Metal Slug Tactics - tactical RPG with roguelike elements based on the classic arcade franchise

[Sweeper]

I love it when chicks narrate shit. I always imagine they're insanely hot.

This sounds like a teen though...

Yeah, I'm sure the company hired a teen to do their narration for them.
Fuckin' weirdo. Stop projecting your shit onto me dude.

 

[Vic]

they hired a midget to do it

 

[lukaszek]

gave it a spin. While I love the graphix and general feel of metal slug, this synergy mechanics is not working for me. I guess there is a reason why you usually get flanking bonuses to hit chance, not unlimited free attacks.

 

[Catacombs]

I love it when chicks narrate shit.

It's 2024. They've outsourced the narration work to AI.

 

[Ivan]

I love it when chicks narrate shit.

It's 2024. They've outsourced the narration work to AI.

Now that you mention it, it does remind me of Her/Siri/etc

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/metal-slug-tactics-demo-is-pure-nostalgia-for-better-and-worse

Metal Slug Tactics’ demo is pure nostalgia for better and worse​

I feel snails have already solved the need for metal slugs actually

I’ve always loved the art of the Metal Slug series of side-scrolling shooters, so I’ve been keeping a keen eye on the fetching grid strategy antics of Metal Slug Tactics ever since it was first announced. For as long as I’ve been excited, I’ve also been worried. It’s been a polarising experience, like being alternately fed delicious sandwiches and those inedible rotlogs they sell at Subway. Still, I’ve remained cautious: is all this great pixel-art just a shroud pulled over a ho-hum tactics game to rescue it from naffness? It’s with this in mind I hungrily dove into the Steam Next Fest demo, as one might hungrily dive into a bin to eat literal garbage if their only other option was Subway.

I jump into the first mission as Metal Slug mainstay Marco Rossi, a man who will not take off his bandana under any circumstances. The official fan wiki describes Marco’s appearance as a cross between Sylvester Stallone and David Bowie. I get distracted imagining Stallone singing Space Oddity for a bit, then decide I better play some videogame, much like a Subway worker returning from break and realising they must slap together another horrendous vomit-tube of a sandwich.

Every turn each character gets one move and one action, but if you take the action first, you also lose your move. This feels on the more restrictive end as far as action economies go, but you can use "synchronisation" attacks to stretch that economy out, further than a pack of Subway meat over a thousand anemic dirt-loafs. These are special tag-team actions you trigger for free by setting up orthogonal flanking postions. For now, though, it’s just Marco. I can pick between a pistol and a machine gun, but the latter has limited ammo. It’s here I notice some nice quality-of-life bits. You can undo moves and fast forward enemy turns, though there is a restriction on the undo-ing, which I’ll unfurl below like a yellowing lettuce leaf on a stale roll that costs eighteen pounds, or sixteen pounds with ten years' worth of Subway loyalty points.

The game soon introduces some welcome slapstick hijinks. I use a switch to drop a hanging bomb-crate on a couple of idiots. This doesn’t cost my action, but, just as promised, prevents me from undoing previous moves. The crate does exactly 1996 damage to the two fools, which is the year the original game released. Cute. What’s a bit less cute is, as much as I still adore the art style, is the enemies I’m fighting are some irksomely lazy middle-eastern stereotypes straight out of, well, the mid-nineties. It’s up to you how you feel about this stuff, of course, but alongside the occasional strain of middle-eastern instrumentation in the soundtrack, and the non-descript Islamic architecture, it’s all a bit unironically "America, fuck yeah" for my tastes. Preservation, eh?

Image credit: Dotemu
Anywhoo. The further you have a character move, the more ‘dodge’ you generate. I’ve seen this in a few tabletop games before - it’s a useful and flavorful way to represent evasiveness in a turn-based ruleset, and I like it a lot. Running also generates a resource called ‘adrenaline’, which is spent on special actions. For Marco, these are an area-of-effect missile strike, and a buff that lets him or an ally shoot twice. The strike is silly fun, and it also destroys an entire tank. Metal Slug’s tank designs are one of my favourite things about it, so I’m a little sad to see it go, much like a beloved local bakery being replaced by a Subway even though there's already six of them on the same effing street.

