Metal Slug Attack Reloaded Review (Switch) - Live, Laugh, Lock, and Load

It’s been sixteen years since the last mainline entry in SNK’s Metal Slug series. The legendary side-scrolling arcade action extravaganza was known for beautiful sprite-work, world-spanning set-pieces, a macabre sense of humor, and outlandish bosses. I had no idea until the recent Nintendo Direct, but apparently, since 2014’s Metal Slug Defense, there’s been a series of tower defense games set in the Metal Slug universe. The latest entry, Metal Slug Attack Reloaded, available on multiple platforms, is an enhanced port of Metal Slug Attack, a mobile gatcha game from 2016 that boasted 1,300 characters and many dozens of challenges. As someone who isn’t into mobile games, I was curious: could such an experience translate to a home console format

The gameplay of Metal Slug Attack Reloaded is simple to describe, even if its intricacies are quite complex. You and your opponent have bases on opposite sides of a 2D plane, and you’ll both produce units to do furious battle with one another until one of the bases is blown to smithereens. Units are summoned with AP (Action Points), which you’ll gain by defeating foes and spending increasing amounts of AP to upgrade the speed of AP regeneration during each match, so there’s a balance to strike between development and summoning units.

Not-so ‘basic’ training

As for combat, each unit has at least one normal attack and one special attack. Some have melee attacks. Some have shields and machetes. Some do one thing, like shoot missiles or set up stationary sandbags. There are tanks, fighter jets, zombies, laser drones, mechanized suits, giant space worms, swooping locusts, Martians, and foot soldiers with every specialty you can imagine. If you can think it up, there’s probably a unit for it in this game. There’s a massive variety of units, and five armies, each with their specialties. In addition to summoning units, you’ll also be able to control when they use their Special moves, which can often be unique. 

Timing special move usage is crucial, and that also goes for your charged-up supports. As you do damage and your meter builds, you’ll also be able to activate a special support move. This can be a Reload (allowing you to use your Special moves immediately), Recovery (healing all injured units), or my favorite, the upgradeable Metal Slug Attack, which sends a kamikaze metal slug barreling towards your foes for massive damage. These can all be upgraded. There are also special support units for each army. You build up a meter to use them in battle, and they all have different effects.

Part visual novel, part army management, part tower defense

In order to progress in the main Quest mode, you’ll need to simultaneously tackle the new Another World campaign, which tasks you with completing army-specific missions. Every mission is tied together with visual-novel side stories, and each army has its main characters with their own stories to tell. Sadly, the translation is uneven. Some segments are impeccably translated with the highest of quality, while others feel unpolished and even have minor grammatical errors. While there are some fun and even touching character moments, the story itself did not hold my interest, but I’m sure there are diehards out there who will appreciate the deeper cuts of the lore.

In between missions, you’ll be grinding for new units and upgrades to existing ones, as well as arranging your ‘decks’ - basically, your loadout of the ten units you’ll have available for any given mission. It’s important to pick the right tools for the job, so for instance, if you’re in need of anti-air, you’ll have to shill out for the upgrades, which may necessitate replaying missions for the right items to upgrade their skills, plus tickets to spend on level-ups. You’ll be spending a lot of time cycling through menus and experimenting with decks, and especially later on in the game, you’ll be grinding often enough to make progress feel slow, even if the battles themselves can be over in minutes or less.

Two campaigns, multiple difficulties, five armies, and 300 units… that’s a lot of content!

I have never played the original Metal Slug Attack, but apparently, the console release is missing most of the units. However, I feel that 300 units are plenty to choose from and upgrade, especially because of the somewhat clunky Call to Arms system, where you utilize medals (acquired from progress and achieving certain conditions) to recruit between 3-5 units at a time. In true gatcha fashion, duplicates will upgrade existing units from Bronze to Platinum. Going through the motions of summoning and upgrading so many units can be tedious, and I can’t imagine how long it would take to upgrade my preferred units if there were 1,300 of them for the system to cycle through. Thankfully, once you have enough gears (the upgrade currency) to take a unit to Platinum, you’ll stop receiving duplicates for it, so when grinding for units, there’s no wasted effort.

As for the characters, it’s incredible how many there are between all five armies. While you get a set bonus for keeping your deck to just one army, I had a lot of fun mixing and matching units between armies in the Quest mode. The main quartet from the Metal Slug games - Marco, Tarma, Eri, and Fio, are all strong early on, with distinct variations between alternate forms, (horse and cart, riding ostriches and camels, alien clones, zombie variants, etc). Although the game gates you to five Decks, it’s easy to swap units in and out. I for one am more than satisfied with the roster, but some DLC units would be a welcome addition.

Once you progress far enough in the Quest mode, you’ll unlock the Elite difficulty, where tougher versions of missions are available, with better rewards that often count towards your units’ upgrades. My one major gripe with the game is that there’s no easy or simple one-button way to upgrade an entire unit with all available equipment every time you get a level up, or alternately, develop upgrades on an entire deck at once. This one change would drastically reduce the endless time spent navigating menus that were clearly optimized for touch screens.

There is also an online head-to-head mode, which I did not try, though by most accounts, it is rather unbalanced. People are supposedly cheating on Steam, but I’ m not sure whether that’s possible on Switch. It would be interesting to me to see a co-op mode where friends or strangers could team up against tough versions of some of the game’s larger bosses. Metal Slug Attack Reloaded also features unlockable music from past games in the series, which is great for scratching that itch.

Mixing and matching mercenaries… you’ll find it either marvelous, or maddening

For the first time in a long time, Metal Slug fans are in for a treat. The seemingly endless wait continues for the follow-up to Metal Slug 7, but in the meantime, the franchise has a promising 2024. Metal Slug Tactics, a turn-based game set in SNK’s silly sandbox, is coming out later this year. 

Metal Slug Attack Reloaded is a fine addition to the storied series, but it’s definitely made for a niche audience. Not every fan of tower defense games will enjoy this, and the constant need to level-up your teams and upgrade your units will definitely deter some players. Diehard Metal Slug fans who don’t mind grinding missions multiple times for items and rewards in order to enjoy the lore and surprisingly tense skirmishes will find the most to love here. I personally couldn’t put the game down for over four dozen hours, so despite its clunky menus, tedious upgrade system, and repetitive grinding, it’s doing something right.

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Verdict: 4 / 5 (Fantastic)

PROS

• A love letter to the franchise with multiple lengthy, detailed narratives

• Tense boss battles, a wide variety of enemies, and decent challenges

• Faithful sprite work, classic music tracks, and overall great presentation

• Precise tower defense gameplay that rewards thinking ahead and good timing

CONS

• Menus were not changed from their mobile roots, making them tedious to navigate on controller

• Repetitive grinding and recruiting slow down progress

• A much reduced character roster VS the original mobile release

What I’ve Played 

• Beat the main campaign at around 18 hours while doing side content and challenges

• Played for a total of 52 hours upgrading units and taking on challenges

• Unlocked 304/304 units, maxed out about 160

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