Unused Graphics

Metal Slug X is bursting with unused sprites, both unique and leftovers. Believe it or not, some of those leftovers are very interesting indeed!

Source: 44116 (Eri), 45400 (Fio)

Still unused, but now the ladies have their proper legwear.

source: 65544

Left and right variants of the switch boxes. Likely made for future-proofing, as they're not used in this game.

source: 130060

Ivo unearthed these alternate vehicle indicators. Seems like they had concerns about telling players to get inside a camel.

source: 148647 (Eri), 154681 (Fio)

Buried within Fio and Eri's sprites, you might be asking yourself, what's this all about?

Why, it's to match Marco and Tarma's "trying not to get swallowed by a giant fucking fish" animations from the first Metal Slug! The feet and hand positions match perfectly. Unless the game were to give the fish an encore or revisit that stage, why would they make these...?

source: 193744

A dirt mine, the same kind seen in that early footage from the first Metal Slug.

source: 253766

Ripped by Ivo: Undergarments on a washing line with two animations each, one for hanging untouched and another as if they're being weighed down. Read on...!

Source: 253919

This quirky little guy was found by Jereminion and ripped by Ivo; it seems he was made in made for the unused rooftop area, likely as an NPC who'd berate the players but cower at the sight of violence.

source: 254029

Found right after that guy is some miscellaneous household junk, followed by railings, a ladder and a box (possibly unrelated). Big ups to Ivo for finding this.
Ivo's got a good theory for how it'd play out: the stage would require you to jump across the clothes on the washing lines, either as platforms or as springs, to cross the gaps. The open window at the end would have the junk flung out of it, followed by the man shouting at the players, after which you'd jump off the right side of the screen back to where you came from. He also made a nifty little Flash animation to give a rough idea of all that in motion.

The TV (or a new sprite similar to it) would later be edited for an attack from Mission 3's boss in Metal Slug 6, and repurposed as menu buttons in Metal Slug Attack.

Source: 260529

Zounds! An animation of a Rebel soldier being sliced in half vertically! Ivo didn't believe me when I told him about it, but when I showed him the tiles fromMSX, his exact words were "Holy shit man I thought you were mistaken about the cutting in half thing but wow!!" And so he pieced it together, animated it, got the right colours, and sent it over. He's a trooper.
So, here it is. A soldier being sliced vertically. I've no idea what this would've been used for.

Miscellaneous leftovers. No doubt incomplete.

As evidenced by the Missing Areas page, Metal Slug X's development wasn't just to patch up 2's faults - it was to get a headstart on Metal Slug 3! A surprising amount of graphics are left over, and a majority of them with near-complete code, judging from what's seen in the test stages.