#tactical reloading

[cactuskat]

This makes me so happy

[mostwantedpotato404]

I didn't saved n hunters got me

[sheepytina]

So people are talking about the artwork in Metal Slug games again

There's been a few posts going around talking about how weird the Metal Slug characters look in the mobile games, particularly female characters like Eri and especially fan favourite Fio.

This conversation comes up again every so often, but it's been reignited on Tumblr again this week with three new Metal Slug games coming onto the scene:

The recent re-reveal of the indie title Metal Slug Tactics from Dotemu, which was originally announced in 2021, during Summer Game Fest 2024,

The June 2024 Nintendo Direct shadow-drop of a revamped version of the former mobile game Metal Slug Attack as Metal Slug Attack Reloaded, and

The impending global launch of the Chinese mobile game Metal Slug: Awakening from Tencent Games next month (July 2024), which originally released in China and SEA in 2023.

Remember these three names, because this is what this post is going to primarily centre around.

However there's one version of this type of post going around that just posts artwork from Metal Slug 3 and MS: Awakening and doesn't adequately explain what the artwork actually comes from and why it looks the way it does, resulting in the confusion and bewilderment of many people who are less familiar with the Metal Slug series.

And so I decided I really need to throw my hat into the ring and see if I can dissect this and bring some actual facts to the conversation.

Look, it's not great. Basically, the stuff people are saying is indeed mostly true, but there's a lot of half-truths and even a few straight up lies being mixed into it. Such as how what the original Metal Slug games looked like is actually more complicated than people think, for starters.

Furthermore, one of the three games I mentioned actually looks really good, and oddly it seems to be the one with the least attention on it right now.

Now, because I'm me, this blog post ended up really long, long enough to have chapter markers, so please bear with me and stick around to the end if you can. — And if you don't care about the historical context, I'm happy for you just to look at the pictures too.

Part 1: The original NEOGEO Metal Slug games

So the main point of this conversation is that the classic Metal Slug games let the characters look weird and cartoony. That's a big part of Metal Slug's core identity, and this is lost in the recent mobile games.

(Of course I had to get a real CRT photo in here at some point.)

To define "classic Metal Slug" you can assume most people are referring Metal Slug 1 through to 3, i.e. the ones that SNK created before their bankruptcy in the year 2000. And most of all, that iconic character select screen from Metal Slug 2, X and 3.

As you can see, there's definitely a shift that took place here.

But hold on, Fio also looks pretty different on the arcade flyers, especially in her original debut in Metal Slug 2. So it's not exactly as clear cut at the cherrypicked images would suggest, but all the same there is still a distinct, extremely late '90s style to everything.

Metal Slug 4 and 5 also released for the NEOGEO system and are similarly loved by many, but were developed in the 2000s under the newly formed Playmore, aka SNK Playmore. I definitely agree with this sentiment that the "original identity" of Metal Slug was strongest in the early titles, and the artwork is the most noticeable reflection of that.

However, although it has little bearing on the conversation, I think it's important to clarify that this change to a contemporary anime style actually began in the early 2000s during the Playmore era of SNK. Like would happen with other SNK game series like The King of Fighters and Samurai Shodown, things got weird for Metal Slug once SNK was reborn as Playmore, eventually becoming SNK Playmore.

Still, all the mainline Metal Slug games through to Metal Slug 7 and Metal Slug XX are still considered classics by fans. The problem for a lot of fans would be SNK's push into new markets such as pachislot and mobile gaming.

Which brings us to…

Part 2: The Metal Slug smart device games, and the Chinese mobile game market

Mobile games would prove a highly lucrative market for SNK Playmore, with hundreds of titles published for Japanese phones during the '00s. A few of these also made their way to more conventional J2ME devices in China. Eventually the mobile gaming market would move to smartphones, with SNK bringing games such as Metal Slug Defense and Metal Slug Attack to market in the 2010s.

This is the first mention of China in this post and it won't be the last. SNK's arcade titles had traditionally been extremely popular in the Chinese market, and with the mobile game market rapidly growing and a hunger for bigger games from beloved SNK series, a lot of interest had grown for SNK titles in this market.

This would result in a huge investment from Chinese companies, with a new joint venture acquiring a 81% stake in the company in 2016, leading SNK Playmore to announce a new shift in their strategy, and with that came a rebrand, once again to simply SNK.

