug Mobile: Impact
 * Metal Slug: Allen's Battle Chronicles
 * Metal Slug STG
 * Metal Slug Survivors / Metal Slug 4 Mobile
 * Metal Slug Soldiers
 * Metal Slug Fighters
 * Metal Slug Warriors
 * Metal Slug Mars Panic!
 * Metal Slug Tactics
 * Metal Slug M1
 * Metal Slug Touch
 * Metal Slug M2
 * Metal Slug Team Mission
 * Universal Metal Slug: Fierce Battle
 * Universal Metal Slug: Login
 * Universal Metal Slug: Tank Conspiracy
 * Universal Metal Slug: Triumph
 * Metal Slug Defense
 * Metal Slug Revolution
 * Metal Slug Attack
 * Metal Slug XX Online
 * Metal Slug Infinity
 * Metal Slug Code: J
 * Metal Slug: Commander

Compilations

 * Metal Slug Anthology
 * Metal Slug Collection PC

Canceled

 * Metal Slug Online Zero

Pachislot

 * Metal Slug (pachinko)
 * Metal Slug SV-001 (pachinko)
 * Metal Slug 3 (pachinko)

MS

 * Marco Rossi
 * Tarma Roving
 * Allen O'Neil
 * General Morden

MS2/X

 * Fiolina Germi
 * Eri Kasamoto
 * Mars People
 * Hyakutaro Ichimonji
 * Rumi Aikawa
 * Abul Abbas

MS3

 * Utan
 * Rootmars

MS4

 * Nadia Cassel
 * Trevor Spacey
 * Amadeus

1st Mission

 * Lieutenant Colonel MacBa
 * Colonel Hilde Garn

2nd Mission

 * Gimlet
 * Red Eye
 * Tequila
 * Lt. Wired
 * Kanan

Advance

 * Walter Ryan
 * Tyler Elson
 * Allen O'Neil Jr.

MS5

 * Avatar of Evil

MS6

 * Ralf Jones
 * Clark Still

MS3D

 * Oguma

Other

 * Helton
 * Tilde
 * Nikita
 * Matilda
 * Victor
 * Amir

NPC

 * Drill Instructors
 * Selina
 * Professor Robert

Mobile

 * Leona Heidern
 * Robert Nicola
 * Nathalie Neo
 * Alisa Stewart

Defense

 * Heidern
 * Whip

Attack

 * Ptolemaios
 * Scotia Amundsen
 * Pharaoh
 * Red Goblin
 * El Dorado
 * Professor
 * Dragunov
 * MS-Alice
 * Abigail
 * Vatn
 * Yoshino
 * Odette
 * Beatriz
 * Caroline
 * Cleopatra
 * Vita
 * White Baby
 * Annette
 * Lydia
 * Anna Wiese
 * Jin
 * Veronica
 * Navy
 * Percier
 * Aileen
 * Nova
 * Elysion
 * Sisilia
 * Esther
 * Aswang
 * Destrade
 * Midori
 * Nowan
 * Shizuka
 * Rapid
 * Towa
 * Huracan
 * Aisha
 * Mira
 * Elena
 * Licht
 * Simon
 * Julia
 * Anastasia IV
 * Mello
 * Schwarz Metzelei
 * Chloe
 * Miharu
 * Izabella
 * Rita
 * Amber
 * Agalia
 * Ariadna
 * Perche
 * Nikita
 * Chunyan
 * Reika
 * Fedeln Metzelei
 * Grazia
 * Alma
 * Owen
 * Iron Fortress
 * Rillacle
 * Loretta
 * Ichima
 * Ami
 * Gemini Twins
 * Edda
 * Sho
 * Halle
 * Hemet (abbreviated as HMT)
 * Arsinoe
 * Molly
 * Dion
 * First Baby
 * M.D.P.S-Mz 3
 * Norah
 * Maria
 * Franke
 * Louise
 * Teresa
 * Emma
 * Beecham
 * Kelly
 * Ulala
 * Vicky
 * Damian
 * Gisee
 * Bonny
 * Achetto
 * Dolores
 * Teleko
 * Minerva
 * Romy
 * Lucy
 * Clario
 * Growth & Cline
 * Bloom Metzelei
 * MS-Heart

Combat Vehicles

 * SV-001 "Metal Slug"
 * SV-002 "Black Hound"
 * Sand Simon

Aircrafts

 * SVH-03 "Slug Copter"
 * SVF-07V "Slug Flyer"
 * Astro Slug "Rebel Astro"

Mechas

 * SVW-001 "Slug Gunner"
 * SVX-15D "Slugnoid"
 * LV Armor "Level Armor"

Naval Vessels

 * SVX-17M "Slug Mariner"
 * Middle-Son 1986
 * Middle-Son 1999

Support Vehicles

 * SVX-22UG "Drill Slug"
 * Motorcycle
 * M-15A MLRS "Bradley"
 * Metal Crow
 * Landseek
 * TIAF660

Animals

 * Super Vehicle "Camel"
 * Super Vehicle "Ostrich"
 * Super Vehicle "Elephant"
 * Super Vehicle "Donkey"

Trivia

 * The four first games of the series were produced and released by former SNK, and Metal Slug 4, by PLAYMORE and BrezzaSoft. Starting from Metal Slug 5, all the games were produced and released by SNK PLAYMORE.
 * This series and Samurai Shodown series are the only SNK original series to receive characters from other franchises, whether from the company itself or from other companies.