Soon, I’m joined by a couple of pals, Eri and Fio. Eri has infinite grenades, which sounds ridiculous, but I can only throw them orthogonally - same with her grenade launcher, albeit with a longer range. It’s the same with many of the weapons and abilities, actually, so you’ll need to think carefully about positioning rather than just vaguely being in range. You can also hit your own dudes if they’re in the same line, which is quite funny if tactically nonoptimal.

After the tutorial, I’m given the chance to select a mission from an overworld map, each with different primary and secondary objectives. I’m also warned there'll be an ‘enemy response in four turns’, which sounds like some sort of board game risk-reward aspect to it all. I pick one in a village dotted with buildings, and find out that most weapons can’t target enemies on different elevation levels. This goes against my years of tactics training, but also means my team are safer than I thought they were. So, a restriction for offence, but more to consider for defence? I don’t hate it! Annoyingly, the game only tells me this after I’ve deployed though, like an underpaid Subway worker only letting me know they're out of honey mustard after they've already assembled my disgusting pus-cylinder.

I’m rewarded with some XP after the mission, as well as some mods, which can do things like improve my grenades or give my guns more ammo. Level-ups let you pick between three randomly chosen abilities. Marco gets an explosive punch, for example, while Eri can now create detonating clones of herself. So! As a package, it does indeed seem like there’s some worthwhile tactical depth here, as opposed to the cover n’ flank copy paste coasting on an art style I was afraid it might be. As I said above, it could maybe do with coasting on a little less of the exact same artstyle in certain areas, but I’m just as interested in your take, reader. Is this art objectively dope, or am I just a wistful, nostalgic fool? Either way, this one’s still due for release in the last chunk of 2024 - an already unwieldy, gelatinous chunk, of the type you might discover in a horrible Subway sandwich. Which, as you may have picked up, I'm not especially keen on.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rogue...s-roguishly-reinvents-turn-based-run-and-gun/

Metal Slug Tactics roguishly reinvents turn-based run-and-gun​

The series pivots to turn-based tactics impressively well.

I’ve lost way too much time to the Metal Slug series over the years, that most ubiquitous of Neo Geo arcade shooters. Classic Contra-adjacent run-and-gun shooters; loud, dumb and gorgeously animated. So how on earth does that translate to a turn-based tactics game? After playing a few rounds of the surprisingly beefy demo, the answer is ‘impressively well’, a few rough edges aside.

Developed by Lekir Studio (best known for the goth horror roguelike Rogue Lords) Metal Slug Tactics does an admirable job adapting the run-and-gun formula to a turn-based isometric battlefield. Not surprisingly, this one’s a bit of a roguelike too. Or roguelite, or however you want to define a snappy, run-based game where you gradually unlock more goodies and features over time.

Each run, you pick a trio of characters, each with an unlimited ammo primary weapon, a limited-ammo heavy weapon, and a special ability. Then you fight through a series of regions (one in the demo, at least four in the full game), each one a short handful of fights followed by a boss battle.

While the battle maps and objectives are hand-made rather than procedurally generated, your route through each region is unpredictable, as are enemy spawns. Mission rewards and the perks available on levelling up are also somewhat randomised, helping keep things fresh even in the demo.

Fights are quick, often five turns or shorter, with simple but varied objectives: Clear all enemies, assassinate several targets while reinforcements constantly spawn, or escape to the other end of the battlefield. It feels like a series of action setpieces, further capturing that Metal Slug feel by forcing constant movement, mimicking run-and-gun aggression.

Enemy attacks come frequently and everything has a 100% chance to hit. Hoofing it to the limit of your character’s movement range gives them a temporary ‘dodge’ buff, which reduces all incoming damage. Stack that with ending your turn behind cover tiles (handily highlighted in blue) and you can often reduce several hits down to almost nothing, or even no-sell damage entirely.

