YMMV / Metal Slug Attack

• Awesome Art: Most of the new units still continue to sport the same fluid animations as in the main series. The Fortmeranian and Iwa Oh have recently gotten a lot of love, since they wouldn't look out of place in the mainline games.
• Base-Breaking Character: The new characters, although some players have their preferences. Part of stems on how some of them do not fit the game's aesthetic (or their respective Army affiliation), the overly fanservicey designs of some of the characters, and/or the power they have compared to a massive tank. Given Metal Slug being the silly series akin to Super Sentai, these would be probably expected.
• Contested Sequel: Usually regarding how balanced the units are between Defense and Attack, the different ways to get units, and the Online Play. Usually, all three are seen as worse in Attack. Half the units in the game are simply flat out obsolete, getting units is more of a chore than in Defense^note Instead of rescuing POWs or paying upfront with medals, the main way to earn units is through collecting parts, which is 30 for Rare units and 80 for Super Rares. Depending on the type of Extra Ops, it can be a real chore to earn parts like in Daily Rank and (most infamously) Snatch Wars. Also, most units tend to become obsolete fast, and the ones that don't come from a purely luck based Gacha system., and Online is constantly mocked by the fanbase for how much it focuses on a brutal, luck based earlygame.
• Crack Pairing: Chloe and Nikita has a decent following considering they've never interacted. They are paired due to the fact, prior to the "Zombie Panic" Another Story, they were the only two characters who never had any dialogue or mention since their introduction.
• Creator Worship:
  • Dai-Addict, the first known animator and character designer of the game (e.g. Abigail, Nova, and Rita), mostly for their drawings of the game's characters on Twitter and Pixiv. People were concerned about their sudden disappearance, but there was relief when a new concept art revealed they were still working for SNK ^note Their lack of activity was due to reports of stalking, not copyright.
  • Max-D, graphic artist for the first three Metal Slug games, returned to the series around Purple King's introduction. His new designs have been given a lot of praise.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Abigail and Caroline have the least amount of Broken Base reaction of the new cast.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Caroline is referred to as "Yute" by Spanish-speaking fans.
  • The new female characters are collectively known as the "Waifu Units".
  • One-Man Army Ralf is generally shortened to OMAR.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Considering Metal Slug Attack (alongside Metal Slug Defense) was prioritized for many years prior to the announcement of a new mainline entry in 2019 (a decade since Metal Slug XX), a good section of fans ignore anything related to this game. And most of them skip the story cutscenes anyway.
• Foe Yay Shipping: Abigail and Trevor. Surprisingly, there is no known vitriol with Trevor and Nadia fans.
• Game-Breaker:
  • The Pre-acquisitions, Box, and Step Up Crank units usually tend to have similar or higher power than boss units; the latter two types require a good deck in order to just deal with them.
  • Previously Overpowered:
    • Ralf and Leona have absolutely ridiculous stats for such cheap units (at Level 44, Leona has almost 26000 HP and a 7000 damage special at 144 AP). Leona in particular had to be nerfed severely on the next update. The two are heavily downplayed through the game's existence; they're obsolete by newer units.
    • Monkey Trevor and Nadia whenever there are no anti-air units, since Trevor will spam his attack multiple times over any unit below him while Nadia will climb over all opposing units until a player spams her special attack over the opposing base. Both units are tied for the cheapest air units in the game and "fly" high enough to evade almost all forms of early game anti-air. Even if there are anti-air units, Monkey Nadia has a chance of dodging by charging ahead rather than retreating, making defeating her a pain. Like so, Nadia was the only one who receive a needed nerf.
    • Scotia Amundsen is notorious due to her shooting bullets that are able to pierce and knock back any unit at a safe distance. The same goes for the Scrap Cannon, whose shots go very far and can knock back ground units.
    • Golden Hunters for many of the same reasons as the Trevor/Nadia Monkeys.
    • The Doctor. At the time, his special was one of the most damaging in the game. What really made him dangerous was that he could call as many blimps as he wants, which can deal an absolutely insane amount of damage. The attack can also reach annoying backlines like the Incredibly Trio, basically causing an end to the meta. He quickly got nerfed in the subsequent update; he can now spawn only one blimp at a time, but being one of the few units ever to get nerfed really cements this status.
