Absolutely amazing addition to the Metal Slug Franchise. It respects the legacy of the original games by not only having references but also having mechanics that are tied to each character. It may not be run and gun but it plays similar to it with how the roguelike, strategy, rpg mechanics it has. Each character has a unique playstyle that synerizes with the right characters you pick alongside them. The leveling up system, passive abilities, weapons and assets aren't too difficult to understand which helps you pick up on everything the game has to offer. Story is not a major part of the game but it does tie into the original franchise's unique that gives a sense of familiarity to those who have played the original games. As an OG Metal Slug fan, I enjoyed every single thing about this game cause it pays homage to its original identity but also introduces new unique gameplay, enemies, mechanics, etc. My only complaint of this game is there are some visual bugs that still occur but it doesnt diminish my enjoyment of the game.

Overall, I highly recommend this to any OG Metal Slug fans that are also a fan of strategy type games that keeps your brain strategizing to perform the perfect play.

I am utterly in love with this game, cleared it many times on highest difficulty, but is it a hidden gem for you, too, or something to avoid?? I have read a lot of the negative reviews and I would like to help you assess the fairly consistent complaints that can be broken down into several larger categories, while also highlighting the VERY undersung merits if you can GET YOURSELF TO THEM.

For me, I loved this game every bit as much as Final Fantasy Tactics, X-Com, or Into the Breach, though this is most like the latter in terms of the variable length rogue-like structure (modeled on it seemingly, in fact) and also in that it's almost more like a "puzzle game" than a tactics game. The difference between this and other greats is that it *IS* for a narrower audience, and in many ways it's overall less accessible, less forgiving, and while it feels plenty robust to me, as some have noted another zone or mode or something would have been nice (at $25 I think you get plenty of bang personally).

This is a bold statement, but I believe that once you REALLY wrap your head around this game it has the best tactical gameplay I've encountered (deepest, most multi-dimensional, most rewarding synergistically, most satisfying viscerally). But you have to go through the growing pains of first learning the main mechanics and THEN realizing how awesome the ability pool is. That journey is long, subjectively satisfying, and deep even for a veteran (but devs, the difficulty caps WAY too low). It is *WILD* how much different your first run will feel than when you clear the game on highest difficulty, simply because your character abilities are now the backbone of your plan, not just running haphazardly across the map trying to line up synch shots. I was literally afraid after my first full run I was gonna be too bored to keep playing, because I hadn't even figured out how to enjoy optimizing momentum and synching yet, but more importantly I didn't realize that the character abilities in this game are actually very interesting and SYNERGISTIC.

SO:

THE BUGS
I have not encountered the critical bugs that have been mentioned seemingly in older reviews so maybe they're largely fixed by now. There is at least one mislabeled passive and as mentioned the rare occasion where you need to see a space obscured by elevation is slightly wonky.

THE "METAL SLUG"-NESS
I'm not a fan boy by any stretch but was delighted to see the recontextualization of the franchise. It's not on the level of playing Mario RPG for the first time, but if you think you'll at all be tickled by the double edged sword of temporarily becoming a mummy, or rescuing those tied-up squalid cave man looking dudes for bonus points, in tactical grid form instead of platform form, you probably will be. I agree with the comments that they could have gone further (no aliens is a shame) and done more, but I was basically delighted by the gorgeous art, and aesthetically found the game such a joy that I find it hard to complain excessively here. Does it "FEEL" like a run&gun tactics game? To me that ask sounds almost impossible, but I DO think this feels more action-y and run&gun than any other tactics engine I can think of.

THE CORE MECHANICS (the big one)
Even at lower difficulties the games INSISTS you embrace the "MOMENTUM" mechanic, at mid difficulties you need to start seriously mastering the "SYNCH" mechanic, and at the highest difficulties of the game you'll need to have a deep understanding of three characters that synergize well in a squad, and start mastering their ability pools and identifying powerful synergy points. Let's discuss each of these three pillars of the tactical gameplay in more detail:

(1) MOMENTUM: The more you move and the more in a straight line and more you hop over stuff and change elevation the more you build momentum, which provides you with two critical things--Dodge, which is a flat damage reduction against ALL sources of damage for the entire next turn, and Adrenaline which is the cumulative resource that lasts between turns indefinitely that can be spent on your character's special abilities. For my first two or three battles, I thought, wow, this is super weird, unintuitive, kinda rote feeling, and totally different than what I'm used too (find the best cover, hunker down, and hope). Tactics games usually tell you: You can go anywhere pretty unrestricted, so just find the best spot, and here they are incentivizing you to "move around" a lot and at first its weird. I ended up really finding it fun, thematic, and satisfying, especially once you wrap your head around how it works a little bit. What really makes it interesting though is you have to optimize it along with:

(2) SYNCH ATTACKS
Your units all can move, and then shoot, once each turn (by default). Movement always happens first (shooting cancels any move you might have had). However, when one of your units attacks an enemy, any of your allies that are within attack range ALSO shoot that enemy with a "synch attack" as a completely free action (no consequences to their own movement pool or main action--so the one way you can shoot before moving without losing your movement is off of a synch). I found this mechanic to be awesome. So simple, but surprisingly deep (you start noticing nuances like my last parenthetical) especially when paired with our next section.

(3) ADRENALINE ABILITIES
It truly hurts me to read people say this game is boring. Surely they have not figured out how to assemble a team that's endlessly bonus-moving and bonus-actioning around the entire map, scaling damage for the turn on each frag with your bloodlust passive, raking in bonus adrenaline from passives to keep it going indefinitely, only to build up so much bonus damage for the turn that you one-shot the final boss after clearing all of his minions lol. Into the Breach is awesomely satisfying when you ram a bug into another bug and block the bug coming up from the ground and oh yeah baby! But it's NOTHING compared to the degeneracy you can get up to in this game with a real team comp. If you like the sort of "combo" stuff that is honestly more often associated with say deckbuilders or card games (oh when I take this ability I get a million dodge, oh my dodge never goes away at the end of the turn and now, oh! I have this ultimate that spends all my dodge and deals triple that much damage!) THIS game will give you some of that, it's just gonna take you a minute to find it even if you're a veteran.

It's worth noting that some of the funkier classes that don't require you to be a tactical wizard to do awesome things (like bot summoner Nadia) take a few runs to unlock (Devs, I think Marco presents as off-puttingly complex for a starter hero, he should be the most basic character design and the extra hit buff and adrenaline cost reduction thing...Fio and Ari are on point but I bet Marco's weird package is gonna scare a few people away before they get into the game).

IN SUMMARY
*The mechanics are "weird" enough for a tactics formula that you should be careful even as a genre fan, but an open mind and giving them multiple hours to grow on you and let you learn them might help.
*The ability pool might seem lame at first but is actually super fun when you learn how to optimize it.

TIPS FOR THOSE STRUGGLING:

*Don't take too many "new" adrenaline abilities while leveling up--you don't have much adrenaline to spend so not much use in tons of abilities if you can't use em! Take plenty of passives and level-ups for the abilities you have.
*Fio, especially "Meticulous Fio" is both powerful and easy to use at all levels of play. Her shield ability is VERY strong esp. if you're struggling.
*Attacks that generate bonus actions are a great way to stay ahead of the enemies. AOE (Ari) is another way.
*My personal S-Tier build is M. Fio, Power-Up Ralf, and Clark Fired Up. The boss nuke potential is REDONK and tons of bonus act/mov.

Yes