Given that health recharges fully after each fight and KO’d squaddies are revived for free, it’s often safer to charge headlong into a group of enemies than hunker down. Every system plays into encouraging this kind of measured recklessness, like movement generating Adrenaline, the resource used to activate special abilities.

Not only is it okay to have enemies shoot at your squad, but if you make the right move, it’s good to take damage. Even if two of your squad are dead and a third is at death’s door, completing an objective ensures there’s nothing lost come the start of the next fight. Plus, if you overextend, you can spend extra lives (one of two limited resources, with heavy weapon ammo being the other) to revive them on the spot.

Recklessness is so encouraged that taking damage in creative ways feels like a key part of Metal Slug Tactics. One scenario in the demo has you trying to survive five turns while being bombarded by an artillery tower. At turn start it picks two of your squad to be targeted, and at the end of your turn, they take a direct hit no matter where they stand. If you move quickly and get behind cover for the full defensive bonus, they’ll shrug it off, but the cover will probably break, forcing them to keep dashing from point to point. Of course, you can also just run into the middle of a swarm of enemies and have the blast damage them as well.

It’s perfectly viable to catch your own teammates in a grenade or shotgun blast if the numbers work in your favour, and not having to worry about healing or revives between fights feels like a huge relief after so many roguelikes where taking a single bad hit can kneecap you for an entire run.

There is room for subtlety, though, and that’s where the Sync system comes in. If you take a shot at an enemy while a teammate is in position to hit with their (free) primary weapon, then they’ll take that shot as a free bonus action. Stack up right, and you can hit enemies with all three characters a turn. Instant death for grunts, and so powerful that bosses can only have one sync shot hit them per turn.

In short, it’s fast, messy knockabout tactics. Forgiving if you’re willing to burn lives, but with room for a lot of precision and skill once you understand the mechanics. It feels like Metal Slug. Sounds the part, too, and looks… near enough. Aesthetically, the screenshots and trailer speak for themselves—this is a great-looking game, and while it doesn’t quite nail the aesthetic of SNK’s gorgeous sprite-work (the shading looks a tiny bit off), it comes shockingly close. Every character bounces and wiggles excitedly when left idle, and battle animations are full of exaggerated motion and stretchy, squashy smear frames.

There’s a surprising amount of meat on the demo’s bones too. My first successful run took around an hour, but completing that unlocked close-combat specialist Tarma, the option to spend currency to expand the upgrades pool and a second difficulty level, which bumps up the tier of enemies encountered but bumps up the rewards and vehicle spawns (such as the titular Metal Slug tank) to help deal with the tougher bad guys.

While a good time already, the demo does have a few wrinkles. Though it's mostly arcade-authentic, the UI looks a little sterile and overly clean in places, and some bigger bits of pixel-art (such as the title screen) look a little underbaked. I also bumped into a couple bugs where the UI refused to respond, forcing me to quit and re-open the game. Thematically, it could also raise eyebrows to see so many scimitar-swinging Arab stereotypes in the demo, with the promise of masked jungle cultists in loincloths coming in the full game. Granted these are all enemies lifted straight from the arcade originals, but might sit poorly with a 2024 audience.

Without a release date pinned down, the technical issues have plenty of potential to get fixed, at the very least, and I’m eager to see the other environments and enemy types. Metal Slug Tactics launches later this year, with the demo available on Steam now, and has my seal of approval.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Sweeper]

I love it when chicks narrate shit.

It's 2024. They've outsourced the narration work to AI.

The AI sounds hot.

 

[I eat frozen vegetables]

The game will release on November 5th of this year.

 

[Infinitron]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1590760/view/4513261623769734603

RELEASE DATE REVEALED
METAL SLUG TACTICS LAUNCHES NOVEMBER 5!
Greetings Squad,

It is with great pleasure that we can finally say:
MISSION START on November 5th
!
And that’s not all! METAL SLUG TACTICS will launch with long-awaited reinforcements, the legendary
Ikari Warriors: Clark, Ralf, and Leona
!