This new identity signified a new era for SNK. This newly reignited SNK would move away from non-videogame markets such as pachislot, and focus more on console games and character licensing. This is the SNK that gave us The King of Fighters XIV and a new Samurai Shodown game.

But this is also the SNK that really doubled down on the Chinese and South-east Asian mobile markets.

This is where this conversation stems from. Games such as the tower defence mobile game Metal Slug Attack and many other mobile games in series such as The King of Fighters would be massive money-makers for SNK. Even the new Samurai Shodown game on consoles/PC would centre Chinese audiences with its first DLC crossover characters pulling from Ubisoft's For Honor and Tencent's Honor of Kings.

But when it comes to centering the tastes of the mobile game market, the big one that bugs people is Metal Slug: Awakening, a mobile game developed and published under license by Tencent Games, which entered beta testing in 2021 and released in China and South-east Asia in 2023.

Now this game actually doesn't have all that much to do with SNK besides the license. However it would be disingenuous of me to say that means it's insignificant to the series. We didn't get to this point out of nowhere out of all. Plus this game is set for a global release in 2024, so this game is for all of us to enjoy.

Although, is it really for all of us? The game certainly seems to plays like a real Metal Slug game, retaining the series' famous run 'n gun gameplay, which is more than you can say for most Metal Slug mobile games. But it certainly doesn't look like a Metal Slug game. The in-game graphics are a strange 3D interpretation of the original pixel art, and all the game's promotional artwork and splash screens look like this. Fio in particular straight up looks like a different character in these pictures.

It's not great. I'm not about to try and defend this. It's just that I really need to stress that it's really not a game targeted towards us.

To make matters more confusing for a lot of people not super plugged-into Metal Slug is that it's not even the only Metal Slug game in the news recently. Metal Slug Tactics had been missing in action since 2021, and all of a sudden it gets re-revealed by Dotemu in June 2024 but overshadowed by many other announcements during the Summer Game Fest period.

But also, SNK themselves would, during the June 2024 Nintendo Direct, reveal and immediately shadow-drop a revamped offline version of the Metal Slug Attack game called Metal Slug Attack Reloaded.

I actually saw a lot of people confused by this. People who remembered the initial 2021 reveal of Metal Slug Tactics and thought this was the same game. It might seem obvious to some of us, but if this is you, then I assure you, it's not the same game.

Although SNK seems to be downplaying this for some reason, Metal Slug Attack is a pretty old mobile game that went defunct last year, and this is a revamped version of it for consoles and PC that can be played offline without microtransactions. (An increasing trend I want to see more of!) The game is still very much a mobile game to its core though and you can tell.

But, look, don't worry, there's hope for us yet, in the form of a new game that many western Metal Slug fans have been excited for for many years. I've already mentioned it, it's…

Part 3: Metal Slug Tactics, a new tactical Metal Slug game from Dotemu and French developer Leikir Studio

I'm going to preface this section with a clarification of my stance on this. As a strategy game this doesn't exactly scream classic Metal Slug. However, a few people have been lumping this in with the mobile games and I think that's pretty unfair.

For starters, this game is oozing with personality and really looks like it's developed by people who truly understand Metal Slug.

Second, the artwork in this game is clearly a very different beast from what can be seen in Metal Slug: Awakening.

Obviously this isn't the same as the funny looking characters you remember from the in-game graphics of the NEOGEO titles. I still however feel like this captures the spirit of these beloved characters better than any of the mobile games have. This is definitely along the lines of Sonic Mania or TMNT: Shredder's Revenge in terms of attention to detail, and that's especially reflected by how the actual game looks and moves in action.

This is really my true agenda if I'm perfectly honest. Please don't sleep on this game. Even if you don't like tactics games, this is the one you want to keep an eye on if you want a true return to form for Metal Slug.

[tuxedo-rabbit]

Hmmm.

I chose to redeem Solas....kind of for my Inquisitor's sake more than anything. But it didn't feel very earned?

I don't feel like the game gives you any real reason to redeem him other than if you had fond memories of him from DAI.

In DATV he shows that he will consistently lie and betray anyone and everyone. He's a tragic character, but not one who feels like they could be redeemed. Or deserves to be.

[houndfaker]

i have to do everything my fucking self!

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

vIDEO HERE OMG

[elle-p]

Moonless Gown only works as attack when you can't control your allies, I'm kind of glad Reload got rid of it.

