Unused Graphics

As like all of the Metal Slug games, Metal Slug 5 has tons of unused sprites, but these are all easier to see, what with the sprite viewers built into the game. To see these, use the level select to go to areas 3: D T_5 and 3: E T_6; T_5 shows all of the sprites’ frames, but T_6 shows them animated, and has more than T_5.

Thanks to the fact that the game has it’s own built-in sprite viewer, the palettes are actually correct here!

And yeah, believing there's genuine organisation to the layout here is blasphemy.

| players | enemies/other | Slugs, vehicles and robots | items | bosses | backgrounds | leftovers |

Players

This would've been used for when the characters were fat, wielding the Dual Machine Guns, and died. Instead, in the game they just make the character drop their weapon.

This perpetually-unused sprite was updated for the dual machine gun.

The fat character walking and retrieving the pistol. There's no animation for retrieving it while standing, strangely, and in gameplay they always immediately revert to the pistol with no extra movement.

An unused looking up animation given the dual machine gun treatment.

Cute sneaking animations, most likely used for a movie scene, considering there aren't any versions for the Heavy Machine Gun and Dual Machine Gun. Due to complications in animating, I made them into sprite sheets. Click the character for the sheet you want.

It seems the graphics artists wised up and realised that the animations they were editing were unused - these animations for Marco and Tarma (no Eri and Fio) don't animate fully.

Reviving underwater. The animation works properly in Metal Slug 3, but here you just reappear without any fanfare.

The legs of the characters running along the ground during the jetpack segment of MS3; there's no ground to run on, so these go unused. V-King brought it to my attention.

Eri has Fio's close-range attacks here. I think there are frames missing, but it's pretty wacky how they're all of the Dual Machine Gun, meaning they specifically made these for the game. Also what looks like unfinished colouring on a few frames.

I thought this was unused, but Gabriel informed me that it's actually used. That's either laziness or just plain stupidity, both on my part and Playmore's.

Two frames of Fio's MS2-exclusive stabbed-with-sword animation. Nobody else has any remnants of this animation but Fio.

Enemies/other

GLEN ACHILLES!!!
Just seeing this guy makes me pumped!

He's an unused prisoner, who once released from his ropes, acts like Hyakutaro by staying behind you and firing... exploding machine guns. The problem is he always tries to cover your back, so if you're turning around constantly, he'll just run around like a headless chicken. He also doesn't recognise enemies and destroyable objects like Hyakutaro does, and combined with his gun's short range, along with how he likes to abandon you randomly, he's fairly useless. They would've had to have increased his AI by a lot before he could be a useful ally in the final game, but thanks to the game being rushed out, they just left the poor guy as an unused character.

What's up with the name, you ask? Well I rescued him, warped to a boss and finished the stage, and his name showed up as "[rank] Achilles". So I put a Glen in there and now everyone treats it as official even though it's just blatant fanon.

So yeah, Glen's useless and unused except in an unused area (3: 9 T_1), but he's awesome. He also appears in a promotional poster for the game, which is cool.

This tiny little guy appears in the hidden area, 3:9, and serves little purpose: He comes in from the left side of the screen, speeds off the right, then comes back in as ...

... a regular sized boat man. Interestingly, this one always stays in front of you, firing missiles back at you; unlike the boat guys in Mission 1, who just go about anywhere.

Apparently, it's impossible to get the sniper to die while lying down. Domino said it was possible, but I've never been able to do it myself. Galvatron achieved it in Metal Slug Anthology, but only when the sniper screwed up and began walking on air.

Some injured bloke hobbling along. Edit from Metal Slug 3.

The natives can't seem to throw their spears in any direction but forward, although there are sprites that are evidence they were more flexible in spear throwing. This was brought into Metal Slug Advance, with their outfits changed to fit, of course.

Considering the Flame Shot is unused, you can't see the enemies burn without complicated needs, like destroying them on their bikes, and such. But of course, if you use the Flame Shot, their reactions are no different from the other games so good times.

The masked soldier driving the motor bike. He has all the animations of the regular gas mask biker, but I've yet to see him in the actual game.

A log bridge that is stationary, wobbling, and destroyed. There's also a longer one, not pictured.

Rumi Aikawa in a jet! It even has an animation that remotely resembles it moving, and a big giant burst of flames out the back like an engine thing! Likely a movie scene element.

