Once again, the world is on the cusp of being taken over by the evil General Donald Morden and his Rebel Army. Only the Peregrine Falcon Squad, led by the heroic Marco Rossi, stand in the way of the Rebels establishing their New World Order. This could be the plot of just about any entry in the Metal Slug series, which is at its best when you don’t take it too seriously.
Metal Slug Attack Reloaded , a remake of a microtransaction-laden gacha tower-defence mobile game, does its best to uphold the goofy tone of the series while stripping out the worst bits of the 2016 version. At least, it does its best to take the frustrating bits out. The Switch version doesn’t have any microtransactions, thankfully – but it does still very much feel like a gacha game that expects you to log in every day and grind your way to victory.
The result is an uneven but still enjoyable game that is constrained by its origins. Like most of the series that spawned it, the story of Metal Slug Attack Reloaded is paper-thin at the best of times. Marco Rossi and the Peregrine Falcon Squad lead the charge to stop the Rebel Army from taking over the world.
It is unclear if this is meant to be done through expert strategy or brute strength since the gameplay that follows each short cutscene is an exercise in sending wave after wave of units at the enemy until you manage to destroy their base. It is the kind of simple, mindless fun that works well as a mobile game but feels lacklustre when ported to a co.