The Man Eaters are minor plant-based enemies found in Metal Slug 3 and Metal Slug 7.
Information
Born after a failed experiment resulting from Rebel forces releasing their genetically toxic chemicals on plants, these voracious vegetables became ambulatory and carnivorous, capable of swallowing a human in one bite. The Man Eater attacks by striking out by their long neck towards the player and attempting to eat them, resulting in the loss of a life.
Sometimes a Man Eater will transform into a tall plant with a bud that spits deadly spores. Direct contact with one of these spores turns the soldier into a mass of vines as they die. Otherwise, if it contacts solid ground, a new Man Eater will grow from it. The spores can be destroyed. In Metal Slug 7/XX, hitting a spore plays the regular death animation instead.
In Metal Slug Infinity, Man Eaters were also able to attack from afar by lunging their roots underground and sprouting them at enemy units.
Man Eaters are a common mutant enemy in Metal Slug: Awakening. They often appear in groups or near spore plants. They don't eat any character, but they play their swallowing animation as part of their attack cooldown.
Variants
Individual Plants
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Man Eater: The original incarnation, created by the Rebel Army. In Metal Slug Defense and Metal Slug Attack, they are considered part of the Independent Faction. They were part of the Another Force in Metal Slug Infinity. In the three aforementioned games, their bite attack do not insta-kill small enemy units and infantries. |
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Man Eater Arche: A Man Eater imbued with ancient energy and colored purple. Though they are incapable of reproducing as quickly compared to the original, they can take additional punishment, and upon their first "death" they'll transform into a tall plant and send out an indestructible seed which grows into another plant, although this one will die for good when killed a second time. It and the following variants appear in Metal Slug Attack. |
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Golden Man Eater: A Man Eater created by the Amadeus Syndicate and used by their Golden Hazmat Soldiers. They are much more durable than the original and Arche variants. However, due to being created in a lab and not being naturally found in the wild, they are incapable of reproducing, as the Hazmat soldier deploys them into battle with rolling balls. |
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Man Eater Mimic: A white Man Eater belonging to the Space Army. These Man Eaters do not reproduce and respawn but instead appear as flowers in the center of the front line and attack with multiple bites. |
Bloom Metzelei's Plants
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Individual Plants: These are grown on the ground by Bloom in sets spaced out from each other. They attack enemy units a few times before leaving the battlefield by burying themselves. |
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Hatted Plants: These are connected to Bloom's flowery sunhat. They attack by spitting poison gas. |
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Stemmed Plants: These grow on large thorns. They attack by biting on both sides then transform into explosive flowers. |
Gallery
Trivia
- Their name comes from the song "Maneater" by Hall & Oates.
- Man Eaters are based on the plant Audrey Jr. from the film Little Shop of Horrors. Man Eaters were originally also able to eat Rebel Soldiers. One of them would have transformed into a giant creature similar to the Biollante from the Godzilla series and chased the players while destroying the ruins.
- The spore death animation was intended to be much more animated and grotesque, however time constraints could not allow many revisions to the animations.[1]