This game is not true to MS roots.
Its a mobile game with 9999 ways to make you spend money.
With mobile controls and mobile UI.
The only thing that is MS about this are some characters/vehicles and enemies, everything other thing about this game is mobile BS.
Its only fun if you are looking for a game to play a lil bit daily. Cuz that is what this is. You have limited "stamina" so you cant play as many times as you want the more rewarding game modes, and the ones that you can play without stamina you cant progress because you need more power.
So yeah thats about it.

I'll tell you what man. This game is pay to win lottery too good to be true. You have to pay real money to get better weapons and upgrades. Nothing like good old classic metal slug. Cash cow for developers nothing else. And the whole game feels different from classic. I prefer old metal slug any day.

Gameplay-wise it's very good, enjoyable just as classic slugs or even more. You have a health bar now which means you no longer die in one hit, instead of having 3 lives/continues you have 3 team members to go through that you can also switch between.
I like that more accessible approach, legends are legends but let's be real here, originals were stupidly hard and unfair at times to milk you out of your cash or token in the arcade.

Visuals are meh, not a fan of by this time generic, rubber, fortnite like style but that's highly subjective. It stays quite faithful to originals in for instance animations which is nice. 2d screens and semi 2d characters are a tad less nice, clearly trying to please more "primal" needs lets say.
Technically works almost like a charm, only issues I noticed are performance drops in cut scenes. Nothing that can't be fixed but on the other hand the bombastic, long and detailed, over the top cut scenes of presenting you new characters are perfectly refined 100+ fps smooth ... huh I wonder why ...

If it was a normal game for around 35$ I'd give it pass and thumbs up. It is not though, there is another thing they replicated with tlc far above anything else and even improved on drastically. The idea of milking you out of your money while you play.

After tutorial you arrive at base and you are immediately bombarded with typical chinese, agressive and annoying gacha crap. Had to force myself not to vomit and uninstall at this point but I already knew I would shortly:
daily/weekly log-in bonuses, stamina/resign etc. limiting your progress, multiple types of in-game currencies for real money, completely rigge...ekhm...random roulettes for characters and weapons, insane amount of grind required for materials to upgrade both.
Wanna indulge in this cr@p and fill xin the pooh pockets be my guest. I've dealt with that cancer before and I've had enough for 20 lifetimes.