I’ve all the time cherished the artwork of the Steel Slug sequence of side-scrolling shooters, so I’ve been preserving a eager eye on the fetching grid technique antics of Steel Slug Techniques ever because it was first introduced. For so long as I’ve been excited, I’ve additionally been fearful. It’s been a polarising expertise, like being alternately fed scrumptious sandwiches and people inedible rotlogs they promote at Subway. Nonetheless, I’ve remained cautious: is all this nice pixel-art only a shroud pulled over a ho-hum ways recreation to rescue it from naffness? It’s with this in thoughts I hungrily dove into the Steam Subsequent Fest demo, as one may hungrily dive right into a bin to eat literal rubbish if their solely different choice was Subway.
I leap into the primary mission as Steel Slug mainstay Marco Rossi, a person who won’t take off his bandana beneath any circumstances. The official fan wiki describes Marco’s look as a cross between Sylvester Stallone and David Bowie. I get distracted imagining Stallone singing Area Oddity for a bit, then determine I higher play some videogame, very similar to a Subway employee coming back from break and realising they need to slap collectively one other horrendous vomit-tube of a sandwich.
Each flip every character will get one transfer and one motion, however in case you take the motion first, you additionally lose your transfer. This feels on the extra restrictive finish so far as motion economies go, however you should utilize “synchronisation” assaults to stretch that financial system out, additional than a pack of Subway meat over a thousand anemic dirt-loafs. These are particular tag-team actions you set off without spending a dime by establishing orthogonal flanking postions. For now, although, it’s simply Marco. I can choose between a pistol and a machine gun, however the latter has restricted ammo. It’s right here I discover some good quality-of-life bits. You possibly can undo strikes and quick ahead enemy turns, although there is a restriction on the undo-ing, which I’ll unfurl beneath like a yellowing lettuce leaf on a stale roll that prices eighteen kilos, or sixteen kilos with ten years’ price of Subway loyalty factors.
The sport quickly introduces some welcome slapstick hijinks. I take advantage of a change to drop a dangling bomb-crate on a few idiots. This doesn’t price my motion, however, simply as promised, prevents me from undoing earlier strikes. The crate does precisely 1996 injury to the 2 fools, which is the yr the unique recreation launched. Cute. What’s a bit much less cute is, as a lot as I nonetheless adore the artwork fashion, the enemies I’m preventing are some irksomely lazy middle-eastern stereotypes straight out of, properly, the mid-nineties. It’s as much as you the way you’re feeling about these things, after all, however alongside the occasional pressure of middle-eastern instrumentation within the soundtrack, and the non-descript Islamic structure, it’s all a bit unironically “America, fuck yeah” for my tastes. Preservation, eh?
![A rousing tactical battle in Metal Slug Tactics](https://assetsio.gnwcdn.com/ss_cd8c2ee59083568f7c3ece55334fa0a48360fb35.1920x1080.jpg?width=690&quality=80&format=jpg&auto=webp)
Anywhoo. The additional you will have a personality transfer, the extra ‘dodge’ you generate. I’ve seen this in a number of tabletop video games earlier than – it’s a helpful and flavorful approach to signify evasiveness in a turn-based ruleset, and I prefer it quite a bit. Working additionally generates a useful resource referred to as ‘adrenaline’, which is spent on particular actions. For Marco, these are an area-of-effect missile strike, and a buff that lets him or an ally shoot twice. The strike is foolish enjoyable, and it additionally destroys a complete tank. Steel Slug’s tank designs are considered one of my favorite issues about it, so I’m a bit unhappy to see it go, very similar to a beloved native bakery being changed by a Subway although there’s already six of them on the identical effing road.
Quickly, I’m joined by a few buddies, Eri and Fio. Eri has infinite grenades, which sounds ridiculous, however I can solely throw them orthogonally – identical together with her grenade launcher, albeit with an extended vary. It’s the identical with lots of the weapons and skills, truly, so that you’ll want to think twice about positioning fairly than simply vaguely being in vary. You can too hit your individual dudes in the event that they’re in the identical line, which is kind of humorous if tactically nonoptimal.
After the tutorial, I’m given the prospect to pick out a mission from an overworld map, every with totally different major and secondary targets. I’m additionally warned there will be an ‘enemy response in 4 turns’, which feels like some kind of board recreation risk-reward side to all of it. I choose one in a village dotted with buildings, and discover out that the majority weapons can’t goal enemies on totally different elevation ranges. This goes in opposition to my years of ways coaching, but additionally means my crew are safer than I believed they had been. So, a restriction for offence, however extra to think about for defence? I don’t hate it! Annoyingly, the sport solely tells me this after I’ve deployed although, like an underpaid Subway employee solely letting me know they’re out of honey mustard after they’ve already assembled my disgusting pus-cylinder.
I’m rewarded with some XP after the mission, in addition to some mods, which may do issues like enhance my grenades or give my weapons extra ammo. Stage-ups allow you to choose between three randomly chosen talents. Marco will get an explosive punch, for instance, whereas Eri can now create detonating clones of herself. So! As a package deal, it does certainly seem to be there’s some worthwhile tactical depth right here, versus the duvet n’ flank copy paste coasting on an artwork fashion I used to be afraid it may be. As I mentioned above, it may perhaps do with coasting on rather less of the very same artstyle in sure areas, however I’m simply as fascinated about your take, reader. Is that this artwork objectively dope, or am I only a wistful, nostalgic idiot? Both method, this one’s nonetheless due for launch within the final chunk of 2024 – an already unwieldy, gelatinous chunk, of the sort you may uncover in a horrible Subway sandwich. Which, as you could have picked up, I am not particularly eager on.