Metal Slug Tactics is refreshing, leaning into its roots as a charming 90s arcade title while reinventing itself as a tactical RPG. You needn’t be a Metal Slug fan to enjoy the amount of depth here – it’s a treat of highly engaging gameplay and a must-listen of a soundtrack. I want more from Leikir Studio and sincerely hope they make the UI more user-friendly to ease the learning process.
I don’t expect most players to be familiar with the Metal Slug series. No, not Metal Gear Solid. I’m talking about Metal Slug – a run’n’gun series from the 90s that most 90s (and 80s) kids played on arcade cabinets. It’s classically 90s, featuring Rambo-esque soldiers, slapstick humor, and gruelingly difficult gameplay despite weapon pick-ups that change bullets into gigantic bombs.
Metal Slug Tactics is a turn-based tactical RPG – think Advance Wars meets TRIANGLE STRATEGY. I never thought I would see a Metal Slug game to be meshed together with any gaming subgenre other than arcade-style run and gun, but here we are now. It was surprising to jump in to play, as I was half expecting mindless platforming rather than thought-provoking strategizing. I digress – it worked, and it worked well.
The player is expected to take a group of three characters into bite-sized scenarios that ladder up into a boss battle of epic proportions. On top of that, there’s a roguelike element that encourages players to get as far as they can before returning back to the start. It’s an excellent combination of gameplay, strategy, and charm that I found to be highly engaging and replayable for hours.
It’s a good sign for a roguelike to captivate players from the start, especially when tactical gameplay skews things toward information overload or narrow win conditions. My frustration with TRPGs often emerges when one incorrect move sets me back several hours of progress or requiring a hyper specific play that only the most keen-eyed players would identify. Metal Slug Tactics avoids these pitfalls with ease by creating low-stakes win conditions that manifest as killing four specific targets or surviving for a handful of turns. Secondary win conditions sweeten the pot by rewarding players who kill extra enemies or keep the entire party alive.
There were several instances where I failed the win condition, specifically the scenarios that tasked me with escorting a fragile unit to the end of the level. When I lost, I was sent back to the start where I could spend money to purchase permanent upgrades and occasionally unlock a new character I could choose to incorporate into my party. Compared to other roguelike systems, Metal Slug Tactics’ progression offers enough in between runs to soften the crushing blow of losing. You and I know how punishing roguelikes can be – losing time after time while only making incremental process sucks. Losses should feel rewarding, even if that reward is a drip feed of lore bits and small pushes toward larger form character upgrades that make future runs a smidge easier.
Metal Slug Tactics plays like a typical turn-based strategy game. With a trio of three, I was to move them around a map and attack enemies. The further I moved my units, the more likely they were to dodge enemies’ attacks. When positioning units in adjacent rows, they would follow-up with attacks to quickly clear the field of enemy militia, mummies, and other threats. I would often spend time considering the risk of moving units together just so they could team up on an enemy, even if that meant that my units didn’t benefit from the movement-based bonuses. These tradeoffs, along with unique abilities, make for worthwhile tradeoffs and satisfying strategies when they end up paying off.
Despite needing to manage a team of three (of a growing cast of Metal Slug characters the more I played), Metal Slug Tactics has a surprising amount of depth which ensures that every run feels unique and refreshing. As I figured out each character’s strengths and weaknesses, I could chain attacks and have some characters unleash devastating combos. During my own playthrough, I was able to surmise a handful of unit pairings that would make some scenarios a breeze. Just a few days after launch, I’ve learned so much more from other players about how to optimize builds further from anything I could have figured out on my own. All of this aside, I didn’t need the Internet to tell me how to play the game – I could succeed just fine on my own.
The first few losses, though, prompted me to consider me being a bad strategy player. It turned out that it was less about what I was doing wrong and more of what I could have done differently in planning out attacks. Units’ abilities and passives were critical in surviving multiple regions during a single run. Once I had a grasp on those intricacies, the fun amped up to eleven in testing out ridiculous combinations just to see how I could enact chaos.
One of the first things I noticed about Metal Slug Tactics was its incredible soundtrack. It was the perfect combination of 90s-era intense synthwave meets pseudo-rock and roll that’s a joy to listen to and keeps me pumped up round after round. Lo and behold, I learned that Tee Lopes was lead composer. For those of you unfamiliar with Tee Lopes, he’s the mastermind behind Sonic Mania, TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge, Penny’s Big Breakaway, and Berserk Boy’s (among many others) soundtracks. As of today, he has yet to miss and has consistently churned out classic nostalgic tunes that are catchy beyond belief. Metal Slug Tactics’ soundtrack is, frankly, one of its best elements because of how well it enhances the Metal Slug aesthetic. I’m doing my best to avoid being a superfan here, but Tee Lopes’ talent shines once again. Check it out on your preferred streaming service – you won’t regret it.
The question of whether or not Metal Slug was worthy of being reimagined in a tactical RPG space is not worthy of your consideration. Instead, we should be asking ourselves if this remix, if you will, ended up working. The strategy space is new territory for Metal Slug and is especially jarring for those wanting classic run’n’gun. The resultant mashup works – it works and plays quite well without falling prey to the frustrating bits in typical strategy games.
My biggest critique of Metal Slug Tactics on the Switch is how it presents information via its UI. The text and icons are terribly small, adding to the difficulty of the early game in picking up characters’ traits, passives, and active abilities. After a few runs of trial and error, I was able to figure out optimal builds and abilities, but those first few hours of squinting to read the text on the Switch screen was absolute hell on my eyes. I’m not yet an “aging gamer,” but the amount I had to squint made me feel like I was old. I’m confident that the UI can be adjusted in the future, but it should be addressed as soon as possible.
I won’t go so far as to say that Metal Slug Tactics will get folks fully invested in Marco or Eri’s story in the Metal Slug universe. The series has hardly been narrative driven to begin with. Instead, it’s planted a flag in a territory of silly gameplay that’s very much replayable without compromising in the fun.
Metal Slug Tactics is refreshing, leaning into its roots as a charming 90s arcade title while reinventing itself as a tactical RPG. You needn’t be a Metal Slug fan to enjoy the amount of depth here – it’s a treat of highly engaging gameplay and a must-listen of a soundtrack. I want more from Leikir Studio and sincerely hope they make the UI more user-friendly to ease the learning process.
