The announcement of Metal Slug Tactics felt so weird, but at the same time, it felt so… right. Even though the franchise is known as basically the best run-and-gun arcade platformer franchise of all time (I’m sorry Contra, but you ain’t got no chance here), turning the franchise’s war-like loop into a tactical RPG felt like a genius move. Announced earlier this year, Metal Slug Tactics was something I was desperately looking forward to, especially on the Switch. Playing that game on a portable seemed to be the logical choice. Sadly, now that the game is out, I can’t help but feel somewhat disappointed by it.

Now, let me talk about the game itself before I mention my issues with it, because, being honest with you, Metal Slug Tactics is excellent. Regarding its gameplay loop, I loved how every single mission can be tackled in any order, and lasts for just a few minutes at a time. It’s a perfect blend of tactical RPG shenanigans with actual arcade sensibilities. It actually is great as a “pick up and play for a round or two” experience, just like pretty much every single SNK game ever made. In this regard, I legitimately adored how the game worked, and how easy to learn, hard to master its combat system is.

It’s the usual schtick: each of your characters can move once and then perform an action before the turn is over. That’s a gross simplification of how Metal Slug Tactics works, though. Each character has specific weapons they can wield, and a bunch of abilities you can acquire upon leveling them up. Furthermore, you can chain attacks in a single turn, if you place two or more characters within a straight line of sight from an enemy; they can join forces and perform multiple chain attacks in one turn, allowing you to get rid of foes in a quicker and still pretty fun fashion.

Yeah, I have no qualms regarding the gameplay. Leikir Studio had already proven themselves with Rogue Lords‘ interesting combat system, so I knew they would be able to come up with a neat and entertaining combat system for Metal Slug Tactics. At its core, I can’t complain. Had I played the game on, say, an Xbox or PC, this score would have been a lot higher. But I tackled Metal Slug Tactics on the Switch, and this is why I felt so disappointed with the end product. What could/should have been a slam dunk for a portable just barely works on the system.

For instance, the framerate is insanely bad. I love how each and every asset in this game looks exactly like something that would have been part of a mainline Metal Slug game, but I just wasn’t expecting for the game to run at the same atrocious framerate as Metal Slug on the PS1 back in 1999. I do feel relieved that it doesn’t technically impact the gameplay, as everything is menu and prompt-based, meaning you don’t need to have lightning-fast reflexes, but for crying out loud, we are talking about a pixel art tactics game. Why is the framerate so inconsistent?

I also have this qualm regarding the gameplay. Wait, it’s still great, don’t get me wrong. But I can’t help but feel like not having touchscreen support in a portable console that’s basically a tablet is a tremendous missed opportunity, considering how the screen is always plastered with a ton of menus, prompts, and icons. They are even somewhat hard to read in portable mode, given how small they are. Touchscreen support would have even mitigated some of my issues with the horrendous framerate, as it would have expedited the gameplay, making me ignore the responsiveness issues stemming from trying to move the cursor whilst the game is struggling to reach sub-N64 levels of performance.

Finally, a smaller qualm: the tutorial. I’ll just say that it does a poor job at teaching you how to learn how to play the game as a whole. I’ve mentioned that Metal Slug Tactics is easy to learn and hard to master, but that was due to how the game tried to teach me its mechanics. The tutorial was long, arduous, and terrible. I ended up figuring things out on my own later on.

I understand that most of these issues are fixable, and if they end up being patched, I will then firmly advocate for everyone to buy Metal Slug Tactics on the Switch (or the Steam Deck if you have access to one). As for now, however, that’s not it. I love the gameplay loop, the presentation, the perfect mixture of tactical combat with arcade-like sensibilities, but I expected a lot more from this game in this particular platform, which felt like the perfect home for it when it was first announced. Between the terrible performance and lack of touchscreen support, play Metal Slug Tactics elsewhere. It’s still well worth your time. Just not on the Switch.

Graphics: 6.5 I love how each and every asset looks exactly like something that would have been part of a mainline Metal Slug game, but I’m really disappointed with the massive framerate drops.	Gameplay: 7.5 The combat system is neat and intuitive. It’s a damn shame that this Switch port doesn’t feature touchscreen support. It would have saved me a lot of time.
Sound: 7.0 A bit of voice acting, a neat soundtrack. It’s not memorable but it’s good, getting the job done without any issues.	Fun Factor: 7.0 Whilst I loved how Metal Slug Tactics perfectly manages to combine tactical role-playing gameplay with Neo Geo arcade sensibilities, I was disappointed wth its performance and lack of touchscreen support. It could have been a lot better with just a few extra trinkets.
Final Verdict: 7.0

Metal Slug Tactics is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PC and Switch.

Reviewed on Switch.

A copy of Metal Slug Tactics was provided by the publisher.