Metal Slug Tactics review

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.