There's always been something endearing about Metal Slug. While its contemporaries like Contra ratcheted up the aliens and body horror, Metal Slug instead leaned hard into comedy, mixing its signature run-and-gun action with comically overbuilt machines, cartoonish villains, and a silly cast of action-hero cliches.

While there have been a few spin-offs over the years, Metal Slug Tactics is the series' first foray into turn-based strategy, and it comes with a roguelike twist. It's a mostly successful mission thanks to clever gameplay and maintaining the silly charm the series is known for, though some outdated tropes and too much of your success being outside of your tactical control keep this operation from being a total victory.

Tactics moves the long-running sidescroller onto an isometric grid, and the pixel art-inspired models do a great job capturing the look and feel the series is known for. Everything from the iconic POWs to the titular Metal Slug tanks themselves feel exactly like the original series translated to 3D. The isometric battlegrounds are littered with varied terrain, buildings, foliage, and other scenic elements that feel right at home, and bosses are exactly the kind of over-engineered machinery you would expect.