General Morden is back! His armies have seized control of the capital and its surrounding districts, and the elite Peregrine Falcon Squad stands poised to stop him. Yes, Metal Slug Tactics has the same premise as basically every entry in the long-running SNK series, but a compelling narrative is not why we love them.
I’ve been thinking about getting a Metal Slug tattoo for years, such is my affection for the series’ utterly iconic pixel art and animation. It’ll be clear to anyone who has read my work over the last few years that I’m a lifelong strategy battle game sicko also. As such, I’ve been giddily awaiting the release of Metal Slug Tactics since it was announced back in 2021. It is now finally here, following a bizarrely last-minute launch date announcement, and it is so damn good that I am mildly annoyed that I had to stop playing it long enough to write this review.
A run and gun roguelike
Despite being a turn-based tactics game, Metal Slug Tactics flawlessly maintains the run and gun spirit of its I.P. by making each character’s crucial unique powers be fuelled by ‘Adrenaline’ points which are acquired by moving each turn. The further you move a character, the more Adrenaline they accrue.
It’s also a roguelike in case, like me, you somehow didn’t realise going in.
Each run has you assemble a team of three members of the Peregrine Falcons. You then pick what city-adjacent district you’d like to strike, and work your way through a trio of missions within it to unlock a boss fight. Once at least two districts have been liberated, you can strike at the city where another three-mission string is played before the boss fight against Morden. Of course, if your team is wiped out, or you fail a time-sensitive objective during any mission, your run will be over, and you’re back to square one.
Read: Bolt Action: Third Edition tabletop review – Realism can be fun
Each district features a particular theme and a series of related gimmicks. Missions within them are selected from a Super Mario World-like overworld, and each has a specific pair of rewards attached for completing the required primary and optional secondary objectives within them respectively. Currency, mods for your guns, powerful deployable supply drops, ammo for your special weapons… Strategic consideration of your route through each district is as key to a successful run as victory on the battlefield itself.
Falcons fight together
Only three of the Falcons are available at the start, but a further six from throughout the Metal Slug saga can be unlocked as you complete runs in specific ways. Each begins with a single preset loadout and suite of abilities, but can be customised and developed using currency and experience points earned during a run, with leftover coins being banked to spend on loadout and skill unlocks for each character at the starting hub when a run is over.
On the battlefield, each unit, (both friend and enemy alike), may move once and attack once per turn on a square grid. Most attacks can only be made in a straight line in one of four directions, and no unit can move after they’ve attacked. Adrenaline powers and other conditions can alter these rules of course, but this is the ‘rules’ foundation upon which Metal Slug Tactics’ strategy gameplay is built.
Crucial to your success will be mastering the ‘Sync’ system when attacking, while also keeping each Falcon constantly moving to amass Adrenaline points. Any time one of your Falcons attacks an enemy while another Falcon can also hit that same one, the duo will Sync and the other Falcon will get to strike them for free in addition.
Through clever leveraging of your team’s abilities, you’ll be constantly dancing all over the map to take out multiple enemies and objectives on a single turn. Brilliantly, the game features the ability to endlessly rollback any movement you’ve made before attacking, allowing you to see exactly if and how your Sync strikes will land. In addition to this, each mission also allows you to fully take a mulligan and restart a turn from the top twice, in case you do end up regretting a decision to attack.
It all coalesces together in a brilliantly smart, smooth, and satisfying way. Every turn becomes a deeply rewarding puzzle to solve that never feels punishing, even when you’re mired in a situation of your own making.
Heaven on a handheld
I’ve been primarily playing Metal Slug Tactics on Steam Deck. It’s not yet ‘verified’ and does have the minor issues of small text, and a slightly incorrect display resolution, but I don’t care. It’s just such a perfect game to play on a commute or to curl up in bed with that it’s already been the cause of one near-miss of my bus stop, and a few too many late nights.
It’s all I want to play right now, and that’s a problem, given how many other games I need to be spending time with at this time of year, for this weird and goofy job of mine.
The team at Leikir Studio have managed to transplant the spirit of Metal Slug into an entirely different type of game here – and it’s nothing short of miraculous. Metal Slug Tactics is a marvel of clever design, as well as an utter joy to play, and I really hope that it’s the start of a long-running sub-series for the Metal Slug franchise.
Four-and-a-half stars: ★★★★½
Metal Slug Tactics
Platforms: PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch
Developer: Leikir Studio
Publisher: Dotemu
Release Date: 5 November 2024
A PC code for Metal Slug Tactics was provided by the publisher for the purposes of this review. GamesHub reviews are rated on a ten-point scale.