Watch our brand-new trailer to see them in action:

ABOUT THE IKARI WARRIORS:

Clark Still:
The tough and cool grappler is back! Using his immense strength, Clark hurls enemies across the map while dishing out some serious status-inflicting damage.
Ralf Jones:
The hot-headed one-man army returns! Ralf gets up close and personal with fiery punches and charges at enemies like a raging bull.
Leona Heidern:
The silent soldier answers the call! Leona can replace fallen enemies with decoy afterimages to distract and overwhelm enemy forces.

See you on November 5th!

Keep an eye on our social media channels, and don’t forget to wishlist Metal Slug Tactics on Steam to get all the latest updates straight to your inbox.

 

[Berengar]

So excited to finally play this!! The wait has been painful!

Also couldn't help but think of this during the gameplay trailer lol

 

[The Nameless One]

Metal Slug enjoyers: "Can we get MS8 with replayability maybe after 16 years?"

SNK: "Best I can do is get baguettes to do a 'tactics' game, and you will be happy about buying it"

 

[Late Bloomer]

 

[Infinitron]

https://af.gog.com/en/game/metal_slug_tactics?as=1649904300

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1590760/view/4513262258492539080

METAL SLUG TACTICS OUT NOW!
Mission Start!

Greetings Squad,

The wait is finally over!
METAL SLUG TACTICS is available now on all platforms
!
Join the Peregrine Falcons and the Ikari Warriors as you take on General Morden’s army!

And that’s not all! Watch our trailer to find out the additional reinforcements HQ is sending your way:




ABOUT NADIA & TREVOR:

• Fearless foodie
  Nadia Cassel
  returns! With her deadly robots and explosive electro-mines, Nadia is ready to wreak havoc on the battlefield!
• Genius hacker and martial artist
  Trevor Spacey
  is back! This time, Trevor has tapped into the power of mind control to turn enemies against each other!

METAL SLUG TACTICS OST

Treat your ears to METAL SLUG TACTICS’ head-banging soundtrack by legendary video game composer,
Tee Lopes!


https://kidkatana.ffm.to/MetalSlugTactics-OST
A word from the developers

Being entrusted with a project like METAL SLUG TACTICS was one of the greatest honors to receive as an indie studio. We sincerely thank SNK for this opportunity, and most importantly, we thank you, the fans, for showing us so much love and support during the game’s development. We hope you enjoy METAL SLUG TACTICS!

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/metal-slug-tactics-review/

Metal Slug Tactics review​

Metal Slug Tactics makes turn-based run-and-gun work with style… most of the time.​

In the entire history of videogames, there have only been a few recorded cases of a studio performing the forbidden alchemy of transposing a game into another genre entirely. Until now, the most successful was probably R-Type Tactics (originally for the humble PSP, and now currently being remade), but I think the crown might have to go to Metal Slug Tactics.

From a distance, and if you squint real hard, Metal Slug Tactics looks a little bit like Into The Breach—not a bad game to crib notes from. Pick three characters, tackle quick turn-based tactical battles on small, hand-crafted maps (no procedural generation here, although enemy spawns are unpredictable) where you have the information advantage. You’ll gain temporary power and resources over an individual run, but unlock new starting options, difficulties and fun wrinkles over time, including new minibosses and a path to the gratifying True Ending. But the actual meat of the combat is as different as it gets from Into the Breach's desperate precision.

Everything here happens in service of running, gunning and generally getting into hugely messy scrums, which is pure Metal Slug. Mission objectives lean towards fast action, throwing your soldiers into a swarm of enemies with objectives like ‘pick off three targets’, ‘get two characters to a location’ or just ‘survive for four turns’, with battles ending the moment the job’s done. Bonuses reward speed. With small battlefields (often tiny enough to fully traverse in just two moves) and bad guys capable of killing your soldiers in just a couple hits, running away isn’t an option. You WILL be attacked.

