The Metal Slug Game Boy Advance Port That Was Cancelled Over Cartridge Size
When SNK Playmore announced Game Boy Advance versions of its famous run-and-gun in 2005, the plan was for a faithful conversion of the original Metal Slug: Super Vehicle-001 that squeezed as many colours on screen as the hardware allowed. Atari was named as distributor, the release slipped from winter 2005 to September 2006 to mark the arcade game's tenth anniversary, and then it quietly vanished. In 2007 SNK's US site said the cancellation was down to the limited memory of the GBA cartridge.
At a glance
- Based on: Metal Slug: Super Vehicle-001, the first game in the series
- Platform: Game Boy Advance
- Status: cancelled; an early prototype was released in June 2020
- Genre: run and gun
- What sets it apart: an early look at a conversion that only ever existed as previews
What the prototype is
This is an early build, dumped from two developer flash cartridges by Endrift and shared by the preservation site Hidden Palace on 4 June 2020. One of the two cartridges produced a partly corrupt dump, though it appears identical to the working one. Already in this state it has a title screen, options, file selection and a soldier select screen, and stages can be completed instantly by pressing Select.
The series' brief GBA story
The official handheld entry in the series, Metal Slug Advance, did ship, while this port did not. Famitsu reported in October 2006 that this port and the planned versions of the sequels were scrapped.