Topic: Arcade SHMUP High Score Thread

@wasilewski Thanks man. I couldn't leave it lol, I only just twigged how the multiplier was working after the cut off hahaha (I have my blonde moments lol)

@OorWullie We shall see! I've made it sticky for now; however, most sticky threads are usually the threads that get a lot of comments anyway, or to make threads like the Recommendations thread a bit more visible.

If it doesn't 'stick', we can always undo it.

@Octane Nice one pal, cheers. I've put a note at the bottom of the last post saying not to post there and with links to where they can. I'll copy that note and add it to each of my weekly posts so that's it's clear. This will hopefully bring some new recruits on board

@GrailUK jeez mate that's an insane score! High five!

@RetroGamerAndrew There is a ye olde English expression. 'After the lord mayor's parade comes the manure cart.' (To put it politely!) I just don't find Metal Slug as playable as something like Contra. So, I doubt you will see me on the leader board lol (but I am trying hahah). I play for fun. A good score is just a bonus

Still short of 300k, meh

Can't get the scoring system down, and what's with the teddy bears?!

@DashKappei A good amount of your points will come from the end of stage bonus, you get the most by freeing all of the prisoners (including the hidden ones) and have the Metal Slug tank in operable condition when the final shot on the boss lands. For example, the max end of stage bonus for stage 1 is 120,000 (10 prisoners = 10,000, 10,000 for the Metal Slug, and the game adds 100,000 if those conditions are met). And the bonus gets higher with later stages. The next way is with these random items that appear throughout the stage (a fish, a medal, teddy bear, can of rations, etc.). The teddy bear is usually worth the most, but its value varies from either 5,000 points or 50,000 points. I'm not sure what triggers it. Example, if you get the teddy bear from the crate after the helicopter in stage 1, it will never be more than 5,000 points. If you pick up the teddy bear under the electric poles near the beginning of stage 2, it can be either 5,000 or 50,000. And sometimes there are just fixed point bonuses. Like the first item on the stone bridge on stage 2 which is either a frog, fish, etc., which gets blown up promptly by the scuba soldier if you don't get to it in time. That item is always worth 50,000 points. But the secondary item, under the steps of the stone bridge, which can only be reached after the scuba soldier blows a hole in the bridge, can be a random point drop. (Those pictures I posted earlier illustrates its location). Lastly, shooting soldiers is worth 100 points, knifing them is 300 points.

I'm pretty sure most of us are convinced that there's ways to manipulate these item drops so they can be worth more points. But a lot of this is guesswork. Maybe it is random, who knows? But we'll sure keep on trying these superstitious actions (killing less soldiers, killing more soldiers, speeding through areas, jumping from certain spots, and so on) in hopes of finding something that works, lol.

@masterLeon thanks for the great post mate although now I feel a bit guilty you wrote all that because I should've clarified that I meant specifically the triggers for the teddy bears and that besides meeleing for maximum points and going pistol against tanks and such (again to achieve the best score), I didn't really notice much hinting at a deep scoring system in the 20 years I've been playing the game lol (owned the MVS cart for a few years too, wish I still had). To get the bonus (+ the Slug obviously) you need to rescue at least 10 prisoners and I can't finish the 2nd stage on time to get that sweet second bonus.
Sitting at around 300k points, I think I can reach 350k but unless we crack how to get the teddy bears each time I don't think I can go far beyond 350/370k...
I found a lot of great obscure resources online but nothing about how to trigger those toys (with microfilm inside! lol) each time

There seems to be a degree of randomness in items drop as someone already noticed. In level 1, the item after the helicopter can be either a teddy bear (5K) or medal (0.5K) and I'm guessing it's all about the distance between you and the crate when you shoot it (but I haven't figured out what's the optimal position). Then again in the bridge after the paratroopers in level 2, the second item can be worth 0.1 to 50K and again, I don't know if this can be exploited somehow. Then another random event that happened to me just once: a politician instead of the doll under the tesla-things just before paratroopers. It's worth a whopping 64K. Needless to say, I don't know if there's something specific making him appear.
But other than that I think it's all about speed, SHEER SPEED. An optimal run would end just seconds after beating the second boss and getting the completion bonus - of course, without dying and/or losing the Slug, ça va sans dire ... Which by now seems near to impossible to me. But let's try and see

Don't despair some of us are still trying to place on the Top 100, HA! HA! HA! ☺️

My first score was a piddly 50,000 odd, lol! Putting me out in the high 1,000 places on the Leaderboards. I'm now up to like 500th or something. As much as I love the game to play, chasing a high-score on METAL SLUG is going to be a 'Mental Slog' 😉

@DashKappei @RetroGamerAndrew @Lroy Yup, you gotta go fast and cut corners as much as possible yet still make the time to go for certain bonuses. You might even want to skip the 2nd helicopter in stage 1 (blow up the structure, instead) just to cut off some time. Jumping like a bunny through most of stage 1 and let's me finish it, by fade to black, in 1:40 with 150,000-165,000 points.

I ended up getting 447,980 with a literal second to spare at the 2nd stage bonus tally. I messed up missing some grenades and I had to shoot the boss down with the Slug's vulcan. Also, I didn't get a 2nd stuffed teddy/bunny at the bridge. I noticed on stage 2 that it they can be either a bunny or a teddy, but they still score the same.

@RetroGamerAndrew " Then another random event that happened to me just once: a politician instead of the doll under the tesla-things just before paratroopers. It's worth a whopping 64K. Needless to say, I don't know if there's something specific making him appear."

Interesting, I've seen him a couple times. Wish I knew how to trigger him, as well.

I'm slowly crawling up my placing. Score of 174, 170 gets me up to 250th on the Leaderboards, lol!

One question, how do I jump out of the Metal Slug tank? I'm struggling to keep it intact and leave it long enough to touch the prisoner walking about ontop of the wooden structure at the end of level 1 during the end boss fight.

@Lroy press down and jump to exit the slug: you can perform this trick to reach seemingly unaccessible platforms, since you jump higher than normal this way

@RetroGamerAndrew Thank you.

EDIT: To help those like me, bringing up the rear. Here is a video showing you how to get all the prisoners (inc. the hidden ones) and the slug intact bonus in METAL SLUG level 1: https://youtu.be/0XU5pW0CP_k

Here's a video of someone doing a 'no miss' run of METAL SLUG level 2, including the hidden prisoners: https://youtu.be/1lAgBYeFjIw

Had no idea, so much of the scenery is destructible.

Thought it might be of some use to folks albeit if it isn't a speed run. @masterleon noticed you're up to 12th on the leaderboards. Presumably we should aim to skip some of the actions this player does. E.g. Sinking both ships mid-way point etc?

@Lroy Good job, keep making progress!

Yes, you can skip shooting some of the scenery, though the clock in the beginning of stage 2 is worth a few hundred and only takes 1 shot, IIRC. You can't skip the boats, but you can proceed right after making the 3rd one vertical. However, you want that shotgun for the midboss because it's the fastest way to kill it (right before the 1st cannonball is about to hit me then bam, it dies and the cannonballs are cleared from the screen).

Here are some Metal Slug high scoring Caravan videos:

This guy seems to be number one...

I'm at 176K at the end of stage 1. I'm not ready for stage 2 yet coz I think it can be much better and faster. Hopefully by Wednesday lol. Now, regarding the toys. Take that crate after the first helicopter, from my playing around and restarting, I am petty confident in saying if ya shoot it whilst your boots are in mid air, as it comes on to the screen, then you get a toy. If you shoot it casually while standing, or knife it running past it's a medal. (I could be wrong, but I don't recall an instance of being annoyed with it.)