Metal Slug 2006 - Slug Gunner Showcase

By far the best feature of Metal Slug 3D is its Slug customisation features, which allow you to outfit your otherwise familiar Metal Slug with better firepower, beefed up defences, speedier caterpillars, or, heck, even fly for a short while if you're so inclined.

Hidden amongst the adequate list of parts are "Gunner" parts: namely, "Gunner Core", "Gunner Legs", "Gunner Arms", and "Gunner Cannon". Each serves as an upgrade to your Slug on their own, but equip them all at once, and your Slug transforms into a bipedal mech and gets a new name: "Slug Gunner".

The Slug Gunner was introduced in 2003's Metal Slug 5. Hailed as the "Ultimate Evolution of Metal Slug", it took inspiration from the Rebel Army's Level Armour, which boasted abilities like melee strikes and hovering via jetpack, both of which would prominently feature in the Slug Gunner. In Metal Slug 5, in addition to being able to double jump with its jetpack and melee close range targets with its pile bunker, it was also capable of transforming between tank and walk modes on the fly, boasting speedier movement and granting the ability to mow down infantry while in tank mode, while walk mode allows the Slug Gunner to jump, turn around, and use its pile bunkers.

While it looks like a lot on paper, in practice the Slug Gunner in Metal Slug 5 was a rather unwieldy, slow, cumbersome, and all in all, an impractical Slug on the battlefield. In this game, the Slug Gunner has lost its ability to transform into a tank, though it compensates for being much faster on foot, and retaining its ability to mow over infantry for instant kills. The Gunner Cannon has a satisfying wide splash on impact, and travels much farther than the standard Slug's 127mm cannon (though it still has the same nasty habit of sailing right over close range targets). The pile bunker also does insane damage, capable of destroying enemy tanks in one two-hit combo on Normal difficulty, although pilots will need to note that the Pile Bunker's reloading animation cannot be cancelled in this game, and will happen automatically after a two-hit combo. Lastly, the Slug Gunner, even with no additional armour, has one more hit point than a standard Metal Slug, which of course can be further bolstered if you so choose with additional armour.

The Slug Gunner is a very immediately tantalising vehicle in MS3D/ MS2006, with much better mobility and overall firepower than the regular Metal Slug. Because its arms can rotate about all axes, the Slug Gunner is capable of shooting at a locked on target while moving from side to side, which the Metal Slug's regular Vulcan Cannons do not permit. This allows for the Slug Gunner to feasibly take on enemy helicopters in this game, unlike the tank based Metal Slug. However, because the Slug Gunner only has one arm for shooting, with the other arm taken up by the Pile Bunker, firepower from the machine gun is halved from the Metal Slug's twin 12.7mm Vulcan Cannons. Also, in spite of having a freaking jetpack, this thing doesn't even get any extra height in comparison to the Metal Slug's.

Because the bipedal Slug Gunner doesn't adopt tank controls like the other caterpillar based vehicles in the game, instead sharing the player character's on-foot controls, this makes the Slug Gunner an easier Slug for beginners to learn, albeit ironically as the Slug Gunner is a post-game unlock. Its weaponry is also a lot more flexible in range and application to those of the Metal Slug's, and in my opnion it simply suits the 3D playstyle of this game better, making the caterpillar based vehicles look and feel sluggish in comparison.