Metal Slug Tactics – Review

Classic SNK franchises are constantly on the up and up with their releases of late, and old-schoolers like me couldn’t be eating better. While King of Fighters and Samurai Shodown have seen more traditional releases, SNK has handed the Metal Slug franchise over to developer Lekir Studios and publisher DotEmu, who have taken the classic run-and-gun series into a more turn-based, roguelite direction. Does it pay off, or is Metal Slug Tactics just like an aggravating quarter-muncher? 

Metal…Slug?

While the gameplay differs from previous installments, Metal Slug Tactics isn’t here to reinvent itself when it comes to the narrative for the series. Donald Morden has returned, he’s amassed an army and it’s down to our regular P.F. Squad once again to stop his tyranny and make the world a much safer place to live…at least until the next Metal Slug game. 

The story in this title is a little thin on the ground; the bulk of it comes from the dialogue between the units of the P.F. Squad. It’s mostly basic scenes like Marco talking to Leona, or characters like Rumi turning up and putting a shop up in the middle of your base. It all boils down to fan service. It falls in line with the amount of narrative the series has had in the past as they aren’t exactly the deepest of stories, but I expected a little more with the change of genre. Still, the amount of returning Metal Slug cast members and the interactions between them gave me something.

The story or lack of it, does feel like it was somewhat hampered by the choice of Metal Slug Tactics being a roguelite. Whereas titles such as Hades or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate lean into the “loop” and make it a part of the story, Metal Slug Tactics doesn’t really acknowledge the fact that you’ll be coming back again and again. It only really rewards you with any narrative when you hit certain progression states.

Groundhog Day

As the name states, Metal Slug Tactics is a “tactics” style game. Games like XCOM feel like strong inspiration, though this title leans into the roguelite aspects much more. As is standard for roguelite games, you’ll be doing “runs” through the game through procedurally generated maps with similar objectives and either trying to complete the run or stock up on enough resources that you can improve your squad for the next run.

You start each run by choosing three iconic squad members from the Metal Slug franchise such as Marco, Clark, Leona, Eri, and even more favorites. You’ll control them as you try your best to quell the rebel army in each of the four unique districts based on classic Metal Slug locales. 

You are then thrust onto a map and given a choice of missions to tackle with objectives ranging from rout/“kill everyone” missions to escort missions and even escape missions. The maps don’t have many standout set pieces or anything to make them truly feel distinct due to the procedural generation of the missions, but it does offer just enough variation to keep you engaged. 

After three missions are completed you come across a boss Metal Slug, a giant tanklike creation that will take just about everything you have to take down. As an example of how these fights go, the first one you fight is a giant battleship that destroys sections of the map. This means you have to juggle movement, attacking the boss, and dealing with smaller enemy units standing in your way. Moments like this are when the game is truly at its best.

Hit The Griddy

The game operates on a grid-based system. You’ll move your three chosen units across the map using their Movement Points and then perform attacks or abilities using the aptly named Action Points. If you have ever played a grid-based tactics game like XCOM or even Fire Emblem, it should generally be quite familiar to you from the get-go. Fortunately, there are a few little nuances that help separate Metal Slug Tactics from its kin.

Cover (i.e. map sections to hide behind) isn’t quite as abundant as you would expect, but as it turns out the further you move your chosen unit the higher defense that character gets. The idea here is to move around the map the furthest while also keeping note of what little cover is available to minimize the damage you take. Unit health regenerates between missions, but ammo doesn’t, making that the finite resource you need to manage most carefully.

Your primary and weakest weapon has infinite ammo as your secondary weapon is the one that consumes ammo. The latter is usually your main damage dealer, and the only way to regenerate ammo is to complete a stage that has an “ammo dump” as a reward. Scenarios where you need to choose between ammo and coins (which can be spent to upgrade your character) are where you can make or break a run, and thus require you to decide what you want to make from this run. 

In order to get the most out of your damage dealing you can “Sync” attacks with your other units. If they cross paths, your units will all attack the same unit. You can also make use of environmental objects and hazards such as the consistently explosive red barrel or crumbling ruins to put the hurt on the rebel army and save the day.

Faulty Weaponry 

There were unfortunately a few things that stopped me from enjoying Metal Slug Tactics as much as I’d hoped.

Many issues I had with the game stemmed from how slow progression felt. It honestly felt like an epic trial just trying to upgrade any of my characters from the start to a point where I could make some real progress. Many roguelike/roguelite titles tend to sprinkle in a mix of lore or upgrades to keep you from tiring from the loop of losing over and over again, and I personally feel Metal Slug Tactics didn’t execute this sort of thing in the best way.

The control scheme, coupled with the user interface (more on that below) didn’t help either. They work together to create a rather clunky and awkward feeling experience. I never once really felt comfortable with the controls and would often find myself stuck in an option select or elsewhere, as the cursor seemed to have a mind of its own. I ended up feeling like the game was a chore to play at times as a result.

Fog of War

Visually, Metal Slug Tactics ticks all the boxes of making a title that looks authentic to the Metal Slug franchise. The familiar character sprites are all there, with the absurd amounts of vibrant animation that the series is known for. The locales from the series such as the desert, the jungle, and Middle Eastern cities are all there—if you have played ANY Metal Slug game you’ll feel instantly at home in the best way.

Sadly my comments on the presentation are not all glowing. I played the game on Nintendo Switch and despite it being able to handle much more graphically intense SRPG titles like Fire Emblem Engage and Advance Wars Boot Camp, Nintendo’s little hybrid could not bring the boom in terms of performance with Metal Slug Tactics. The framerate is horrendous, and the game will stutter for seconds or even lock up for a good few seconds at a time. It isn’t in an acceptable shape sadly, and these performance issues sully the game experience dramatically.

On top of that, The user interface for the game is genuinely egregious, as menus plaster the screen with wild abandon, and it makes the game feel like it was designed for PC players first and console second. This is made worse when you factor in the handheld aspect of the Nintendo Switch. A lot of the real estate of the screen is covered in text boxes that I could hardly read and I struggled to remove them only for them to repeatedly come back time and time again.

More positively, the music fits the game well, and the sound clips for the enemies never failed to bring a nostalgic smile to my face. Honestly, my hat goes off to the developers for being able to transfer the charm of the 2D run-and-gun franchise into this tactics game so well in its presentation, as Metal Slug Tactics keeps the “heart” of the series while playing like the polar opposite of its usual genre.

Verdict

Metal Slug Tactics is a game that caught me by surprise in a few ways at first. I wasn’t sure at first what to make of the roguelite aspects, and even fifteen hours down the line with the title I still feel it is one of the weaker aspects of the game. The game’s performance on the Nintendo Switch is damning for the title and the user interface being as intrusive as it was didn’t give me the best welcome to the game. 

I will say I did enjoy the game with the issues put aside. I just wouldn’t suggest picking it up on the Nintendo Switch and would rather opt for either the PC or Playstation/Xbox console versions, which hopefully alleviate the main issues I had with the game and give gamers a much more pleasurable Metal Slug experience with a heavy slice of roguelite tactics.

WAIT FOR SALE ON METAL SLUG TACTICS

If you are looking for more Strategy games, you might enjoy our review of  Capes.

Thanks to DotEmu for providing a Nintendo Switch review code for Metal Slug Tactics.

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