Metal Slug - Super Devil Mode?

[privateye]

Does anyone know if the Saturn version of Metal Slug has Super Devil Mode? Right now I am stuck on 990 points in Combat School, having completed both Pinpoint Mode and Survival Mode, and in order to unlock this mode you need 1000 points. This mode is shown in the video below (albeit of the PS1 version) and my times for Pinpoint Mode are all faster than those shown at the 2:05 mark, so I know that my individual level times are quick enough.



I had a thought that maybe this mode is exclusive to the PS1 and Neo Geo CD versions. However, when I attained my current Combat School rank I noticed that there was one last blank spot at the top of the list, which would seem to indicate that this mode is also in the Saturn version.

[zyrobs]

I'm pretty sure I maxed out the combat school for the NGCD version and that one didn't have it, and the Saturn version is iirc closer to that. The PS1 releases had these oddball extra modes and I suppose that's one of them.

I don't know if the Saturn version has it or not but I think it's unlikely.

[sych]

Aren't there two versions of Metal Slug for the Saturn? I'm pretty sure I read there was an earlier version which had some bugs and then they re-released it to fix all the bugs. Maybe Devil mode is on the re-release?

[privateye]

May 22, 2018 20:35:30 GMT zyrobs said:

I'm pretty sure I maxed out the combat school for the NGCD version and that one didn't have it, and the Saturn version is iirc closer to that. The PS1 releases had these oddball extra modes and I suppose that's one of them.

I don't know if the Saturn version has it or not but I think it's unlikely.

Super Devil mode is also in the Neo Geo CD version, as confirmed here:

May 22, 2018 21:07:07 GMT sych said:

Aren't there two versions of Metal Slug for the Saturn? I'm pretty sure I read there was an earlier version which had some bugs and then they re-released it to fix all the bugs. Maybe Devil mode is on the re-release?

My version of Metal Slug is v1.005, which is the bugfix revision.

[sych]

Not sure what the serial number revision is, I just remember a few years ago a few members were experiencing problems with the game that some people weren't and when I researched into it, I learnt there were two different versions. Not sure if there is a devil mode on the second version though.

[privateye]

Like I said, my copy of the game is the second release which merely contained fixes for minor bugs that were present in the initial release. No actual content was added to the second release, so if Super Devil mode is indeed present in the Saturn version then it will be in both v1.002 and v1.005.

[zyrobs]

Oh it's there on the NGCD port? Interesting. I might dust off my copy to check this.

[zyrobs]

Well the manual says that the max score is 1000, but it gives the highest rank as the general of the army, the same as what the game displays. I'm currently stuck at 899 pts, the survival is harder than I expected due to the laggy controls.

Note that when you enter combat school (you select the option for it in the main menu), at the beginning, you can press Start to change the music and chat a little with Sophia. There are a couple of questions there you can answer with yes/no. Maybe answering those right will give you the missing score?

[privateye]

General of the Army is the second highest rank. At first it appears to be the highest rank, but notice that there is a blank spot above it. Once you hit 1000 points, this blank spot is revealed as the rank of Super Devil and its respective mode is unlocked (well, it's not a separate mode as such, it simply gives you a super powered weapon for Survival mode). Look at the beginning of this video to see what I mean:



I did have a thought that perhaps attaining Super Devil rank is dependant on answering Sophia's questions correctly, but with the text being in Japanese I would basically have to guess/try every possible combination of answering yes or no to her questions. I might give it a try some time if I'm bored.

EDIT: I went ahead and answered both of Sophia's questions with the four possible combinations of yes/no, and no points were gained.

[zyrobs]

Check your pin-point results, do all of them have a star and a little guy next to them? It looks like speed is not the only thing that matters, you get the most points if you beat pinpoint without losing a life. Doing that gave me exactly 10 points plus, so it might be what you are missing.

I'm still stuck with 931, the last mission keeps screwing me over.

[privateye]

Yep, all of my Pinpoint results have the star and little guy icons, and so does my Survival mode result.

[privateye]

A patch has been released which finally makes it possible to attain "Super Devil" rank and play Survival Mode with new colours (green skin for Marco, purple skin for Tarma) and an ultra-powerful pistol that shoots explosive shells!:

Patch download link: www.romhacking.net/hacks/7139/

[captainkael]

So was it just not attainable originally? What was the issue?

[privateye]

Sept 13, 2022 16:18:25 GMT captainkael said:

So was it just not attainable originally? What was the issue?

The vanilla versions of the game (v1.002 and v1.005) have a bug where the highest attainable rank is "General of the Army" which equates to 990 points, 10 points shy of the 1000 max point total needed for "Super Devil".

[zyrobs]

The patch seems pretty small, I'll have to check what it does, if the change is small enough then it may be possible to make an Action Replay code for it for those who use original discs.