Metal Slug X Hidden Items and Hostages Faq For the Arcade or NeoGeo Version 4 By: Mehdi Malekzandi 04.30.2002 Update notes: I got the game again and still have the skills to rack up the points. :D A couple things caught my attention and so I added them. Namely that sitting in the subway, when you're "big" and fat, slows down the trains. o_O --04.30.2002 It's been almost 8 months since I touched this faq. 11.09.1999. Back then I still owned a neogeo. Since then I've slowed down my gaming and concentrated more on my more important things. Oh, who am I kidding?! I miss my neo geo... At least the Arcade downtown has this game. --06.25.2000 Common tricks to earn points to slow way- *Don't collect hens/chickens until you are absolutely sick of waiting for their eggs to hatch or spoil. you'll get more points - the slow way... *When you enter a scene where soldiers flank you as helicopters spew bullets from above, just avoid the bullets and kill the soldiers for as long as you can bear. *Try never to use bullets on soldiers. Stick with close range violence. Loads more points. It helps to run with your gun pointed in the air, so you don't hurt the soldier until you want to. *Avoid power up weapons. They kill enemies too fast, and rob you of a few precious points. didn't want to earn points the slow way?! That's it. If you are patient, you too can earn over 10 gazzillion points in just the first stage (not sure if score will go that high...). In the sound test, the announcer says these two things which puzzle me: Mobile Satellite Thunder Cloud Grenade Could these be secret weapons? Well, maybe. There is a "super grenade" that I have only found in one level, that is level 5. But I have not found the "grenade." Perhaps these are just sound files that, like the secret rooms, are inaccessible without a debug mod. What do the debug switches do? 1-1 - view onscreen information 1-2 - pause mode 1-3 - PAL mode? 1-4 - 1st plane check (shoes the walkable ground) 1-5 - 2nd plane check 1-6 - view attack rectangle 1-7 - view body rectangle 1-8 - invincibility 2-1 - press D to destroy all onscreen enemies! 2-2 - display weird creature on screen 2-3 - unlimited grenades 2-4 - unlimited ammo 2-5 2-6 2-7 2-8 Note: With The Debug keys one is PAL mode, PAL mode what UK (ed. note: and everyone except NA and Japan) uses instead of NTSE. Why they created a PAL mode debug key is because there is a difference with fps in old PAL tv's which makes the screen roll. The refresh rate in the game is running faster then the tv's so of corse your gonna have problems. Mission 1 Total hostages I found : 13 -City in the Middle East- *As you drop in, run to left, shoot ground below sign for item. *After blowing up the three gun turrets on a building, move left to leftmost door and jump up and shoot down, a 30000 item will appear. Then move to the center door and shoot up, a bunch of items will pour out after a while. *When soldier and merchant are talking, shoot camel to release melons, take melons. *Shoot window directly above where the merchant was standing *Shoot next window over for more goodies. *When figting man on camel with sword and gun, better to shoot behind him to blow up wall (burning aliens fly out and take him with them) *After blowing open the truck, you see the slug and Rumi Aikawa. Let Rumi empty her bag a little before rescuing her, but don't let her get too far, or you won't get the rescue registered. *Blast open the last window above the Slug *After blowing open boss's flame thrower turret under it's belly, run to catch the hostages, as one of them tries to bolt off the right side of the screen. End of Mission 1 Mission 2 Total hostages I found : 14 -Outside Tomb- *Shoot sphinx's rightmost eye *Shoot ground below hostage under sphinx *Right at entrance to mine, there is a barrel of TNT. Above and over the ledge to the upper right are three hostages. Stand on extreme left of barrel and jump, while at apex of jump, lob a grenade over to the right. This will release a hostage. Repeat two more times for two more hostages. (Thanks to GKomatsu) -Inside 1st level of tomb- *After entering mine walk up to first miner, when her acknowledges you, he starts to dig faster, until he digs up a small point item. take item and shoot ground where he was digging to unearth an equally bad item. *Between first two sets of miners, there is a scaffolding that impairs your view slightly, you see it when you first enter the temple, with a red and white sign saying "4m". Shoot up that sign for a hostage. *walk up to third miner, when her acknowledges you, he starts to dig faster, until he digs up a small point item. take item and shoot ground where he was digging to unearth a 30000~50000 pt gem! *when you see a miner being attacked by the mummy, let the mummy turn him into a mummy, shoot them both for pts. More mummies will come, so... *after killing more mummies in same area as last, a hostage will drop over entrance to where the miner was being attacked, first go in entrance for a hostage. *As you walk up to first "mummy booth," a pharoah is in the background. Shoot his rightmost eye. -Inside 2nd area of tomb- *Walking in 2nd area inside tomb, you see Rumi Aikawa and bats that drop zombie juice, to the right is a egyptian looking eye on the wall, shoot it for a gem *Knife the copse of the explorer for a 50000 pt gem, then run before her dynamite explodes *When you see explorer with magnifying glass, dogs surround him. Let them make him a zombie so you can kill him and take his 30000 pt gem. *You will come to a ledge with a hostage, two dog statues and two mummies that drop from the ceiling, shot the nose of the dog on the left to make a coin bridge appear, moving on to the left you see some zombie smoke rising from the ground. *At the place with the zombie smoke rising from the ground, there is a treasure box. Timing is crucial, so that you can jump to the center of the two smokes, and shot the ground under the treasure box. Lots of gems will come out. Some valued at 30000 pts. Smoke follows a patter on outside, outside, inside (thanks to GKomatsu). *There are a series of ledges on the left side that you must jump up, from the second to last ledge you can make a long jump to the right, follow the ledge until you see three treasure chests. The first chest will have a zombie healing potion and the other two will have rare gems or golden bats (tks- ahye). Keep moving to rightmost edge of ledge and long jump onto statue of dog's head, and you will see a chest, shoot it to reveal a lamp. one of two things happen... Situation 1-- Two zombies will usually drop down, suspended by ropes, and a square of coins will appear in the air. Take the coins, but try to land back on original ledge. A genie will appear and transform into coins. Take them before they fall away. Situation 2-- only genie appears, and transforms into coins. No hanging zombies. *You should still be on top of dog's head as in last point. Shoot directly up about 8~10 times to make either a lamp or a zombie bowl fall on you. In either case, you should immediate jump to other side before item falls on you, as the lamp will only give 10 pts before turning into a genie, and the zombie juice will only make you into a zombie. *You will come to another eye on the wall. shoot it repeatedly for gems. *Shoot second torch right after eye on wall, A coin brige appears above *Shoot column to the left of torch, a bunch of coins will appear, but dissapear fast. Best technique for getting all coins before they dissapear again is to start on top of column, jump up and shoot down to trigger the coins, then jump quick to the ledge on the left, then jump back to top of pillar and run off right side. I did this and collected all coins. End of Mission 2 Mission 3 -Trains- *right before sun-bathing soldier, you see a railroad light pole. Shoot up the pole to release a hostage. *After killing sun-bathing soldier, keep knifing him for a small reward *Rear of first cargo bay holds lots of food. *Both ends of second cargo bay hold food. *Rear of third cargo bay holds food *Last cargo bay, filled with coal, has the stone bomb *Hostage inside control room of engine. *At the train were you jump "For the 50,000+ bonus" you can aim upward at the smoke stack of the train, keep firing and three hostages will fall upon you. The trick to it, is you shoot up at the smoke stack, from under it.. The bullets will sort of "STOP" on the spot that the smoke exits.. It doesnt go out the top of the screen.. (tks- grim walker) *Long jump from engine to ocillating train bed for 50000 pts *When V-tol drops down, shoot its wings/engines out first for 10000(first wing) + 50000 (second) *Against boss, take your time, Rumi Aikawa and at least three hostage will drop in. Win too fast, and you won't see them. *You can jump on th top of the boss during your fight End of Mission 3 Mission 4 -City in China(?)