D.A.S. Universe

The D.A.S. Universe is a series of video games published by Irem from 1990 to 1994. Said games are developed by the people who later formed Nazca and subsequently create the Metal Slug series.

List of Games

• Air Duel (1990)
• Undercover Cops (1992)
• In The Hunt (1993)
• Gunforce II/Geostorm (1994)

Story

The games revolves around a post-apocalyptic Earth caused by D.A.S., the Dark Anarchy Society (Destruction and Satsujin in Japan), whom flooded the planet by melting the polar ice caps. The remaining human societies were able to recuperate by settling on the highest land points, but D.A.S. used the destruction to reign supreme. All four games each focus on the heroes stopping a subsection of D.A.S. from preventing further harm.

In The Hunt has the human societies secretly create a submarine to dive in D.A.S.'s heavily guarded waters, destroy every weapon in sight, and eliminate its main headquarters to restore worldwide peace. One ending, however, has the player become the new leader of D.A.S.

Although the series is complete, aspects of the D.A.S. Universe appear in later R-Type games. Examples include the Dark Anarchy Society currently in operation, the Granvia from In the Hunt as a playable ship, and Matt Gables from Undercover Cops listed as a top pilot.

Relation to Metal Slug

The Gunforce II enemy soldier from Mission 3 of Metal Slug: Super Vehicle-001 who is only seen when the foreground layer is removed.

Aside from an Easter egg cameo of a common soldier from Gunforce II, the Metal Slug series has little to no connection to the D.A.S. Universe. It does use various nods and character resemblances to previous games.

Visual, Audio and Gameplay

Visual

• The overall style of art, animation, and humor are transferred over. This is more noticeable for the first Metal Slug: Super Vehicle-001 as it uses rougher shading than later entries.
• The mix of natural and supernatural themes are present since Undercover Cops.
• The disintegration animation when slicing infantry is similar to the Moguralian enemies' death animation from Undercover Cops.
• The background of the boss fight against the Dragon Nosuke in Metal Slug 2/X is very similar to that of the boss of the first mission in Gunforce II, both sharing being fought on a train and against a devastated, fiery backdrop.
  • In fact the first mission of Gunforce II is very similar to that of the third mission of Metal Slug 2/X where the player must traverse on a speeding train while the background transitions as they progress near the end.

Audio

• Various enemy and character yells and screams are reused.
• "Marine Diver" is a combined and remixed version of Air Duel's third and tenth mission theme and Gunforce II's area music in missions two and three.
• "Living on the Deck" uses cues from Air Duel's second and ninth mission theme.

Gameplay

• One-hit deaths with the exception of Undercover Cops. Early development had the SV-001 be destroyed in one hit before giving it a health meter. The one-hit Slugs would resurface for the Pin Point Attack mode in Sophia and Meg's Combat School modes.
• Gunforce II has prisoners for the player to save. Unlike Metal Slug, they don't provide any items.
• Gunforce II also has various combat vehicles that players can ride.
• Undercover Cops wide variety of animal and food items used for restoring health appear in Metal Slug as point items.
• Undercover Cops has a person shout "You're Bad!" (sounding similar to the announcer from Metal Slug X) when the player surpasses the border milestone in single-player or preforms better than their allies in multiplayer. This is similar to the Metal Slug series where a player earns a "Great!" bonus if they rescue ten prisoners in single-player or one rescues the most prisoners in multiplayer.
• Multiple endings depending on the number of players present after the final boss is defeated. This system is only present in Metal Slug: Super Vehicle-001.
• Destructible environments are present, though Metal Slug: Super Vehicle-001 has the most use out of them all in the series.

Characters and Enemies

Undercover Cops

• Macba to the Madca enemies.
• The Clones to the "Black" clones. Concept art for the Clones refers to them as "Black Players" and has them in post-apocalyptic accessories and makeup similar to the enemies in Undercover Cops.

In the Hunt

• The Slug Mariner and Slug Sub to the game's general gameplay. The underwater section from Mission 1 of Metal Slug 3 takes cues from In the Hunt's Deep Dark Sea mission.
• The Rebel Walker to the common yellow colored enemy robot.
• The Kraken to the Sunken Town mission's main boss.

Gunforce II

• The unused characters Phil Gene and Michiko Nakajima in the "Tank-Only" Metal Slug concept resemble the main characters Max and Lei.
• The Rocket Divers to the first mission's boss pilot who throws a large missile.
• The Rebel Armor, Units, and Slug Armor to the brown robot enemies in Mission 2.
• The Elder Centipede to the main boss of Mission 4.
• The Landseek's AA turret in Metal Slug Defense is directly reused from this game.