ACA NEOGEO: Metal Slug Achievement Guide & Road Map

ACA NEOGEO: Metal Slug
ACA NEOGEO: Metal Slug Achievement Guide

Overview:
- Estimated achievement difficulty: 1/10 [Achievement Difficulty Rating]
- Offline: 12 [1000]
- Approximate amount of time to 1000: 1-2 Hours [Estimated Time to 100%]
- Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 3
- Missable achievements: None
- Does difficulty affect achievements: No
- Unobtainable/glitched achievements: None [See Note*]
- Extra equipment needed: None

*All ACA games have a tendency to not unlock random achievements. If this happens, just hard reset your Xbox and attempt again and it should unlock

Introduction:
Metal Slug was released on NEOGEO back in 1996 by SNK, and has been ported directly to the Xbox One by our new best friends over at the bizarrely named Hamster Corporation. As with most of the other games so far released in the ACA series, this side scrolling shmup is a pretty fast completion, requiring little skill to finish. You only need to play each game mode once, but will most likely may take few more tries.

Step 1 - Original Mode
Start up in original mode, and change the difficulty to 1 and change players as high as you feel you may need. Run through the levels, killing everything you see and rescuing as many POWs as you can (you have to shoot them free then touch them with your guy to rescue the), picking up the score related achievements on the way. Once you have them, let yourself run out of lives and unlock the two high score achievements. 5 achievements for 420.

Step 2 - Hi-Score Mode
Hi-score mode is tougher, as you have to play on difficulty level 4, and only have two lives. However, if you can finish the level without dying and rescue all the POWs, you can get all the related achievements on the first level. Make sure you get the four hidden POWs near the end of the level (see "HI-SCORE 150,000 points"). Once you have the score related achievements, let yourself get beat and upload your score for the related achievement. 4 achievements for 340.

Step 3 - Caravan Mode
Rinse and repeat what you did in step 3, this time in Caravan mode. As well as not being able to change the difficulty, you have only 5 minutes to get the high scores. However, this should be plenty of time in this game. Once you have the score related achievements, you can simply quit out. 3 achievements for 240

Conclusion:
Metal Slug is a classic, and is just as fun to play as it always was. If you want the completion fast, it doesn't take long to learn the first level. If you don't mind the price point for not much bang for your buck, and appreciate an easy 1000, then this game comes highly recommended!

[XBA would like to thank Corrupt. for this Roadmap]

Record score

80
The score has been posted to the online rankings.
Play the game on Original mode, with any settings, and set a high score. When you get to the game over screen, as long as you get on the high score board, you will get this. The lowest score is really low, you probably get this even if you only kill the first few enemies. The game will ask you if you want to upload your high score. Press and your achievement will pop.
Mark high score

80
High score has been updated.
(1)
Play the game on any mode, with any settings, and set a high score. When you get to the game over screen, as long as you get on the high score board, you will get this. The lowest score is really low, you probably have to kill the first few enemies.
Score 100,000 points

80
The score won 100,000 points.
(1)
See "The score won 300,000 points".
Score 200,000 points

80
The score won 200,000 points.
(1)
See "The score won 300,000 points".
Score 300,000 points

80
The score won 300,000 points.
(1)
Play through on Original mode, changing the settings with , changing the difficulty down to 1 and giving yourself as many lives as you feel necessary. 20-30 lives will probably be enough, as you probably want to get to the game over screen for the scoreboard achievements, and don't want to sit there waiting for ages until you lose all your lives!

You get points for killing enemies and for rescuing POWs (to rescue the POWs, shoot them free then touch them with your guy). You should get all the points you need by the end of the second or third level.
HI SCORE Player

80
The score has been posted to the online rankings in the "HI SCORE MODE".
Play the game on Hi-Score mode, with any settings, and set a high score. When you get to the game over screen, as long as you get on the high score board, you will get this. The lowest score is really low, you probably only have to kill the first few enemies. The game will ask you if you want to upload your high score. Press and your achievement will pop.
HI SCORE MODE 50,000 points

80
HI SCORE MODE 50,000 points.
See "HI SCORE MODE 150,000 points".
HI SCORE MODE 100,000 points

80
HI SCORE MODE 100,000 points.
See "HI SCORE MODE 150,000 points".
HI SCORE MODE 150,000 points

100
HI SCORE MODE 150,000 points.
Hi-Score mode starts you on level 4 difficulty and with 3 lives. Luckily, you can get all the points you need by completing the first level without dying, while rescuing all of the POWs. This will most likely take a you a few attempts, as it only takes one stray bullet to kill you, but you are so overpowered that you will kill most enemies (apart from the mid-level and end boss) before they get a shot off. Most of the POWs are in plain sight, so shoot them free and touch them with your guy to rescue them.
There are four hidden POWS in the level, make sure you get them too! There is an incline with a waterfall on the top where you get attacked by two tanks. Take them out and then shoot vertically up the last two water streams, and two POWs will fall out of each of them. The only other one that may give you an issue is the very last one. The best way to get him is to attack the boss a bunch of times before deliberately getting your tank hit by the boss, so you can jump out, head up the platforms and tag him.
If you got all the POWs and didn't die, you will get up to 165k for the single level.

*Note: If the 100k one doesn't pop for you (as you keep on finishing the level after bonuses at over 150k), try missing a few regular enemies, and waiting before moving on to the end boss. This will sacrifice some points so you don't overshoot.
CARAVAN MODE 50,000 points

80
CARAVAN MODE 50,000 points.
See "CARAVAN MODE 150,000 points".
CARAVAN MODE 100,000 points

80
CARAVAN MODE 100,000 points.
See "CARAVAN MODE 150,000 points".
CARAVAN MODE 150,000 points

100
CARAVAN MODE 150,000 points.
Caravan mode starts you on level 4 difficulty and with 3 lives; this time with a 5 minute limit. Luckily, you can get all the points you need by completing the first level without dying, while rescuing all of the POWs. This will most likely take a you a few attempts, as it only takes one stray bullet to kill you, but you are so overpowered that you will kill most enemies (apart from the mid-level and end boss) before they get a shot off. Most of the POWs are in plain sight, so shoot them free and touch them with your guy to rescue them.

There are four hidden POWS in the level, make sure you get them too! There is an incline with a waterfall on the top where you get attacked by two tanks. Take them out and then shoot vertically up the last two water streams, and two POWs will fall out of each of them. The only other one that may give you an issue is the very last one. The best way to get him is to attack the boss a bunch of times before deliberately getting your tank hit by the boss, so you can jump out, head up the platforms and tag him.
If you got all the POWs and didn't die, you will get up to 165k for the single level.

*Note: If the 100k one doesn't pop for you (as you keep on finishing the level after bonuses at over 150k), try missing a few regular enemies, and waiting before moving on to the end boss. This will sacrifice some points so you don't overshoot.