“The only defense against the world is a thorough knowledge of it.”
–Some Thoughts Concerning Education
Fans of SNK’s Metal Slug franchise still have a bit of waiting to do before Metal Slug Tactics drops, but until then, Metal Slug Attack Reloaded is here to keep your muzzles warm and your napalm hot. This re-release snuck into a recent Nintendo Direct and it is a remake of a mobile game for iOs and Android, Metal Slug Attack. Reloaded brings the game to home console, which will likely represent an introduction to many players for the first time. I know I hadn’t heard of it before this shadow drop.
The Macro
Metal Slug Attack Reloaded is a tower defense game broken up into micro-missions. Players are tasked with assembling a “deck” of units, characters and vehicles from the Metal Slug series, many of which you’ll surely recognize. Decks can be mixed with units of all different shapes and sizes, or you can organize them by army, of which there are five: the aptly-named Regular Army is the stand in for the good guys and has all your favorite protagonists from Fio to Tarma; the villainous Rebel Army led by the nefarious Morden fields a variety of heavy war machines; the curious Ptolemaic Army boasts secretive cultists that mix the natural and the supernatural in their technologies; the Space Army, among my favorite enemies in the series since Metal Slug 2, beams down martians and UFOs to harass foes; the Independent Army, lastly, seems to be a kind of catch-all, a collection of odds and ends, smaller factions, and random units like female ninja, ancient pharoahs, and enormous mollusks.
Sticking to one army per deck can yield passive bonuses that strengthen your cause when playing a tower defense mission, but the temptation to mix it up was, for me, irresistible. That’s especially true considering how many cool units there are in this game. Units are collectible through the Call To Arms menu, and require the spending of an in-game currency (fortunately no microtransactions using real world money that I can see), although the randomness of a group of units assembled when using Call To Arms reminds one that, yes, this was initially a mobile game, afterall.
Surprisingly, there’s a story attached to Metal Slug Attack Reloaded. It seems significantly more robust than what players of the 2D action-platformers may be accustomed to, if the occasionally lengthy bouts of dialogue between missions are any indication. There’s even an Another Story mode and sub-stories for Support-type units, if you’re a player who fancies reading. So far, I haven’t encountered anything that seems to really develop these characters, and thus I’m left imagining these cutscenes as setting up premises for battles. Skippable.
The Micro
While the macro sees players globetrotting their way through missions, assembling decks, calling new units, and earning currencies to advance, the micro seems to be where the game really lies. Whether the micro resonates with you or becomes tedious and frustrating will likely decide what you think about Metal Slug Attack Reloaded overall. This is due to the incremental, RPG-like nature of progression, and let me build a case for why this quickly becomes time-consuming, if not overwhelming.
I’d say I’m about halfway through the game right now. There appears to be over 300 different units in the game, each of them, again, earned randomly through Gacha mode Call To Arms mode. I currently own a little more than half of them. In order to survive missions that quickly increase in difficulty and stay competitive with enemy units, each of your units must increase their stats by doing the following: firstly, they must Evolve from Silver to Gold to Platinum through repeated appearance in the Call To Arms mode (pulling the same unit multiple times); secondly, they must Level Up by consuming MSP (earned through completing missions) although they cap at a certain level based on your overall player level and cannot gain anymore until your level does; thirdly, they must Equip items found in missions rescuing POWs (there are six items in each of five tiers), though there are only around four POWs in a mission and their drops can be randomized; fourthly, they must use Skill Enhancements which are unlocked through completing a tier of items and which can be leveled up similar to a normal level up with MSP; fifthly, and finally, their Resistance and Attack can be further augmented using specialty items discovered later in the game.
So to put that in perspective, that’s five different methods for increasing the potential of a single unit, relying on both MSP and items gained through completing missions, and there are over three-hundred units in the game. Oh and ten units can be used in a deck, although the game will force you to change up your deck at various points. Manually sifting through menus to raise a unit’s exp, equipment, evolution, skills, etc. by a single level had me quickly wishing for a Raise All feature at the click of a button. Attempting to change up a deck-construction strategy only means more time spent allocating points rather than engaging in missions.
Missions themselves are comparatively straightforward! There’s even an Auto feature as well as way to increase the speed of battles, making most of the emphasis of manual gameplay on constructing, maintaining, and progressing decks of units. All you do in a battle, afterall, is walk across a field and tear down an enemy HQ before they do the same to yours. To my mind, the micromanagement is absolutely where the actual game, and likely where you will spend most of your time. The missions are barely even a testing ground for your ideas during construction.
When you aren’t able to complete a mission, the answer is always increasing levels, equipment, and skills. Always.
Mission Reloaded
Metal Slug Attack Reloaded’s mix of short bouts of action against longterm micromanagement and menu sifting likely won’t please every player. Gacha mechanics are addicting but ultimately superficial, too, in my opinion. Now I don’t mind tactics in my action and employing some strategy before swaggering out onto the battlefield, but I think I would’ve liked a little more action than this. That said, I found a shockingly engrossing tower defense experience here with a significant amount of depth when it comes to character progression. If I get tired of it, that’s what the old Metal Slug classics are for!
PIXEL PERFECT
Recommended
Red formerly ran The Well-Red Mage and now serves The Pixels as founder, writer, editor, and podcaster. He has undertaken a seemingly endless crusade to talk about the games themselves in the midst of a culture obsessed with the latest controversy, scandal, and news cycle about harassment, toxicity, and negativity. Pick out his feathered cap on Twitter @thewellredmage or Mage Cast.
