Metal Slug 5 (Neo Geo)/Unused Graphics
This is a sub-page of Metal Slug 5 (Neo Geo).
Contents
Players
Fat Players
Apparently the fat players are supposed to hold the dual machine guns when they died, instead of dropping them.
Enemies
Flame Shot and the Resulting Mess
The Flame Shot goes unused in this game for some strange reason, but it can be found in the unused stage 3:9 and is fully functional. Its Big counterpart does similarly work proper, although there is no way to pick one up without the use of modded ROMs.
Its absence also means that most of the burning death animations for the common enemies are rendered unused, save for the gas mask soldiers where it is used if you destroy their motorbikes.
Guerrillas
Guerillas riding their motorbike, with complete animations (due to having every proper animation attached to him), but sadly unused.
The last frame of the of this death animation is used as a decorative background sprite in the first mission, found alongside the Slug Gunner crate in Mission 1's lower route and during the Black Hound fight.
A Guerrilla shooting diagonally downwards. In-game they only shoot forward and very rarely diagonally upwards.
Extra animations for the Guerrillas getting off the vines from Mission 1 and lunging, unused due to their walking and jumping animation being used instead. An unnecessary conversion of the Rebel Soldier, who only use these sprites in the first game.
While there are Guerillas riding similar speedboats in the first mission, the main difference here is the behavior of this variant. The miniature graphics seems to suggest that they were to appear from the background before moving into the foreground similar to the Flying Tara formations.
Unlike the regular speedboat guerillas, this one would maintain distance ahead from the player while looking behind. This enemy is fully functional and can be found in 3:9 T_1.
Unlike the Rebel Army grunts they were based on, the Guerillas were meant to be shown to be a bit more varied in their animations instead of a simple sprite swap, as shown here. Unfortunately all of these were rendered unused due to the rushed state the game was in. The falling animation with the bazooka in particular would fit better during the Screamer boss fight should the player left them alive long enough for the Screamer to destroy the floor they were on.
The same can be said for the mortar men. Later used for Metal Slug Attack.
For some reason, Shielded Guerrillas will not play this animation of getting hit with a high-damage attack (i.e. splash damage from a Metal Slug cannon) and surviving, instead being replaced with the normal getting hit animation.
Special Forces
Unused animations of the Special Forces soldier descending from a rope slowly and kneeling. The latter is seen briefly in Mission 3, Stage 4.
Sniper
The sniper is never seen dying while lying down, as their death animation would default to their standing death ones, even when shot from below.
Cultists
Just like the guerillas, the cultists have more animations pertaining their movement as their jumping, hopping/falling, kneeling and stopping animations are present, but not fully utilized. The hopping/falling one is used, but the landing part of the animation is never played in full.
Commander
Alternate animation for the Screamer's Commander, the purpose of this animation is unknown but it's possible he'd summon a different wave of enemies.
Unused animations of a different Commander waiting and then giving orders. These would fit nicely if he was hanging around the refueling stations seen in Mission 2 and 3.
And apparently he was supposed to be fighting in the Augensterm as well!
If the player defeats the ShootingRay while the front cockpit is in view, the pilots will swing their flight sticks sideways in panic, but they are never seen pulling them down. It might be a remnants of an unused attack or an simple animation for when the boss reverses into the background.
Vehicles
Ptolemaic Tara with Bomb
Ptolemaic Tara carrying MS1-styled bombs. The ones that appear only use missiles.
Ptolemaic Di-Cokka
The PM Di-Cokka completely vaporizes when destroyed, and never leaving a wreck behind for the driver to bail out unlike in previous games.
Ptolemaic M-15A Bradley
The PM Bradley simply never turns around even the player is behind them. The fact that it uses homing missiles instead of dumb rockets might contribute on why this animation is unused.
Jet
An unknown character piloting a jet. Probably supposed to appear in Mission 2 to accompany the Shooting Ray.
APC
The APC has more sprites showing its being driven in various states of damage, and turning, and none of these were used.
It seemed like the APC was meant to deploy troops while on the move, and at one point the APC was to carry the guerillas as well instead of the special forces exclusively. The APC was also supposed to be armed with a cannon turret on its roof and it can be seen among the mess that is in 3:9 T_1 but it doesn't fire any projectiles there, lacking a hitbox around it and there's a visible gap between the turret base and the vehicle.
Bosses
Stone Turtle
The most well known unused asset known to Metal Slug players - the Stone Turtle. Based on the description of the warp to 5:8 in debug menu (5_T かめBoss (Turtle Boss)), the Stone Turtle were supposed to be fought there.
According to its animations, it can fire a huge laser from it stomach, showing it retract its head, moving aside a portion of its stone shell to fire off multiple missiles, and stomp on the player. The boss itself is massive in size, to the point that if it were to be fought proper, the top half of the turtle cannot be seen normally. The Stone Turtle lacks sprites of it being destroyed, unlike all the other bosses in the game (and that includes Plotemaios, see below), nor has it any collision detection in the sprite viewer.
The Stone Turtle would later make its functional debut in Metal Slug Attack, where the retractable head animation is depicted as a part of its death animation.
Ptolemaios
The greatest mystery of what happened to the Native after the first mission - Ptolemaios himself. His name and most other bosses in the game aren't confirmed until their debut in Metal Slug Attack years later.
The pillar he's on has multiple segments dedicated to attacks: the bottom bulb can fire off lightning and laser, the mid section can fire off a grayscale wave and spin to drop stone walls onto the player. The greyscale wave in particular is helpful in showing how the stone pillar is assembled and also has the background included in the animation - which matches up with the final stage's arena, suggesting he was to be the penultimate boss before the final fight.
Just like the Stone Turtle, he also lacks collision detection in the sprite viewer. Plotemaios would later appear Metal Slug Attack in multiple incarnations, finally putting some these unused animations to use.
Other Assets
Intro Background
This is actually used, but only a small part of the image is seen through the viewfinder animation.
