[STEAM] Metal Slug Tactics review: the crunchy arcade run 'n' gun pauses to have a tactical think

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I am a very casual enjoyer of Metal Slug games. I've never actually paid for one of these side-scrolling ****** 'em ups, except for all the countless coins I happily pumped into arcade machines as a child. To this day, if I see a rare glittering cabinet running one of these crunchy shmups, I will go ham for twenty or thirty minutes, and walk away satisfied that I have seen a lot of very good pixels. These games, I am convinced, were never really designed to be completed, but to be played exactly like this, as a coin-gobbling invitation to become a bandana-wearing sisyphus, a tiny Rambo pushing a bouncy, juddering tank up a hill occupied by cartoon nazis. You **** a bunch and say: "ah, that was good."

So what happens when you rearrange the molecules of this run and/or **** 'em up into an isometric turn-based strategy game? You get

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, an off-kilter nod to

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and other grid-based turn-takers, but secretly housing the aggressive notions of an unhinged pyromaniac. You still **** a lot. And you still walk away feeling fairly happy about it.

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