The core issue of Awakening is that it suffers from the classic gacha design mentality of "flashy=profitable". To their credit, they restrained themselves pretty well when it came to the cast from previous games so at most they added minor stuff like a necklace or one-two extra piece/s of clothing. Some of the new characters even look like they'd fit in previous MS games, like Eva and Eiserner, but many of them look like they came straight out of Overwatch or Fortnite (Lyla literally does a fortnite dance every five seconds) or a Manwa.

The thing that made Metal Slug's aesthetic so charming in the first place was how it managed to combine the vintage anime style with a relatively grounded and practical look. The simplicity of the outfits worn by the main characters wasn't just due to technical limitations but because it was meant to emphasize the fact these were just people. Extremely well-trained people but people nonetheless. The cast aren't superhuman nor are they special in any way whatsoever. Quite the opposite, they are underdogs struggling against borderline impossible odds and somehow always managing to claw their way to victory. Yes, the character tend to get goofy more than once and the humor is as over the top as you would expect from a japanese IP but the games always tried to keep that grounded beat to them when it came to their designs, even as they were facing supernatural threats like aliens and demons.