- *at the beginning of level 4, at the left there is a car, you got to jump ovet the car, the you got shoot up to get i medal over the air. After getting the medal, destroy the car to get a gun. (tks - zerav) *First hostage hidden in refridgerator on first truck in level. *Pretty much soot to death anything that has a roof. Food will come out. *When your running along, you get to a point were you fall a great distance.. *Off a ledge* And behind you is a concre block thats WAY to high to get past.. I cant remember.. But there may be a ledge JUST above you were you came off.. ANYWAY, shoot either forward into this block, or the ledge above you pehaps for AGES and a "DIET" will come out, and make you skinny again. Its before the "Silkworm" Jeep and Helecopter bit. (tks- Grim Walker) *After passing section of mission with missiles coming out of wells, shoot ground at every step for the possiblity of releasing fish. *You'll come by a tower filled with soldiers. kill them all and shoot above tower to release three hostages. *keep following third point of shooting ground, even at rightmost leg of tower you were at in point 4. *At boss, take time, as three hostages will drop after some extended periods of time. End of Mission 4 Mission 5 Total hostages I found : 19 -Town- *Right after the destroying the two tanks that drop from the parachutes, you'll see a street sign pointing right, shoot it at the center and to the left and right to release 3 hostages *Just before entering the subway in the second part of Mission 5, there is a tree, shoot up it *Right at entrance to subway (part two of mission 5) there is a hostage hidden at peak of the arch. -In Subway- *If you're fat and a train is coming, move to it's corner and sit. The train will have a harder time pushing you back if you're sitting on your fat ass. *In the subway, shoot the street light by the sign #6 for a hostage *Shoot light by #5 for hostage *Shoot light by #4 after train is destroyed, hostage appears *Shoot light by #3 for hostage *Shoot light by #2 for hostage *Shoot above and little to left of light by #1 for food *Shoot light by #0 for hostage -In sewer area- *After passing all the ceiling crawling alien creatures, there is a generic tall tank that drops balls. After destroying it, there is a hostage in the ground where it stood. End of Mission 5 Final Mission Totle hostages I found : 14 -Outside of base- *At start of level, shoot righmost sign, next to crate, for lots of food *After hostage that gives iron lizard, go up stairs and see sign that says "21," shoot it for hostage *Right efore the waving bridge, there is a sign poiting to the right. Shoot it for a hostage. *After killing the super soldier, a hostage will pop up in the center, but you can't get him until you move a little to the right. He's right in the center. -Inside of base- *After entering base, shoot little cockpits, hanging from ceiling, with people or aliens in them. *Inside base, after defeating all the aliens that come down from the elevating platforms, there is a 100~500 pt item in the air, next to the cockpit to the immediate right, outside of the screen's view. Jump to the rightmost platform where the aliens were and jump over to the ceiling cockpit to claim the item. *Right after leaving the submarine docking area(you see two ledges, and the red background ends) Shoot up to release a ton of food and a hostage. -Outside of base, at final battle- *Against final stage of boss (Mothership) you can get protection from shields that other soldiers hold up. Just get underneath shields and lasers won't damage. Except the really big one... End of Final Mission Find something that you think I missed? Look for me at www.neo-geo.com http://www.neo-geo.com/cgi-local/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=email&ToWhom=00001818 Special Thanks: Galen Komatsu He's been in the scene so long that I remember reading his faqs on compuserve way back before I could go to gamefaqs.com. He gave me hints on how to obtain the three elusive POWs in the beginning of Mission 2, and also told me about the Genie. SNK Making games to keep me from ever graduating - wait... I did graduate! NReduta I didn't know he had a faq for MSX when I started, but I constantly thought back to his faq for MS2, and how funny it was. He's just here for inspiration. John Schatz Giving some help with the temple scene in mentioning that there are items above each anubis head by the first genie lamp. Grim Walker stage 3 hostages, Hyakutaro in stage 1. Ras .inc PAL explanation ahye zerav@prodigy.net.mx