Metal Slug is coming back with a brand new look thanks to Dotemu and Leikir Studio
Metal slug is one of the most popular and iconic run’n’gun series, and between 1996 and 2009 made the history of the genre winning the player’s hearts and gaining critics acclaim.
Only playable on the arcade version at first, it also found its place in home consoles, with a total of nine titles to his credit.
On June 8, 2021, Dotemu showed the first reveal trailer about the game and later on 11 August a short gameplay trailer.
Thanks to these two trailers, we can try to talk about its early features and gameplay.
The Peregrine Falcon Squad is back to face their old enemies and save the world once again. We will be able to choose between 4 playable characters from the classic saga: Marco, Eri, Fio and Tarma.
Talkin’ about the technical aspect of the trailer, we can see a good looking and well designed pixel art, with the classic camera angle of a strategic/tactical turn based game.
The art direction looks very inspired too:
We can recognize references about the world of Metal Slug, the main characters, the classic enemies and the iconic boss fights. The environments and the battlegrounds took inspiration from the old saga’s stages. There are some easter eggs from Metal Slug and other SNK games like King of Fighters and Fatal Fury, which will surely delight the longtime fans of the Japanese software house.
We can guess from the trailers and the software house’s words that we will be facing a game based on a strategic/tactical turn system with RPG and roguelite components.
We can improve our characters and get them stronger thanks to a skill tree and perks system. The challenging and roguelite feature seems to be based on a different and handed conformation of the battle stages during the missions.
We can use the classic fireguns, mecha and battle tanks of the Metal Slug saga. Thinking that these last should be a trump card against buildings, thanks to some environmental destruction of the stages.
Last but not least we have a gameplay feature called Sync.
At first look it seems a classic flanking maneuver that allows you to hit an enemy from different sides with your member’s squad.
Unfortunately we don’t have more stuff to talk about, and the only news from Dotemu is that the game will be available for PC and Nintendo Switch and it’s still a work in progress so, needs more time to improve the combat system at its best, delaying the launch date to a generic 2023.
