Metal Slug Tactics wins by adding its own design philosophy to well-trodden paths and avoiding cheap nostalgia

Metal Slug Tactics gets a lot of things right, but perhaps its most impressive achievement is that it doesn’t get bogged down or limited by the intellectual property it celebrates.

We’ve seen this happen time and time again: “It’s like those original games you loved, but (x).” It’s not a bad recipe by any means, but it’s certainly one that’s not destined to stay Traces of recipes. That said, the reality is that, despite the great results, this Metal Slug spin-off is just a niche release that won’t make much of an impact at the end of the day. However, it does try very hard to please its target audience with new twists on the turn-based strategy formula, and never takes shortcuts.

Leikir Studio’s post-Synergy Early Access game looks simple on the surface. You have the classic isometric view, tiles, perfect military themed legend There is another Take the tactical subgenre. From the get-go, this looks like an easy win, with crisp pixelated visuals fitting the Metal Slug aesthetic perfectly. Smaller developers may only master the basics and focus on a signature audio-visual presentation. But it was not an uninspired project. Quite the opposite.

Mind you, Metal Slug Tactics could have used a little more time in the oven. Bugs plague some combat encounters, and the UI can sometimes become cluttered and opaque, not really letting you know whether a squad member will be cooked next turn. While its real-time mechanics and larger systems are clear and easy to master, this roguelite turn-based game (yeah, didn’t you know?) could perhaps use a little more testing in this regard. All of this is a minor annoyance that’s easily fixed once you fully realize how great everything else is.

The game’s first big win comes when the thin-enough tutorial emphasizes that Metal Slug Tactics’ focus is on moving rather than hunkering down or finding the perfect position to attack and defend, instantly turning most of the subgenre on its head. Of course, your characters (each with a unique set of abilities and strengths) usually need a straight line to shoot and hit, but you have to balance that with their abilities. need Move around the battlefield.

You see, skills are “fueled” by adrenaline, and you gain them by moving them around as much as you can each turn, rather than staying in one place. Even characters can get annoyed when they don’t run enough. It’s like Metal Slug; in the difficult mainline 2D action game series, standing still is a way to get a quick hit. It’s a simple but game-changing decision that makes good use of the IP and its decades of performance elsewhere. Somehow, we don’t see this happen very often when developers are invited into other people’s sandboxes.

Just as Fire Emblem has always been a perfect fit for the musou genre, Metal Slug’s own setting and history have always felt tailor-made for a solid tactics game. It’s finally arrived, but thankfully it’s not a bargain for the cash. Even before getting into the actual combat (which, due to certain objectives, can even turn into a rushed escape mission), the world map itself and the little cutscenes that take the characters into areas overrun by bad guys are full of charm that goes beyond what you’d get previously. The established art style is correct.

Gameplay twists go beyond the aforementioned adrenaline system and the need to scavenge for ammo before boss fights if you pull the trigger on a big gun too much. Mummy (for example) turns heroes into mummies, just like they did in the original game. This state is far from a curse, it just changes things. The Mummy isn’t great at finding cover and moving quickly, but does a lot of damage with two different attack options. Things that might have been annoying or scary (like bugs in XCOM) become problems that can be used against the attackers themselves. This is great stuff. The same applies to the titular Metal Slug and other vehicles, but in the opposite direction: they can be of great help, but also take damage in different ways.

There are more examples of developers looking at what they’re working with and choosing the right Metal Slug elements for the right game design philosophy, but to ruin everything would be a disservice to this little game. It’s a thoughtful rework of everything that made Metal Slug so good, and the fact that it’s actually a highly replayable roguelite (complete with cool unlockables and extra punishing difficulty levels) only makes would make it better and more appealing to today’s mainstream crowd, so it’s a bit of a head-scratcher that the marketing isn’t relying more on this.

Maybe the fact that it came out swinging so strongly with its own ideas and little quirks makes me a little sad that it didn’t have more scope to accommodate more of Metal Slug’s zany parts, like those annoying Aliens and later A truly brilliant set entry that transcends outdated Middle Eastern and “jungle native” clichés. Who knows, maybe it will launch with interesting DLC. Personally, I think everyone involved (not forgetting Dotemu’s efforts to revive old properties) worked so hard that Metal Slug Tactics could become a sub-series rather than a one-off experiment, which That’s why I need you to buy/play it ASAP.

Metal Slug Tactics is now available on PC, Xbox consoles, PS4/5 and Nintendo Switch. It’s also part of Game Pass’s November offerings on consoles and PC.