    • At the height of the "2017 Cancer Meta" was three of the most despised units in MSA's history, Beatriz, Cleopatra, and the Lovely Mummy. Beatriz has crazy range, and her weapon turns units into snowmen that give her more stalling power than most units at the time. Cleo also had obnoxious range, but had much more killing power and is an air unit to begin with. Lovely Mummy's can spawn a temporary mummy deep at the frontlines (see the pattern) with high attack power and is invincible, basically creating a wall at will. They were called the "Incredibly Trio" for a reason.
  • Currently Overpowered:
    • The Golden Powered Armor units, especially the Slug Armor and Claw Unit variants. They move very fast, and can tear a base apart in seconds, and go straight through most units that you can likely have out at the same time that are not them. You have to have an early-game counter to them, or they'll end any match in seconds. Good luck with that if they're at Gold frame.
    • In general, many of the "rush" units are incredibly busted and are mainly responsible for the game's blatant Power Creep issues. These include the above, Wall Drones, Dion, Alma, Mirage Pirates, Golden Slugnoids, Minerva, and much more.
    • Christmas Midori has a long-range attack that hits damn near everything on the opposite side of the field and has a strong knock-back effect. On top of that, the special flies over the battlefield, allowing it to damage an entire line of enemies. One or two of her, especially with a good evolution level, can stop your advance cold, giving the enemy time to build up their forces and steamroll you.
    • Maria. She has Stun Immunity with her helmet on invincibility frames a counter and her special heals her. In the right circumstances she can hold back an entire deck on her own with her invincibility frames combined with her special that heals her and stun immunity, she is really hard to counter unless you have a unit that can deal massive damage before her counter kicks in.
    • OMAR (One-Man Army Ralf). His flamethrower has pierce and ridiculous range (And since it counts as an incendiary attack, Ralf can easily deal with units that are weak to fire, which is a lot), Get him anywhere near your base and its good as over. Try to knock him back he becomes invincible and sprays his flamethrower and that is only his first form. He is an absolute monster in his second form. almost impossible to stop thanks to having stun and knock back immunity. his Vulcan punch deals out massive damage in quick succession while his Counter galactica deals out thousands of damage while giving him invincibility. His God phoenix dynamite will wreck the AP's out of your boss units. Not even Maria can stop his rampage and she herself is quite monstrous. About the only one who can effectively stand up to him is the similarly unstoppable Geweih Metzelei.
    • The Golden Turtle has massive health and very large regeneration combined with a special that lets it close in and become invincible. if not destroyed quickly will be impossible to kill without the help of poison units.
    • The Golden Mars Mecha has ridiculous coverage with its special attack, comparable to the Golden Jupiter King. It spawns three (or eight with its 3rd skill) Golden Hopper Mechas, which have one of the most powerful suicide attacks in the game (Even if the attack power is neutered compared to the original Golden Hoppers, it still beats recent suicide attacks like Josette) and more than enough health to close the distance. Unlike just using Golden Hoppers by themselves, the Mars Mecha can poop out much more than just using individual hoppers, while also being a pretty good fighter overall and having insane range (More than Dragunov and the Lovey Mummy).
    • Golden Hoppers themselves are nothing to laugh at. Their special and suicide attack is by far the most powerful in the game, and is sickeningly cheap for being so dangerous. It has more than enough speed to reach the base, and if it lands its explosion on the base, you're toast. Not only is it good at shutting down games, but even recent units can't tank too many Hoppers before they die.
    • Perche and the Golden Slug Gigant are infamous for singlehandedly winning games before they evolve into a slugfest. The Gigant's special attack is designed to rip apart large units while also piercing. It can easily shoot right through your army and straight to your base, quickly ending the game. Perche is hated for the same reasons, but is cheaper, more accessible, and can spam piercing projectiles once she used her special. Special Perche is even worse, since she always has piercing bullets.
    • The Fortmeranian is similar to the Golden Turtle, but much worse. It has extremely high hp and regeneration, but the main thing that makes the unit dangerous is its powerful shield while attack. At max level, the Fortmeranian will only take 10% of kinetic and explosive damage while attacking, which is a large majority of meta units. Even stuns aren't reliable unlike with Turtles, because the Fortmeranian has one of the most painful specials in the game that can easily eliminate stunners.
