Metal Slug X (越南戰役X: 深入敵後) is a bootleg game for the Game Boy Color made by Sintax that was released in the 2000s, possibly around 2005.[1] It is loosely based on the SNK Metal Slug series. It is a hack of a previous Sintax game, Zook Hero Legend 3, that alters the graphics and makes major changes to the gameplay. Item drops from enemies are modified, the level select is removed (the whole game is essentially made into one long level), the ability to save progress is removed, and no weapons are acquired when a boss is defeated. The weapon select menu is also removed. However, weapons may be temporarily acquired via enemy drops. Another graphical hack of Zook Hero 3 named 新瘋狂阿給 泡泡堂 was released prior to this one, and it does not appear to have the same gameplay changes that Metal Slug X features.
Overview[]
In the game, you play only as Trevor Spacey from Metal Slug 4 through 9 linear levels. The gameplay is different from the official games as you can only shoot horizontally and you have the peculiar ability to roll around in a ball (similar to the morph ball from the Metroid series). Like the official games, you can take weapons and have a health bar similar to Metal Slug Advance. Some enemies are original though others come from various official games. The music is lifted from the Game Boy game Rockman World 2 (Mega Man 2 outside Japan) but plays at a much slower tempo.
Trivia[]
- The game is a hack of a previous Sintax release, Rock Hero Legend 3 (also referred to as Zook Hero 3 or Zook Hero Legend 3), which features a knock off of X from Mega Man X. This particular release also features a level select.
- Metal Slug X's ROM contains a lot of leftover graphical assets from Zook Hero 3, including an intro picture featuring Zook (which is an edited cutscene portrait of X from the first Mega Man Xtreme game), graphics for the boss select screen, and boss portraits and descriptions. The palettes for these graphics are also included in the ROM. The main menu and boss select screens from Zook Hero 3 can be re-enabled in Metal Slug X by modifying the game's code.
- The second to last boss appears to be X from Mega Man Xtreme.[2] The final boss is a giant wireframe head resembling Sigma from the Mega Man X series.
- Pressing down and select will cause the player to skip to the next screen. Doing this in Metal Slug X will allow the player to skip screens until they reach the end credits. In New Crazy Arcade this can be performed until the final screen of a level, after which the level will simply be exited. No weapon will be received for doing so and the level will not be marked as completed.
- Pressing jump and either horizontal direction on the D-pad at the same time will cause the jump input to be dropped, often to the player's peril. The jump input will still work if the player was already holding down a direction before pressing jump.
- Spikes will cause the player to lose a life even if the player has invulnerability frames.
- Pressing the fire button in mid air will stall the player's fall, however this is not normally noticeable in gameplay. Extremely rapid fire can cause a much more pronounced effect, which can be accomplished with a turbo button.