Metal Slug Tactics gives turn-based strategy a hyper-stylized shot of adrenaline
Metal Slug Tactics pushes hard on the boundaries of the vaunted run-and-gun arcade series. You can run when it’s your character’s turn, but it’s a certain number of tiles. You can gun, but not rapidly, and only after considering the most optimal target and tools.
Is this just Into the Breach with classic-era SNK artwork and aesthetics? Kind of, and you’re welcome.
As a true fan once wrote, Metal Slug games are about “crazy vehicles, amusing enemies and levels, and some of the best sprite art you’ll ever see in gaming.” To my eyes, you’re getting a whole bunch of that in Tactics. Turn-based, grid-mapped tactics have a natural tendency to feel slow and to strip characters down to chess pieces that can do two or three things. Here, the characters and villains cannot stop rocking their bodies, the guns and explosions and scimitars go off big, and the exaggerated-just-enough artwork keeps everything locked into an action-movie mood.