[hardcoregamer]

Thanksgiving is here once more, and so is that special time of year when we take a look at our lives and give thanks for all the good things in them. It's a time for gathering with family and friends and reminding everyone (and perhaps even ourselves) how grateful we are to have them.

Of course, as game enjoyers, we can't help but think of all the great games we're thankful for too, and we here at Hardcore Gamer are taking this opportunity to talk about all the games we're most thankful for this year! Anything that came out between last Thanksgiving and this one is fair game, meaning there's plenty to pick from. What sorts of games hit home for us the most? Read on, find out and then share the games you're most thankful for below!

[itsaseamonster]

My Tav: *barges through the gate to Baldur's gate for the first time since the Nautiloid* whERE IS CAZADOR SZARR'S PLACE?

4 hours later, my Tav: *closes the gate to Baldur's gate* I should not have gone to Cazador Szarr's place yet!

The Gazette headline: Local bard bites the dust! What the fuck did they even think?

[alkibiadessuperfan]

i think i just got a culture shock or smth from baldurs gate first of all I went to the house of hope and i did not know what to expect but i surely did not expect HAARLEP

[scraftyisthebest]

I gotta say I’m honestly kinda iffy on the prospect of Persona 3 Reload being a Persona 3 remake in the Persona 5 style. P3 had such a distinctive vibe with its original PS2 artstyle that just worked so well with its distinct atmosphere and I don’t think P3 Reload will be able to capture the same magic in any way.

The only thing that potentially interests me about P3 Reload is the potential of new voice work in the dub and potentially recasting Junpei because his original voice actor ended up being...y’know...so as a voice actor fan who enjoys listening to voice performances such a prospect would interest me as far as being able to listen to a new actor give a new spin on Junpei. 

Persona 5 Tactics seems like another Persona 5 spinoff so that’s kinda just whatever to me, hopefully it’s fun and I do hope this is the last of the spinoffs before we move on to Persona 6. 

[bobzora]

ive only managed to play like 2 hours of tactica so far but the gameplay has been genuinely really fun i was not expecting that

[dimalink]

Crest and Shooting Walkthrough

Game with one game screen, written in QBasic64. Game is schematic. And atmosphere. It is drawn part of war conflict. In a term of local crossfire from a cover. Covers – can be trenches.

But, in this game, symbolically, used crests. Tank crests as a cover. Crests and shooting. You command a group of 5 soldiers. And they can move along frontier to the left and right. And shoot. Into the enemy. Hide under the tank crests. Riffle is with one shot. After the shot, you need to have one turn for reload.

WEBSITE: http://www.dimalink.tv-games.ru/home_eng.html ITCHIO: https://dimalink.itch.io/ GAMEJOLT: https://gamejolt.com/@DimaLink/games

BLOGGER: https://dimalinkeng.blogspot.com/ DISCORD: https://discord.com/invite/F24Kw7TaH4 TUMBLR: https://dimalink.tumblr.com/

[one-little-nerd-stayed-home]

Y'know it's funny how my gameplay evolves as I get familiar with a game and as control interfaces change.

Like this is my first Mass Effect playthrough and in ME-1 I went Vanguard and thought it was ok, but switched to engineer in ME-2 to see how it played.

And I had enough fun that I stayed engineer in ME-3 but then they gave me a good melee button so now I just mutter "Yeah I'm engineARING My Fuckin LIMIT" as my support class Shepard beats the Geth Hunters to death with her bare fists and no shields because I got in too close and my powers are recharging.

[historyofguns]

In the article, renowned firearms expert Massad Ayoob provides an in-depth guide on one-handed reload tactics, which he has been teaching to law enforcement and armed civilians since the 1970s and 1980s. Ayoob offers step-by-step pictorial instructions for reloading an autopistol with only the right or left hand, emphasizing safety by practicing with unloaded weapons under supervision. The guidance is relevant in situations where the shooter is injured and can use only one hand to reload. He additionally covers techniques for utilizing holsters and grip stabilization for effective reloading under stress and mentions historical examples such as the Battle of Mogadishu to illustrate the practicality of these methods. The article underscores the importance of having the correct mindset and preparedness to survive such challenging scenarios.

[helios1]

finally learning the value of letting astarion disarm traps before i wander into a room 👍🏾