Metal Slug Tactics Review (Xbox Series X)

STAFF REVIEW of Metal Slug Tactics (Xbox Series X)

Friday, January 31, 2025.
by Adam Dileva

Originally released on the Neo Geo back in 1996, Metal Slug has been a long running series with several sequels and spinoffs for nearly every device you could think of. While I’ve played many of them, I don’t think I’ve ever actually finished one, as they were a brutally difficult 2D side scrolling run-and-gun game. The games are well known for their fast-paced challenge, humor, and wonderfully hand drawn animations. I’m glad I haven’t kept a tally of how many quarters I lost to their arcade versions, as it’s probably a hefty sum.

Unlike its mainline titles, Metal Slug Tactics, developed by Leikir Studio and published by Dotemu, has taken the iconic characters and setting, but converted it to a turn-based tactics game played in an isometric perspective. I’ll admit, I wasn’t sure how Metal Slug was going to transition to be a slower-paced tactics style game, but they’ve managed to capture the same essence, even with the drastic genre switch and some roguelite elements to boot.

Longtime series antagonist, Donal Morgan, is back once more to take revenge. It seems he’s been secretly amassing an army over the years, so it once again falls to The Peregrine Falcon Squad (P.F. Squad) to stop him and prevent a massive war. Led by the series iconic hero, Marco Rossi, he’ll not be alone, fighting alongside other series longtime heroes that fans will instantly recognize. The P.F. Squad are the only ones that will be able to stop Morgan’s Rebel Army. While there is an overall narrative, there’s not much to it outside a few codec-like conversations before you start some missions and some minor dialogue. Much like the original games, you’ll be playing Metal Slug Tactics for its strategic gameplay and replayability with over 100 hand-crafted missions that will vary objectives.

Not only is Metal Slug Tactics a complete genre change from its run-and-gun roots, but there’s also roguelite components to its gameplay as well. Even though the perspective is drastically different being isometric, it still absolutely looks and feels like it belongs in the series. You’ll need to be strategic in your movement and actions, but it still retains its classic challenge.

The map is divided into separate regions, needing to be cleared in order. Each region is then divided into a handful of missions that you’re able to choose the order you want to play. After a handful of missions you’ll then face off against that area’s boss, which is likely going to take a number of attempts before being successful. Each mission has a different objective type and rewards, so factor these in when choosing which path to take.

Where the roguelite elements come into play is that you need to win consecutive missions to progress, and when you ultimately fail and lose your whole team in a mission, you’ll need to start all over once again. There is some overall progress you make though, as your characters will level up with successful missions, also earning money that can then be used for upgrades and purchases, making the next run a little easier.

As you eventually progress in the campaign you’ll unlock more iconic characters from the franchise, each of which have their own playstyle, weapons and abilities. It’s up to you to choose which you want to bring into battle and how to best strategize so that can sync their attacks together. With the missions being handcrafted and needing to restart from the beginning each time you fail, you’ll certainly see a few of the earlier missions a handful of times. This will allow you to replay, or avoid, specific missions, as they can vary in objectives. I’m partial to the ‘Kill All Enemies’ or ‘Kill Specified Targets’ missions the most, but there’s also Escort, Rescue and Survive mission as well.

I will say that while there’s a brief tutorial in the beginning, it’s not nearly enough to really explain all of its intricacies. You’re basically thrown right into the deep end and I was confused why I would constantly be failing every mission or two. Yes I read the tutorials, but I simply didn’t get it. I honestly was wanting to give up, but I persevered. Then it clicked, I understood the combat and some strategies and instantly started to really enjoy the challenge and planning of each move when it came to the combat.

Tactic style games generally favor playing defensively, using Overwatch (if the game has it), and letting enemies come to you to get picked off one by one. This is why I was failing so badly, as Metal Slug Tactics cannot be played defensively at all really. You need to take the fight to the enemy and constantly be moving, for reason. Yes, the game teaches you this briefly in the tutorial, but it didn’t really make sense to me at first. Once it did though, I started making good progress and quite enjoyed my time with it after a couple hours of forcing myself to break my instinctual habits.

You’ll take on Morden’s army across over one hundred hand designed maps and almost two dozen different mission types. With dozens of weapons, plenty of weapon mods and numerous loadouts, there’s plenty of ways you can customize your units to best suit your playstyle. Again, this isn’t taught very well initially, so it will take some time and experimentation to fully understand it. As you’re successful in battle and earn XP and money, you can then level your units and choose new abilities, skills, weapons and perks that will greatly help with the next run.

What makes Metal Slug Tactics stand out in the genre is how it really encourages, well, forces really, you to move as much as possible, as that’s going to be the only way you survive. The more spaces you move on the grid the more Dodge and Adrenaline you gain per turn. This allows you to take more damage and use special abilities quicker. Basically, the more you move, the more defense you’ll have. This is what took me a while to really understand fully, as most Tactic games aren’t as such.

Every character’s iconic main weapon has unlimited ammo, but you do have a secondary that is more powerful but has limited uses. They also have special abilities and skills which consumes adrenaline, which is what you gain from movement and attacks on the battlefield. You have two Action Points per character per turn, one for movement and one for attacking. What’s unique is that you don’t have to necessarily use both on one character before changing to another. For example, you can move each of your three units to where you want, then choose to attack afterwards in succession. You’re even able to undo your movement if you want to find a better spot or think of a new strategy, as long as they’ve not attacked yet.

The tactic of moving all your characters before attacking is paramount, as this is how you’ll best make use of the SYNC attacks. This is how you’ll unleash much more damage on your enemies, as other characters in range can assist the one you’ve given an attack command to with a free bonus attack essentially. Again, something that isn’t explained all too well but is necessary to be successful.

After a few missions in a region, you’ll then take on some iconic bosses from the Metal Slug universe. These missions play out quite differently and the first boss took me probably about a half dozen tries before I was successful. They are challenging but break up the typical missions and are quite memorable.

Metal Slug has always been known for its fantastic artwork and animation, and it’s no different with Metal Slug Tactics. Even though the camera and gameplay has shifted from its norm, it still looks as though it belongs in the series. Animations are done very well and goes along with the fantastic soundtrack from Tee Lopes that never grew tiresome when going for one more run.

It takes some time for all of the mechanics to really make sense due to the poor tutorials, but once it does, Metal Slug Tactics goes from being a frustrating experience to a challenging but very rewarding once. Even being turn-based, it feels like a true Metal Slug game, and while I wasn’t sure how the genre change was going to turn out, it’s clear much care and effort went into not only making a great game on its own, but also keeping core fans in mind with a creative spin-off. Mission Start!

**Metal Slug Tactics was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**

Overall: 8.3 / 10
Gameplay: 8.0 / 10
Visuals: 8.5 / 10
Sound: 8.5 / 10

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STAFF REVIEW of Metal Slug Tactics (Xbox Series X)

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