A crossed out pistol icon. Sounds like you were prevented from using weaponry in certain areas ala Metal Slug: 1st and 2nd Mission, perhaps.

This stupid kid would've appeared among the running guys in Mission 3 and 5.

Pink zombies! Weapon-less zombies of our heroes in a pink hue are among the graphics, with only getting up, standing, walking, and jumping animations. Who knows what these were for?

A big ol' jellyfish. Just like the other jellyfish, it has animations of it pulsating, and exploding like a stepped-on melon.

The art gallery menu. Very out of place!

Presumably an obstacle for the first mission. This appears as a background object in Metal Slug 3's fourth mission.

Slugs, vehicles and robots

But you can't complete a level with the TIAF660. No way man. If you warp anywhere else with it then you fall through the ground and explode.

Destroyed robots. In the game, when the robots are destroyed, they explode, with no remains. I suppose these were part of a movie scene or something.

A robot shooting via transforming it's hand! This animation is also used for the robot with the spiked faceplate, but I didn't bother animating that.

There's a single robot in the entire game that uses this animation, located in the last area before the boss in Mission 3 (3: 4 1_3). Near the end of the area, a group of three robots will come down, two will land on the platform above, while the third will land on your platform. That third one is the robot that uses this animation. He acts no different than the other robots, other than the fact that when he shoots, he uses this animation, and fires a Rocket Launcher missile that doesn't harm you. Enomosiki claimed that it does harm you, but I could never get it to be life-threatening.

One of those weird beetle robots... but it's sideways! The Spriterminator tells me these eventually saw use in Metal Slug Defense.

The Slug Mobile spinning. There's even animations of the characters inside spinning, but I've no idea what this would've been used for. Damaged animation? Slipping on oil?

It's worth pointing out how the design is slightly different. The view of the car if completely from the side, unlike the slightly-from-above perspective of the rest of it's sprites. It also appears that it's vulcan cannon was to be held at the back of the car on that little brown thing; if you ask me, that seems like a better position for it than on the side window. This design is also visible on it's unused vehicle icon.

And it going over a bump, as well as the characters reacting to the bump, not pictured. This would've been in the ending, but they couldn't even fit that minor detail in before rushing the game out.

Apparently the Slug Mobile shot it's rockets out of it's front, instead of through the wind screen.

This was found at Ignition Entertainment's Metal Slug 5 site. It uses the old design used in the spinning animation, with the vulcan cannon on the back, a straight side view, and such.

And the Slug Copter was there too, with an ugly white dome thing.

And the Slugnoid, now red.

The Utility Van has a bunch of unused animations; it normally turns and stops before opening its doors, but this suggests it would deploy soldiers on the go.

Wrecked while facing side-on. No matter what angle it's facing, its destroyed animation is always facing the camera.

Apparently the van was to have a mounted cannon on top! There's variants for mounted on the front or the back. It would seemingly only fire in diagonal arcs, and there's no animation for it changing direction. This can be seen in the unused object test 3:9, though it has no projectiles or hitbox programmed in. Cheers to KT-21 for beating me around the head for being oblivious to this for fourteen bloody years!

One of those missile shooters turning. I've tried, but apparently these things are incapable of turning around.

RFZ9000 found this animation of the air plane spinning. Not much to say about it, really.

And he also found it with a bomb, instead of it's usual missile.

And he's still at it. RFZ9000 found the helicopter using that gun from Morden's copter.

This enemy got its time to shine in Metal Slug Defense. Thanks @neokyiser for the info!

Items

Yep, they forgot to get this bad boy as an item you can use without access to unused areas and test stages. It works perfectly, it's just not in any stage you're meant to see.

The pulse Heavy Machine Gun cannot be found anywhere. DON'T EVEN TRY.

Ditto with the Flame Shot, except both the plain vanilla Flame Shot and big cheese Flame Shot are unused.

The bird licking itself. Dirty boy.

Some pork product.

A fire extinguisher.

A fish in a fishbowl. It has another animation where the bowl shatters and the fish limps about feebly. T'was such a good little fish.

A laughing skull with flashing eyes.

A scroll.

Message in a bottle.

Some flowers in a vase.

Cash in the attic.

A laptop with about four different animations. Quite a bit for something that's probably just a mere bonus item.