    • The release of the Elder Centipede nearly snapped the meta in half. It digs like Zoni, so it can't be sniped by long ranged units. Not that it matters, since its hp is at 900k and it can only be hit in the head, which a surprising amount of crank units can't do well. The main thing that makes the Centipede so deadly is its special attack, the damage if every single attack hits is disgusting and has IVs through the entire attack, and chews up previous deadly units like Growl and Josette like they are creeped units. A showcase video of the thing shows it demolishing Jephet and Harriot with ease, who are crank units that require much more resources to get. The only thing holding it back is its extreme AP cost and the long delay in between digs. The Elder Centipede is the next Doctor, a free unit that can destroy most of the gacha units easily.
  • Growl singlehandedly made the P.Fs ridiculous to battle, and for a good reason. Extremely high evasion and his fast speed already make him very dangerous, but his special attack basically shattered the meta with a sledgehammer. It's simply atrocious how ridiculous it is; Growl runs back a forth across the map, dropping explosives with WAY too much attack power that will wipe out your army and base in second. Oh, and he is completely invincible while using it.
  • The latest hated units are the Pirate Soldier(Mirage) and Flying Parasite(Type E), Both are relatively powerful, Low AP units that wreck most Early-Game units, including the recent anti-rush units(plus the Parasite has a Stunning melee attack for good measure, so it can often kill units that would otherwise be strong counters for it). And both have charging dodges that put them in optimal killing range for anything that manages to come out and challenge them.
  • Somebody outdid themselves with the Reacher, and they should be punished for it. Incredibly cheap(even the base Bronze frame is less than 100 AP), fast as hell, does obscene damage, and heals itself while attacking. It can tear through nearly every unit that can be brought out as fast as it, and will typically follow right through to destroy you base in seconds. Somewhat less dangerous now that a hard counter(22,000,000 Drums, which manages to not be as gamebreaking in and of itself) has been released.
• High-Tier Scrappy:
  • The Box and Step Up Crank units get notoriety for being overly powerful. It doesn't help that they can be only accessed by using their respective crank, unlike the pre-acquisitions who eventually drop to the Medal Crank and Shops.
  • Beatriz (and her variants) is infamous for her powerful ice laser that has an extremely long range. Worse, any defeated units are turned into hefty ice blocks. She is known for being useful since her introduction (where now most newer units outclass her, at least until she got a Subjugation Tactics form) as long there is protection surrounding her.
  • On the high end of things, Special Amber is an extremely popular pick across all ranks, even more so than the original Amber. Special Amber is a very good tank for her cheap cost, because she can close the distance easily with her very dangerous piercing attacks.
• Incest Yay Shipping: Beatriz/Abigail. This is mostly Played for Laughs within the fandom as most of it is one-sided towards Beatriz since she tends to overexaggerate her love for Abigail against her extreme hatred towards everyone else.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!:
  • The Extra Ops tends to get flak for reusing the same five types with little to no variations. This got alleviated when new types were introduced to reduce the monotony.
  • The various recolors (those not seen in previous games) passing off as new units. This is probably due to SNK shooting themselves in the foot with the excessive amounts of Extra Ops and depleting their pool of already made sprites. The monthly Try Line Ops fixes this with new units, although these still get the recolor treatment. Most of the recolors, especially of Super Rare units, tend to be worse than their predecessors.
  • Before resorting into using text boxes with conversations and continuity, a good portion of early Extra Ops (which were sprite animated) were criticized for repeating the same sequence of the unit defeating the boss.
• Les Yay: Considering the new cast is majorly female, everyone is fair game regardless of army affiliation.
• Low-Tier Letdown:
  • Jupiter King MK II is often referred as the the worst and most unnecessary pre-aquisistion unit. MK II's original intention in Defense was to be a foil to the original Jupiter King, as the latter only used its laser and the former used only its large missiles. In Attack, Jupiter King was upgraded to use its missiles alongside the laser, making MK II obsolete. It's status was further cemented with the release of its mini version, which was far cheaper and had far better stats.
