I’m Having A Fun Time With Metal Slug Tactics Even If I Can’t Read A Damn Thing

Metal Slug Tactics isn’t what I was expecting. Fortunately, that’s not a bad thing. Instead of Final Fantasy Tactics, it’s Into the Breach with some clever twists that help infuse it with some of the classic arcade series’ run-and-gun roots. I’m having a fun time with it so far, even if it has some glaring annoyances.

First, the good news: a few hours with Metal Slug Tactics (developed by Leikir Studio and published by Dotemu) convinced me it’s a decent strategy RPG that combines the roguelike structure and emphasis on puzzle combat with some new character mechanics that help spice things up a bit. Instead of a linear campaign, you select a squad of fighters, choose a region, and then progress through random map encounters until you get to a boss fight.

On the battlefield, fighters like Eri, Fio, and Marco each have unique equipment and skills that can be improved and customized throughout a run. Unlike traditional grid-based strategy games, most attacks happen along a straight line from where the character is currently stationed, making positioning, terrain, and elevation key factors in whether a fight goes your way or not.

Harkening back to Metal Slug’s original 2D side-scrolling shooter incarnations, your characters accrue a bonus called “adrenaline” as they move around the battlefield. It grants additional advantages and buffs, rewarding versatile and aggressive play rather than just sitting back and turtling. Synergy abilities, meanwhile, let nearby allies join in follow-up combo attacks to press the advantage.

The result is combat that requires you to think on your feet and adapt to the situation at hand instead of devising a strategy ahead of time and just worrying about the execution. Combined with slick, retro pixel art and a solid soundtrack, the overall Metal Slug Tactics experience feels tight, rewarding, and well-balanced between thoughtfully teasing out solutions to the combat puzzles at hand and keeping the action moving with quick missions and straightforward objectives.

Okay, now the bad news. While the finished Metal Slug Tactics mostly lives up to the gorgeous trailers fans have been gawking at for years, there are some real shortcomings. I’ve been playing on PlayStation 5 (it’s also on Game Pass), where I’ve experienced both a frustrating amount of stuttering on the performance end and, even worse, some really poorly optimized UI and font sizes on the quality-of-life side.

Most games nowadays feel designed with a PC monitor a couple of feet from your face in mind when it comes to screen layout and the size of features like action menus and text boxes. Even starting at that baseline, however, Metal Slug Tactics was particularly painful to try and read and navigate from a living room setup, even when I moved within five feet of my TV. Checking through Steam and various subreddits, I’ve seen complaints specifically about font sizes and readability for the Switch and PC versions cropping up as well.

Both the shaky performance and miserable UI (I really wish the UI and fonts weren’t such a headache to decipher on console) can probably be fixed with post-launch patches, but the missing polish and strained eyes are hard to ignore. The rest of Metal Slug Tactics is a compelling, if not super deep, retro roguelike strategy experience that’s worth checking out for fans of Metal Slug and games like Into the Breach alike—especially if the team behind the game can get the other issues worked out.