So you’re best off throwing your three squaddies headfirst into danger. Paradoxically, the riskier you play, the safer you get. Speed is life, and the further a character moves in a turn, the less damage they take when attacked. Sprint as far as you can before attacking (with bonuses for jumping across gaps and down from high ledges), and they become functionally invulnerable, cheekily pirouetting through the air as enemies fruitlessly take shots at them. If I could pull of these kinds of moves in Metal Slug, I'd never need to go to the arcade with more than a 50p coin again.

Military moshing​

The potential to become unkillable made wacky cartoon tactics—exploiting overzealous enemy grenadiers, rocket troopers or big incoming artillery attacks—not just viable but incredibly tempting. With fast enough movement (further improved by ending a turn on a blue "cover" square near a stone wall or some sandbags) I delighted in letting my enemies blow themselves to bits trying to hit the invulnerable lunatic that just bounced into the middle of their formation.

Sometimes it's worth just taking a hit—everyone’s revived and fully healed after each fight for free, but screwing up lets you channel that most Metal Slug experience; credit feeding. You’ve got a pool of revives (a resource restocked through some missions) that let you respawn characters straight back into the fight, encouraging risk-taking and pushing limits. This feeds back into the run-and-gun pacing: Wiping out enemies fast enough to complete bonus objectives (providing extra resources or even support drops like the titular, wildly overpowered Metal Slug tank) requires stacking up your squad in complex arrangements to trigger "sync" attacks.

Sync attacks are what really made me feel like a galaxy-brained god of war. So long as a character is within range to use their unlimited-ammo lighter weapon (pistols and knives, mostly, but sometimes grenades), they’ll join in with any ally they see take a shot at no extra cost. Do it right and each of your characters gets three (or more) attacks per turn and the enemies fall like dominoes. Position your squad slightly wrong, and you can end up blowing up your own team or getting backed into a corner with no room to wiggle out. Gratifying when I nailed it, but thanks to the short missions (and runs—15 missions or less), wiping out never felt too frustrating.

There’s just so much to like here mechanically. Each of the four zones has fun environmental quirks, like mummified enemies in the desert that spread their curse on touch, turning that character undead, slow and VERY powerful for one turn. Bosses are high-agility fights of attrition, as your squad dodge big AoEs while trying to outpace a screen-filling mechanical monster on damage. Guest characters Ralf, Clark and Leona (best known from the King of Fighters series) showcase their fighting game moves, with Ralf playing rushdown, while Clark grapples enemies and throws them into range for Leona’s sync attacks.

Aesthetically it’s pure Metal Slug, and that's a sincere compliment. SNK’s OG sprite-work is still uncontested, but Tactics takes a serious shot at recapturing the look from its isometric perspective. While the sprites might not be quite as smoothly shaded, everything is detailed, colorful and clear, with lively pixel soldiers bouncing and wiggling in classic arcade style, making them pop out clearly from their (impressively detailed) backdrops. Almost like they’re bopping along to the hummable Tee Lopes soundtrack, which blends Metal Slug's military march motifs with some properly soulful melodic breakdowns. It’s just a nice game to look at and listen to. And yes, the classic announcer voice is here too.

Shell-shocked​

If only each run didn't hit me with some kind of minor bug. Sometimes amusing and cosmetic, like poor Ralf respawning without his arms or a squadmate forgetting if they’re still mummified or not, and other times more frustrating: a clearly open tile inaccessible for no discernable reason, or only available once my squad blocked off all alternate routes, indicating some pathing wackiness.

There are also some perspective issues making it not entirely clear which isometric tiles share planes or lines of sight. Nothing game-breaking or impossible to work around with the occasional click of the Undo Turn button (generously provided twice per mission), but these issues cropped up frequently enough to dull Metal Slug Tactics’ gunmetal sheen. It's simply releasing before it's quite fully ready.
All of these issues could be patched up by the time you read this, but I can only rate the game I got to play. So unless you’re ready to catch a little flak, check the patch notes. Bugs aside, Metal Slug Tactics has been a great little surprise. Win or lose, it’s hard to resist the air-raid siren call of just one more run-and-gun through Morden’s army.

