Neo-Geo Forums

This is killing me. I just finished Metal Slug 2nd Mission over the weekend and attained the SD rank (Best Platformer ever for a handheld console!) and so I thought hey, I'd go ahead and work on the Metal Slug 1st Mission that I never finished. I'm at 22/23, which I actually have no idea what it stands for, but I had heard rumours before that the rank is contingent upon the score you obtain, so I went through Mission 0, careful not to pick up too much stuff, and even then I had a rank of 3/23 when I had a mere 4300 points. So I thought, hmmm, ok. Level Up in 1st mission doesn't seem contingent upon the number of hostages I rescue. So I worked very hard to play through each level, trying to grab the most number of points I could, probably exhausted every possible branch in the game and still only have 22/23, 1 short of SD rank. I need help! I don't know what to do anymore. Plus the medals that level me up don't disappear after I have picked them up once so I don't know which other medal I am missing should I come across one. The faq on Game Faq has not proved comprehensive, in fact even finished fewer levels than I have. How do I attain the last rank? If someone wants to work on a FAQ with me to complete the SD rank, I would appreciate it very much.