Metal Slug 3 is an all time classic run ‘n’ gun game and SNK threw a lot into the mix with zombies, aliens, and submachine gun-wielding orangutans. This all was pretty wacky, but as it turns out, the game could have perhaps been even zany as former SNK and Nazca Corporation developer Akio recently took to to social media and shared details of some of the other “nonsensical” ideas that never made it into the game, posting a video earlier today on Twitter/X, showing some rough sketches of the design ideas, along with a long statement in Japanese that provided some more context about what he had planned.
Some of the ideas included bizarre concepts including one that Akio described as a gimmick that would have seen Marco playing football with Morden’s army, kicking a ball into a mechanism to lower the draw bridge to Morden’s castle. Akio described it as “silly”, but noted that it might have made for an interesting mechanic in the finished game, especially if the developers had really leaned into the ridiculousness of it such as by having some of the enemies take on referee outfits.
Akio also outlined a bunch of other strange ideas, such as a door that could only be opened with a pig that precisely fit the dimensions of the lock, and a James Bond-esque ski-chase in the SV-001 that would have culminated in a large ramp that led directly into an aerial battle. When looking back at this idea, Akio noted that he believes it would have been interesting to have equipped the tank with a 360-degree Vulcan cannon and to have tried to do something similar to the Konami arcade game Time Pilot with how this played out on screen.
Other ideas that Akio outlined included concepts for a submerged city, a mini-game where players must search through a crate of fake keys to find the right one to unlock the path forward, and a bomb disposal mechanic that he noted was birthed out of his love of bomb-defusal scenes in old movies.
【『METAL SLUG3』未公開アイデア、その１】
『METAL SLUG3』を開発中、時間がなくて実装出来なかったアイデアのラフ画が出てきました。当時はこんなナンセンスなことばかり考えていたんだなと、ニヤニヤしてしまいます。
①… pic.twitter.com/a3sonaP3KL— akio (@akio_1963) March 6, 2025