  • Some United Front units have gotten a lot of flak for being very underpowered compared to the first UF units, but nothing compares to the Golden Gunner and Golden Metal Rear EX. The Golden Slugnoid does everything the Gunner does but better, and the Metal Rear's attacks are absolutely pathetic for its extreme cost. ^{For Example}  the Mirage Pirate released beforehand had significantly higher DPS for around 90 AP; Metal Rear costs around 500 AP Rubbing more salt into the wound, both units were beloved by the fanbase for their design despite being left obsolete for years, and they still can't be used in the meta.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • [Unit Name] (WRATH) ^note Or any other cool sounding variant name
  • Waifu Slug Attack ^note Regarding how most of the original units are really attractive female humans/humanoids, with some having their strength being on par with or higher than a boss unit
  • Yute ^note Caroline became a large Ensemble Dark Horse in the Spanish-speaking community due to her design and her shout of "Yute" when attacking. Yute is also her Fan Nickname
  • $NK/Snek ^note Although this applies to Defense as well, the former name is used for the game's very blatant uses of making people fork up cash for powerful units that sooner or later lose their effectiveness. The latter name is a literal pronunciation of SNK, and both are sometimes combined to make "$NEK". Before the company's name change, $NK Paymore (SNK Playmore) was also used.
    • $NK Boss Syndrome^note The fact that SNK Boss units can be obtained via this way has led to the combination of "$NK" and the so-called "SNK Boss Syndrome", due to the fact they are overpowered for a limited time before their Power Creep.
  • Metal Slug 8. ^note After SNK returned to the home console scene in 2016 with King of Fighters XIV, fans were eager for a new entry of the main series after being dormant for almost a decade. It took until 2019 for a new entry to be announced in development, and there's debates on whether the Attack characters will make any sort of appearance.
  • Big Shieet ^note  The Big Shiee variant released during Bersek's event gotten a lot of flak for being a very garbage unit, while previous Shiees have been extremely useful units or just average. The Mirage Shiee's special attack hardly deals any damage compared to the likes of other Shiees, and its normal attack can hardly do its job because the unit keeps spamming its evasion ability.
• Robo Ship: Marco and Alice (including the SV-001 she resides in). This is also in-universe, Marco's peers mistakenly assume his weirdness of creating Alice and being "lovey" with her.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • Grinding for the limited exclusive equipment items for the Extra Ops units, especially the high amounts needed to fuse for the Skill 5 items.
  • Grinding for Rare Boss parts as they have a low probability of showing up. Doesn't help when one of the Challenges requires the Rare Boss unit, and two other challenges consist of completing one and then three Rare Boss stages.
  • Snatch. Wars. By far, the most despised EO in the game, and for good reason. Guilds would compete with three other Guilds, winning NPC battles to claim or steal territory. The amount of territory held determines how much rewards, and most importantly, parts of the featured unit the Guild gets. The problem was that Snatch Wars had awful matchmaking; you could be paired up with three whales who had thousands of Sorties to spare who would swallow up the map, denying you and your guild almost any rewards. Or you could be paired up with outright hackers, which was the case in Japan. The amount of cheating was so bad in the event for the Sister Nokana (which was a pretty underwhelming unit on its own) that SNK flat out handed the unit for free.
  • The Daily Rank Ops for similar reasons as above. The player is competing with a select group of people per day in defeating different colored units and the event boss for points. The problem is that getting the event unit, let alone trying to evolve it, requires getting first (80 unit part reward), and good luck with that when whales are also part of the group. Reaching top 30 in separate days within the week is basically required if the player has enough sorties at that point.
  • Task Force is very luck dependent compared to other Extra Ops. You could either get two Diamonds, which greatly increases rewards, or have your entire team crippled with permanent seals, losing 9/10 max hp, or outright leaving your deck. These statuses can also stack. While the featured units are well worth the pain, it can feel annoying when 99% percent of your deck is unusable. And the Hell Stages are some of the most unforgiving yet, the first regular battle literally baselocks you in the first seconds. The 2nd Task Force fixes the former problem by having Rumi midway through the map who removes all negative statues for four of the units.
• The Woobie: Vita. First she loses her original companions, gets severely injured and is unwittingly turned into a poorly-made cyborg(Thankfully Navy, the person who did it, genuinely cares about her and continues to work at fixing and improving her), shuts off her personality in fear of losing her new friends, and tends to have suicidal rampages when fighting. Some time in the future, Vita gets shoved in a test tube with her limbs removed while robotic clones of her are created for battle.

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