The Verdict
76

Metal Slug Tactics
A smart, stylish adaptation that beats the odds to capture Metal Slug’s spirit in another genre, with a few irritating bugs.

 

[Infinitron]

Review roundup:

https://www.cgmagonline.com/review/game/metal-slug-tactics-pc-review/ 9/10
https://cogconnected.com/review/metal-slug-tactics-review/ 70/100
https://www.gamegrin.com/reviews/metal-slug-tactics-review/ 9.5/10
https://www.gamereactor.eu/snk-shares-a-ton-of-cool-nuggets-about-the-metal-slug-series-1410253/ 8/10
https://www.gameshub.com/news/reviews/metal-slug-tactics-review-2646866/ 4.5/5
https://www.gamesradar.com/games/strategy/metal-slug-tactics-review/ 3.5/5
https://www.godisageek.com/reviews/metal-slug-tactics-review/ 8/10
https://hardcoregamer.com/review-metal-slug-tactics/ 4/5
https://www.ign.com/articles/metal-slug-tactics-review 8/10
https://noisypixel.net/metal-slug-tactics-review/ 9/10
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/metal-slug-tactics-review/ 76/100
https://www.pushsquare.com/reviews/ps5/metal-slug-tactics 8/10
https://www.rpgfan.com/review/metal-slug-tactics/ 66/100
https://screenrant.com/metal-slug-tactics-review-pc/ 8/10
https://www.shacknews.com/article/142098/metal-slug-tactics-review 8/10
https://www.thegamer.com/metal-slug-tactics-review/ 3.5/5
https://worthplaying.com/article/2024/11/5/reviews/144099-pc-review-metal-slug-tactics/ 8.5/10
https://www.xboxachievements.com/game/metal-slug-tactics/review/ 90/100
https://xboxera.com/2024/11/05/metal-slug-tactics-review/ 8.3/10
https://ztgd.com/reviews/metal-slug-tactics-pc/ 7/10

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/metal-slug-tactics-review

Metal Slug Tactics review: the crunchy arcade run 'n' gun pauses to have a tactical think​

Once more Into The Breach?

I am a very casual enjoyer of Metal Slug games. I've never actually paid for one of these side-scrolling shoot 'em ups, except for all the countless coins I happily pumped into arcade machines as a child. To this day, if I see a rare glittering cabinet running one of these crunchy shmups, I will go ham for twenty or thirty minutes, and walk away satisfied that I have seen a lot of very good pixels. These games, I am convinced, were never really designed to be completed, but to be played exactly like this, as a coin-gobbling invitation to become a bandana-wearing sisyphus, a tiny Rambo pushing a bouncy, juddering tank up a hill occupied by cartoon nazis. You die a bunch and say: "ah, that was good."

So what happens when you rearrange the molecules of this run and/or gun 'em up into an isometric turn-based strategy game? You get Metal Slug Tactics, an off-kilter nod to Into The Breach and other grid-based turn-takers, but secretly housing the aggressive notions of an unhinged pyromaniac. You still die a lot. And you still walk away feeling fairly happy about it.

Well, I did at least. It really depends on your tolerance for roguelikey restarts. As the team of Metal Sluggers you are sent to stop known mischief maker Morden (first name Donald), who is very classically up to no good. But it can be a tough war, and the conflict is designed to be restarted again and again, with new goodies getting unlocked as you slowly chip away at the list of weapons mods and nine-strong character roster.

Fights take place on griddy battlefields. You get three characters, each with their own weapon loadouts and special skills. Some tote lasers that can zap right through multiple enemies in a straight line. Others have devices that let you grab enemies by the hair and hoist them to a distant tile. Some characters throw grenades, allowing you to lob your painmakers over the top of your fellow freedom fighters without committing to friendly fire (you'll be hitting your own troops a lot - it's fine).

To the tactics fiends among us, it seems straightforward to begin with. Its similarities to Into The Breach in particular feel helpful in establishing what the game wants from you. You can undo movement as many times as you like, for example (provided you haven't altered the environment by knocking down a crane or waking a mummified corpse). You also have two turn resets per battle. Meaning that if you mess up a manoeuvre with multiple troops, you can rethink it entirely.