A cup of cola.

A comically huge sandwich. I find it hilarious how the bonus items in the Metal Slug games are always so large; for example, when Fio lays out a picnic, she eats a proportional sandwich. Then compare it to this monster, that's at least the height of her torso.

Again with the giant items. One of the fat characters could probably use this necklace as a belt or something.

Some kinda bottle rocket or firework or something. It has an additional animation where the fuse burns down and the rocket sprays flames underneath.

Looks like a fruit. A pear, perhaps? It shows up in Metal Slug 3 and probably others.

A strawberry that's actually slightly proportionate! If you believe it's a mutant strawberry.

A spinning screw. Likely a piece of debris from a destroyed piece of machinery.

We all scream for ice cream.

A giant burger that's bigger than our heroes' heads.

A similarly sized hot dog with animation that I cocked up.

A gear that's both stationary and moving. The spinning makes me believe it's debris, but it's bundled among the items, meaning it could be both. Perhaps.

A newspaper.

A clam.

That's a hell of a lot of popcorn.

Some crystal. It looks odd without a bottom.

A mobile phone.

Look to be mere background details meant for the final mission.

Bosses

The controller of the Mission 3 boss, punching. Enomosiki thought this was one of those ordinary gasmask soldiers, but it isn't, it's the controller of the Mission 3 boss, punching. Nobody believes me that it's the controller of the Mission 3 boss, punching. Do you believe me that it's the controller of the Mission 3 boss, punching? I hope you do.

An officer riding the Spider Slug! This would've been interesting, but it would've been awkward: The Spider Slug has vulcan cannons and a harpoon. Judging from the tanks in this, the computer can't use the vulcan cannons very well, and considering the harpoon has limited range, this would've been a fairly easy boss. It's still interesting to see how snugly he fits into the vehicle.

This sprite later saw use as a unit in Metal Slug Defense. Thanks to @neokyiser for the tip!

This is the second boss's death animation, while on fire. Interestingly, it is used in the game, all they did was change the colour of the fire and the smoke to green; why they did so is a different matter altogether.

Behold: The most prominent unused sprite in all the Metal Slug games.

Back in the day, everybody (well, everybody in NeoGeo related forums, and in Metal Slug 5 related topics) was talking about the stone turtle, claiming it was the true final boss, and was unlocked by some ridiculous task, like collecting all the rats, killing all the officers with none escaping, completing the game without using a continue, and so on. Unsurprisingly it was just a load of crap.

So, the stone turtle. In all its majesty. According to it's animations, it has a laser on it's stomach, a retractable head, and the rest is left to the imagination. What's interesting is that it has no animation of it in shambles, unlike all the other bosses in the game, nor has it any collision detection in the sprite viewer (. According to the concept art, it would have carried the final bosses on its back.

It finally became 'playable' in Metal Slug Defence as a unit, with a description making note of it being unused for so long. Big thanks to @neokyiser for this trivia!

And this is what the REAL final boss would've been, apparently: Sean Connery on a floating pillar. Nah. Probably that guy who took the mask and got zapped with lightning. Who knows where the mask is, though.

The tower is separated into pieces and there's plenty of animations related to it: the bulb on the bottom shoots a laser and directional arcs of lightning; the turquoise gem generating some sort of greyscale shockwave (helpfully showing how the tower is assembled and confirming it takes place on the same arena as the finished game's final boss); a large spinning stone tablet; small glowing projectiles, and an extra segment of the tower spinning.
The tower-rider only has two animations - looking forward and looking to the sides. There's graphics for a destroyed tower, but nothing else of him. One can only assume this boss prefaced the big demon thing, but any other details are fuzzy. This boss also lacks collision detection in the sprite viewer.

This boss later appeared as a unit in Metal Slug Attack. Thanks to @neokyiser for this factoid!

Backgrounds

Rarely discussed on this site, but even backdrops go unused or otherwise unseen!

source: 414159 ~ 416647

A good chunk of Mission 4's backdrop is never seen on-screen - in fact, it's only clearly seen in early footage! Cheers to Division 六 for this finding.

See Missing Areas for bits I've yet to find the graphics coordinates of, particularly 3:4, 5:2, and 5:5.

Leftovers

The exciting stuff! As always, it's an incomplete list.