The enemy chaser variant has a shield that must be destroyed before the vehicle can be destroyed. The vehicle can take three direct hits before it is destroyed. The vehicle can run over infantry and perform a suicide attack, with the driver jumping clear and the tank ramming into and exploding upon the target. The grenades are independent of the cannon's ammo system. Crouching opens a hatch on the top of the tank through which grenades can be thrown. The tank is armed with one cannon and twin vulcan cannons.

It is a small, cartoonish silver-gray tank (SV is short for 'Super Vehicle'). The SV-001 or Metal Slug is the main vehicle of the Metal Slug franchise. A new system was implemented with Metal Slug 6 allowing players to carry two larger weapons and switch between them as well as the default pistol. Similarly, when the ammo runs out, the player reverts to using the handgun. The player can only carry one weapon at the time, when a new weapon is found it replaces the old one. The player starts with only a simple pistol, as the game progresses the player picks up new weapons. This leads to the ability for the player to run in and use melee attacks to take down a number of troops, and the ability to quickly defeat enemies that can take plenty of damage like the mummies in Metal Slug 2. The player's melee attack is also much stronger than most shots.

In this series, however, contact results in the opportunity to perform a melee attack and the opportunity for the enemy to perform a melee attack of his own if he has one. In most run and guns, contact with an enemy leads to annihilation. The gameplay of the series is characteristic of run and gun games: large numbers of enemies and a player character with extremely powerful weapons.

Metal slug 6 all melee