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun / Dotemu / Gamera Games
But quickly you see that you're expected to be a little more aggressive than your average tactical trouncer. Cover is sometimes helpful but staying still is not. You only generate "dodge" points by moving, basically granting extra protection from incoming fire by constantly changing position. And you only generate "adrenaline" points in the same way. These adrenaline points are needed to perform your more powerful special actions, like teleporting two enemies in a silly swaperoo, or chasing down a swordsman on a motorcycle.

Since moving around a lot is the only way you farm the points needed for these essential moves, it becomes a strong incentive to stay mobile. "Remember," the game teaches you, "we always run and gun". The stacking power of dodge and cover bonuses means you can get into some funny positions of power through scrappy and aggressive play, like being surrounded by melee attacking enemies on every side but still able to dodge each and every swing, then use your fiery jump boots to set everyone around you ablaze in a daring act of escape.

It's also somewhat hard to get your head around, speaking as a traditionally tactical turtler. Battles are often replete with enemies - far more than you can feasibly handle - and you're forced against your baddie-squashing instincts to play the objective. Your goal might be to only kill a handful of special targets. Or you might be asked to get two of your soldiers to a certain spot within three or four turns (the implication here is: which of your three troopers will make the best meat shield while the others escape?)

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun / Dotemu / Gamera Games
There is another layer to battlin' that can help you out. Basically, if you arrange your troops so they all line up with the same enemy, then launch an attack with one of your fighters, the other two heroes will follow suit in a dogpiling act of "syncronization". This too means more gritty decisions: which enemy should you work as a team to eliminate, and which should you pick off as individuals? Some enemies you'll just disregard entirely, writing them off as lesser pests in a grander game of grenade tossing.

It's an interesting extra layer that you'll need to exploit to get out of most scrapes alive. But it's also hard to physically plan, with a lot of moving into position just to check if a shot is viable, then undoing it and checking from another angle. I never felt like I truly got the hang of syncing up my attacks perfectly. In the end, I often just went with my gut out of impatience. I died a lot.

But not as much as Rumi, the suicidal trader that features in a few of the game's difficult escort missions. These protective jaunts are among the roughest in the game, I found, along with other mission types that see you protecting miners from a gang of mummies that can kill in a single hit. It can be likewise annoying when an enemy reinforcement randomly falls in exactly a spot where it will do most damage next turn, scuppering well-laid last stands all because of a little randomness.

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun / Dotemu / Gamera Games
This is where the comparison with Into The Breach becomes unflattering. That masterpiece of turny tactics was set on such a small, finely tuned diorama, that each round became an almost-always solvable puzzle; a bit of kaiju chess. Your options for both movement and combat were limited, and each enemy had its upcoming attacks clearly signalled. It was just up to you to escape the checkmate.

Metal Slug Tactics doesn't want to be so obvious, keeping most enemy movements to itself. This makes the elimination-style levels more open-ended, but it also makes the escort and protection missions unpredictable and irritating in the way escort missions so often are. You are not even told where Rumi, the gung-ho death-enjoyer, is going to move to next. I started avoiding these missions completely by choosing the simpler "kill stuff" missions, ignoring even the tastiest of rewards the game would dangle in front of me. Character XP, coins to buy weapon parts, instantly deployable tanks - none of it matters if you lose an entire run because a mummy chose to hit a miner insead of the explosive decoy dummy you put down nearby.

The world map sees you do all this fighting across various locales (Egyptian desert, Middle Eastern villages, South American jungles, and North American cities) each with enemy types and bosses that perform distinct attacks (and appearances which sadly adhere to the childish stereotypes Metal Slug has been running with since the 1990s, as Nic previously pointed out when he played the demo). Eventually, you hit the boss fights, which are roundly enjoyable and challenging wreck sessions in which huge patches of the map will become red with incoming fire, hot lava, or sandy destruction.

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun / Dotemu / Gamera Games
It really starts to come into its own when new characters are unlocked following successful runs. Knifey ninja Trevor can confuse enemies into attacking their own pals. Beefcake Clark throws enemies around, making it easier to line up synchronised shots. Nadia summons self-destructive robots that can cause a handy distraction but risk a lot of friendly fire damage.

They're great additions. But it did feel like these characters are slow to appear thanks to the challenging nature of some missions. A slow drip of progression doesn't feel sluggish in something like (again) Into The Breach, because few fights last long. But some battles in Slugtac can become drawn out, especially the boss battles, even with the handy "hold spacebar to fast forward" button. The repetitive radio chatter of your off-screen commander, Margaret, also slows things down considerably. For everything this game adds in mods, upgrades, character abilities, and unusual enemy tricks, it also clutters up the elegance and simplicity that makes the grid-based fighting of Into The Breach so compelling and tight.

But maybe I shouldn't keep comparing this to Subset's masterwork. Maybe we should instead compare it to other Metal Slug games. In that case, I almost prefer this incarnation of the pixel pistoleers. The arcade difficulty of those shooters was forged in the quarter-swallowing era in which games were difficult as a de facto means of extracting more coins from your little pockets. And as much as I like those twenty-minute sessions, I will never see these games through. Whereas the difficulty of a tough escort mission feels more true to the tactical genre of "end turn" button-pushing. Plus all the undos, resets, and pauseful pondering makes things more manageable, to the point where I have - shock horror - actually completed multiple runs.

I especially like how the arcade game's soul has been transplanted not just in the art style but also the sound design. The character select screen yells each character's name with the tinny echo of arcade enthusiasm. "Marco!" - "Fio!" - "Echo!" It is so married to its arcade roots that even the currency you use to unlock post-campaign upgrades is called "credits". I've accrued a fistful of these digi-quarters. But you know what? I'm content with what I've played. Like a good Metal Slug game, I can happily walk away from it without seeing every last battlefield. I'm fully satisfied with the time and quarters I've already spent.

 

[Optimist]

Cool, so I bought it sometime in the first week after release ony Switch. It's not groundbreaking so far, but is distinct and pleasant enough to play for fun.

I'd place it somewhere between Into the Breach and Final Fantasy Tactics, for whatever it's worth. You command a small team, but their upgrade paths are wide enough that across the few games I've played with the three starter characters none felt the same. Maps are bigger than in ItB, and occasionally expand as you play through them.

The biggest difference from the standard tactical/ grid-based/ multi layer fare I played so now is probably the attempt to port the run part of Metal Slug's run&gun. You are heavily rewarded for moving long distances on your turn, as the more squares you move the more dodge armour (ablative damage reduction) and adrenaline (mana) you get. Ideally you need to have your characters zipping across the battlefield every turn, keeping in mind that whenever you attack a foe in range of another character's basic attack, they'll chip in. This is not only the way to get some extra dakka on target, but also serves as trigger for a bunch of skills.

Other difference is that you do not need to worry about your characters' deaths, as as long as you finish the map with one chap standing you suffer effectively no consequences (and can even revive some of them mid-combat). Suicidal charges are a viable approach here.

I played four games so far. Three of them I lost on/before the first boss, fourth became a cakewalk once I internalised the need for movenent, and got some good skill ups (acupuncture for Fio and grenade juggling for the other chick). Unfortunately I hit a fairly annoying bug where the game crashes the moment I try to start first Sirocco mission, which not only denied me my stab at the boss, but also forces me to resign and lose on the roguelite progression. This sucked a lot; I think I'll need to wait for at least a single patch. I'm not sure if there's any more game after Sirocco City - if not, then a single playthrough would take about 1,5-2hrs, similar to ItB.

The graphics are very pleasant and metal sluggy. My only peeve was that the font size while playing on the move made my eyes bleed a little. Sound is OK, again, a lot of homage to the arcades here.

I'd say that once they fix the game-critical bugs, it's worth picking up. The game is not crazy expensive, and it's not like the genre had that many titles worth checking out recently.